By now, most of us are familiar with generative AI’s strengths and certainly its weaknesses. If responsibility and ethics guide you, you know that there are some things you flat out shouldn’t use the technology for, while understanding that it can be helpful for particular tasks when it makes sense.
This blog is all about creating social proof in an era enshrouded by AI tools, and ways you could — and absolutely shouldn’t — use it to help you create compelling social proof content without turning to fakery.
AI for Social Proof No-Nos
The things you absolutely should never use AI for are far more important than what you potentially could use it for when it comes to social proof, so let’s start there.
Fake or Manipulated Endorsements
AI-generated influencer quotes or reviews aren’t cool. Presenting fabricated praise as though it came from a real person is wholly unethical and damages trust. In the same vein, generating an illusion of a partnership — i.e., making it look like brands, thought leaders or organizations have endorsed you when they haven’t — is wrong.
Inflated Metrics & Engagement
Using AI to flood comment sections, reviews or likes erodes credibility.
Consumers have had to wade through fake reviews even before generative AI came onto the scene; 82% of customers say they encounter fake reviews at least once over 12 months, according to CapitalOne Shopping Research data.
However, the technology has undoubtedly made them easier to create — and perhaps harder to spot. The same data indicates that approximately 30% of online reviews are inauthentic, and that fake reviews grow at a faster rate (12.1%) than genuine ones.
Deceptive “Customer Stories”
Don’t invent case studies with fake names, fake businesses or AI-generated faces to stand in for “satisfied clients.” The same goes for testimonials — don’t use AI to mimic real people’s voices or writing style in fabricated reviews.
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AI Impersonation Without Consent
AI video and deepfake technology have become concerningly “good” — so much so that businesses have been scammed for millions of dollars. There is absolutely no place for deepfakes in marketing, like making it seem like a celebrity or industry leader said something supportive about a business or product when they never did.
Covert Use of AI in Proof
Passing AI content as authentic user-generated content (UGC), even if the AI “looks real,” undermines transparency. The same goes for using AI to edit or manipulate real customer feedback to a point where its meaning changes.
The problem with these examples is that, while they’re highly discouraged and unethical, they’re still completely possible with AI. And unfortunately, that means that some shady brands, businesses and people — whose moral compasses point to peculiar poles or who want quick wins without heeding consequences — will still take advantage of AI (and their audiences) in these ways.
4 Ways To Leverage AI for Social Proof Without Faking It
The good news here is that none of those do-nots mean you can’t use AI at all for social proof. There are plenty of ethical ways to harness artificial intelligence for client success stories that don’t rely on forgery. Here are a few examples.
1. Generate a Real Case Study, Using Real Information
There’s no need to fake a five-star success story when you have access to real data from real clients. If you’re strapped for time and can’t write the story yourself, you can feed an AI tool genuine information from performance reports or review platforms and have it generate a case study based on it.
Some tools, like contentmarketing.ai, even offer a dedicated workflow for creating case studies, where your virtual assistant will ask you to provide data you have on hand, and do the rest for you.
Tip: Any AI tool can still hallucinate, even when you provide authentic information. Never publish outcomes blindly; always proofread to ensure it hasn’t misstated or fabricated a quote, or skewed the data in the final product.
2. Aggregate UGC To Amplify Customer/Client Praise
Being a successful business with a steady stream of reviews is a good problem to have, but it can be overwhelming when it’s time to parse them for trends and patterns.
AI can help with this by distilling a large volume of real customer feedback into categories or themes (“80% of users praised ease of use”). This makes genuine social proof more digestible without inventing anything. Similarly, AI can surface recurring phrases or sentiments across reviews, providing aggregate insights you can use across social media or in other marketing materials.
3. Enhance Presentation of Real Proof
Using AI, you can swiftly turn authentic metrics (e.g., customer satisfaction, NPS scores, case study results) into easy-to-read infographics or dashboards that visually communicate your customers’ or clients’ genuine successes with your product or service.
4. Adopt an AI Customer Reputation Management Tool
A major plus of AI proliferation is the sheer variety of tools available. If managing customer reviews — including gleaning insights from them to inform social proof — is challenging for you, review management software could be just what you need.
Reviewflowz, for example, has tons of cool features, including Lenny, their AI assistant that can surface “instant customer insights” through a natural language conversation. It also has dashboards and the like to keep everything organized.
It should go without saying that using AI for social proof shouldn’t mean generating phony content to pass as legitimate, no matter how unfortunately common the practice is. Instead, it can be a great tool to surface, aggregate and repurpose reviews that help broaden and strengthen your social proof strategy altogether — without any of the reputational or legal risk.
Fake Reviews and Testimonials Help Nobody
Generating fake case studies or client testimonials to inflate your reputation could, theoretically, produce some very short-term “wins”. Not only would that be a categorically wrong thing to do, but you risk damaging your reputation beyond reasonable repair — and sometimes hefty fines that you’d be wholly liable for.
Fake reviews and other types of social proof and UGC are concerningly common, and you shouldn’t have to hunker down in that camp to prove a product or service’s worth. With a solid offering and customer service, and general ethical business practices, sentiment you can transform into compelling social proof will come naturally.
