While hardware retailer Bunnings has retained the mantle of Australia’s for the third consecutive year, distrust of AI is coming to the fore.

It may have come as little surprise when Roy Morgan research on Wednesday revealed a 10th consecutive quarterly victory for Bunnings, stretching back to late 2023.

Perhaps more surprising is who we distrust.

Popular artificial intelligence company OpenAI – which includes ChatGPT – entered the top 20 most distrusted brands in Australia for the first time, joining social media companies, tech giant Google, our big supermarkets and Optus.

The top three places in the trusted brands was unchanged from last year, with supermarket Aldi in second and discount department store Kmart in third.

The Commonwealth Bank took fourth spot, with tech giant Apple filling out the top five and Big W again in sixth.

Leading department store Myer improved its position, up one place to seventh, with Samsung up three places to 11th, NAB up one position to 16th, Officeworks up two to 18th and Chemist Warehouse up two to enter the top 20 for the first time.

Car manufacturer Toyota, meanwhile, slipping one spot to eighth place, insurance company NRMA dropped three places to 14th and supermarket brand IGA moved down one place to 17th.

Source: Roy Morgan Research

At the other end of the trust scale, beleaguered telco Optus replaced Woolworths as the most distrusted brand in Australia in the 12 months to March 2026, following the fatal triple zero outage.

Trust in Facebook and Temu deteriorated making them second and third most-distrusted, while Woolworths and Coles were fourth and fifth most-distrusted.

Both supermarket giants improved their trust in the latest quarter, which was prior to the Federal Court’s findings that Coles had misled consumers with its “Down Down” promotion.

OpenAI and its ChatGPT product experienced one of the biggest declines in the quarter, down seven spots to enter the top 20 most distrusted brands in 19th place, driven by suspicions around profit motives and ethics.

Google continued its long decline, deteriorating two places to 15th most distrusted.

Source: Roy Morgan Research

Other brands to decline in the latest quarter included online retailer Shein, down one place to ninth most distrusted, media company News Corp, dropping one spot to be 11th most distrusted, and oil company BP, re-entering the top 20 most distrusted brands, down two places in 20th.

“Three companies with rising distrust worth highlighting in the recent March quarter are at the forefront of the artificial intelligence computing revolution,” Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said.

“Google with its widely used Gemini AI product, now used by an estimated 5 million Australians, and OpenAI with the market leading ChatGPT product, now used by an estimated 10.5 million Australians, both experienced rising distrust, which drove both companies up the net distrust rankings,” Levine said.

Overall, telecommunications was identified as the most distrusted industry, followed by video sharing services/social media companies, and mining and petroleum.

Meanwhile, the retail industry was the overall most trusted industry ahead of the consumer products.

Although not in the top 20 most trusted brands, the biggest improvements in the net trust rankings were insurer Allianz, up 35 places to enter the top 100 in 81st place, consumer products company LG, up 27 spots to 50th and liquor retailer Dan Murphy’s, up 27 ranking positions to 72nd.