OpenAI has officially entered Australia’s top 20 most distrusted brands, according to new findings from market research company Roy Morgan.
Roy Morgan’s CEO Michele Levine said the AI platform “deteriorated seven places” to enter the list for the first time, sitting in the 19th position.
Levine said this was “driven by suspicions around the profit motives and ethics of the firm headed by controversial CEO Sam Altman”.
Optus has now become the most distrusted brand in Australia, replacing Woolworths, following a fatal Triple Zero outage. Facebook and Temu are the second and third most distrusted brands, with Woolworths and Coles following in fourth and fifth positions.
Google’s distrust ranking has worsened, now at 15th most distrusted, due to privacy concerns and perceptions of unethical behaviour. Levine stated, “Google’s principal reason for distrust centres around privacy: for example, people worry that Google does not respect or protect their privacy. Others describe the company as unethical or overly profit-driven.
“If we look only at Google’s trust, we see a very comfortable story. The brand is widely trusted by Australians. But as with reputation, NPS, and satisfaction, that’s only half the picture. When we add distrust, the story changes dramatically. Since our Risk Lab research began, Google has consistently been more distrusted than trusted.”
Other brands experiencing declines in trust rankings include Shein, News Corp, and BP. Meanwhile, Uber, Nvidia, and Fortescue have worsened in their distrust rankings.
Toyota, NRMA, and IGA were also hit with a decline in their trust rankings.
Meanwhile Bunnings has been named Australia’s most trusted brand for the 12 months to March 2026, marking its tenth consecutive quarterly victory.
The latest rankings include several familiar faces, including Aldi and Kmart, who took second and third positions – as they have for nine straight quarters since early 2025. The next three spots are unchanged for a second straight quarter as well, with the Commonwealth Bank in fourth, consumer products giant Apple filling out the top five, and discount department store Big W again in sixth.
Several other brands improved their trust rankings, including Myer, Samsung, NAB, Officeworks, and Chemist Warehouse.
In addition, X (formerly Twitter), Amazon, Harvey Norman, and McDonald’s have improved their positions in the distrusted ranks.
