AI Reshapes Market Rules as Trust Emerges as a Core Competitive Asset for Brands
28th Trusted Brands Survey Completed; Taiwan Trusted Brands Association to Present Awards in May
TAIPEI, Feb. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Generative AI now enables articles, videos and even consumer reviews to be produced at scale within minutes. While the volume of content has surged, the difficulty of discerning what is authentic and credible has risen in tandem. As information becomes easier to manufacture, the cost to consumers of determining what is trustworthy has increased. In this environment, trust is once again emerging as a central competitive asset for brands.
Group photo at the founding ceremony of the Taiwan Trusted Brands Association. Front row, from left: Victor Liu, Founding Honorary Chairman; Andrew Tsao, Founding Chairman; and Paul Hsu, Founding Honorary Advisor. Tsao noted that in the AI era, rising risks are making trust the core competitive strength of brands.
Institutional Continuity Ensures Trust Mechanism Remains Intact
Launched in 1999 and previously organized by Reader's Digest, the Trusted Brands survey adopts an open-ended questionnaire design. Respondents are not provided with brand options nor prompted with suggestions; instead, they are asked to spontaneously name the brands they trust most. The consistency of its methodology and its execution by an independent third party have enabled the survey to build nearly three decades of credibility and comparable longitudinal data.
Beginning in 2026, the program will be organized by the Taiwan Trusted Brands Association, established by the former Taiwan team of Reader's Digest. The research will continue to be independently conducted by international third-party firm Catalyst Research, maintaining the same methodology that has been applied for 28 years.
Andrew Tsao, Founding Chairman of the Association and former head of the Reader's Digest Trusted Brands program in Taiwan, said the establishment of the Association does not represent a restart, but rather a continuation of an established research framework and third-party principles. The goal, he noted, is to ensure that long-accumulated trust assets are preserved despite international licensing adjustments.
Measuring Brands' True "Mindshare"
This year's survey spans nine major industries and 62 product and service categories, based on a nationally representative sample of 1,500 respondents with a margin of error of ±2.5%. The core open-ended nomination mechanism remains unchanged, directly measuring whether a brand occupies the top position in consumers' minds.
In addition to the long-standing dimensions of quality, reliability, value, understanding of consumer needs, innovation and social responsibility, the 2026 edition introduces a new "Sustainability" indicator, reflecting growing market attention to ESG performance and governance capabilities.
Victor Liu, Founding Honorary Chairman, said AI is transforming how information is disseminated while simultaneously challenging the foundations of social trust. Only stable and verifiable institutional mechanisms, he noted, can help sustain market order and consumer confidence.
Founding Honorary Advisor Paul Hsu added that long-term corporate competitiveness often stems from intangible assets such as brand reputation and social trust. Without credible measurement mechanisms, such value is difficult to incorporate into board-level and executive decision-making.
Trust Reconfigured in the AI Era and an Aging Society
Cameron Gentle, Research Director at Catalyst Research, observed that while generative AI has lowered the cost of content production, it has also increased the difficulty of assessing information credibility. At the same time, as the population ages, digital adoption gaps persist. Companies that focus exclusively on digital communication while neglecting cross-generational service design risk losing key customer segments.
Home Appliances, Finance and Services: Trust as a Pricing Lever
The research team noted that in high-ticket home appliances, consumer electronics, financial services and other service sectors, product differentiation has narrowed and decision cycles have lengthened. Under such conditions, a sense of reassurance often becomes the decisive factor. Trust has shifted from a marketing image attribute to a critical indicator of risk management capability and pricing power.
Long-term findings from Catalyst Research show that more than 95% of consumers are more inclined to choose brands validated by independent third-party trust mechanisms. In both physical retail displays and online purchasing environments, easily recognizable trust identifiers help shorten decision time. When competing brands display credible trust marks, market influence often tilts in their favor.
Trust Mark: Translating Data into Market Recognition
Tsao said brands recognized in the survey will be authorized to use the "Trusted Brands" mark as an annual external identifier. The mark is based on open-ended consumer nominations and independently verified research results, and does not constitute paid advertising endorsement.
Quantifying Market Position Through Trust Data
Peng Tsui-Ting, Research Director of the Taiwan Trusted Brands Association, said this year's report integrates Catalyst Research data with Taiwan market insights and offers customized industry analysis. Through category rankings, trust matrix mapping models, quantified competitive gaps and analysis of drivers of trust, brands can assess their market positioning, pricing resilience and potential structural risks affecting their standing.
Full Industry Insights to Be Released in May
Comprehensive survey findings and industry trend insights will be presented in Taiwan in May by Catalyst Research Research Director Cameron Gentle, offering further analysis of how brand trust is evolving in Taiwan amid the AI era and its broader industry implications.
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Andrew Tsao