In its 2026 Most Trusted Brands study, Morning Consult found that Amazon remains the most trusted retail brand, while Gen Z continues to express skepticism toward brands generally and consumers remain cautious about artificial intelligence.
Across the business spectrum, Dawn Dish Soap is the most trusted brand overall, followed by Band-Aid and Google. The top 25 includes old favorites such as Mr. Clean and Oral-B, as well as one other retailer, Home Depot, which was tops in the Home Improvement segment, though tied for 25th overall. Overall, Amazon tied for 13th place, alongside Tide, Mr. Clean and YouTube, while ranking first in the most trusted category for Retail & E-commerce. Aldi is tops in grocery, Bath & Body Works in Cosmetic & Beauty, and Walgreens in Pharmacy.
Despite strong trust scores among established brands, Morning Consult noted that skepticism among younger consumers remains a defining trend. The finding cut across every major industry, Morning Consult pointed out. In what it characterizes as a structural factor, Morning Consult maintained that Gen Z’s default orientation toward corporate brands is more skeptical, driven by broader distrust of institutions and a social media environment that amplifies negative brand stories.
The situation hasn’t really improved in 2026, when 94% of the brands tracked scored lower with Gen Zers. On average, Gen Z’s net trust score is eight points below that of the general adult population, a gap that has proven stubborn even as the oldest Gen Zers enter their late 20s, when brand relationships usually strengthen. On the bright side, Morning Consult suggested, the share of brands scoring 10 or more points lower with Gen Z fell from 43% in 2024 to 33%.
As for artificial intelligence, AI brands are among the least trusted among those tracked. Most AI brands lost trust ground in 2026, according to Morning Consult. Gemini had the largest gains among AI brands, up six points, followed by Anthropic, up 1.6 points and Apple Intelligence, up 1.2 points. Trust in Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek AI, OpenAI, Character.AI, Meta AI, Perplexity AI and xAI declined. Among them, xAI posted the largest drop, down 5.5 points.
