Bunnings has retained its position as Australia’s most trusted brand, while OpenAI and Palantir have recorded some of the sharpest falls in public confidence as Australians grow more uneasy about privacy, data use and the environmental cost of artificial intelligence.

The latest Roy Morgan Risk Monitor covers the 12 months to June 2026 and draws on responses from 17,704 Australians aged 14 and over. It places Bunnings at the top for an eleventh consecutive quarter, extending a run that began almost three years ago in late 2023.

Aldi remained in second place and Kmart held third, leaving the same three retailers at the top for the tenth straight quarter.

Commonwealth Bank and Apple completed an unchanged top five, despite the two companies operating in industries where consumer trust has come under growing pressure.

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says the consistency at the top showed Australians were continuing to place their trust in familiar retail brands.

“Bunnings has topped the rankings as Australia’s most trusted brand for an eleventh consecutive quarter, and there’s some familiar faces at the top with Aldi and Kmart filling places second and third – as they have for ten straight quarters since early 2024,” said Levine

“Also improving in the most recent quarter are car manufacturer Toyota, up two spots to sixth most trusted, insurer NRMA, up two places to 12th, banking giant ING, up four spots to 15th, and office and stationery retailer Officeworks, up two places to 16th.” she said.

Toyota rose two positions to sixth, while NRMA moved to 12th, ING climbed four places to 15th and Officeworks reached 16th.

Bupa recorded the largest improvement outside the top 20, jumping 43 places to 61st, although Roy Morgan said this was driven mostly by falling distrust rather than a significant rise in trust.

Big W and Target each slipped two positions, falling to eighth and 14th respectively. NAB moved down one place to 17th, Bendigo Bank dropped three positions to 18th and IGA fell two places to 19th.

Optus remains Australia’s most distrusted brand

At the other end of the survey, Optus remained Australia’s most distrusted brand for the second consecutive quarter. Facebook and Meta held second place, followed by Temu, Woolworths and Coles.

The rankings show telecommunications companies, social media platforms and major supermarkets continue to carry some of the country’s heaviest reputational baggage.

However, the rapid movement of AI companies into the list suggests public concern is spreading into a newer part of the technology sector.

Levine said the five most distrusted brands remained unchanged despite considerable movement further down the rankings.

“At the other end of the scale it is telecommunications company Optus which is again the most distrusted brand for a second straight quarter, with the top five most distrusted unchanged and comprising of social media company Facebook/Meta, discount online retailer Temu, and supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles filling places second to fifth respectively.”

Telstra deteriorated two positions to become Australia’s sixth most distrusted brand, with the survey period ending before its widespread outage in early July.

Vodafone dropped 11 places to 38th after customers experienced a major outage during June, while Shein slipped one position to eighth.

Tesla, Qantas and TikTok recorded modest improvements, although all three remained among the country’s most distrusted brands. Tesla moved to seventh, Qantas improved three places to 10th and TikTok moved to 15th.

OpenAI falls as privacy and data concerns deepen

OpenAI, including ChatGPT, deteriorated three places to become Australia’s 16th most distrusted brand. It has now fallen 10 positions across the past two quarters, with respondents raising concerns about privacy, personal data, corporate ethics and the resources required to operate AI data centres.

The decline comes as ChatGPT becomes part of everyday life for millions of Australians. Roy Morgan estimates 13.6 million Australians aged 14 and over now use AI platforms, including 10.5 million who use ChatGPT.

Despite that reach, the research suggests OpenAI has not built a comparable level of public trust. Trust in the company remains low, while distrust has risen sharply since late 2025 as use of generative AI has expanded.

Palantir recorded an even larger quarterly fall, dropping 15 places to become Australia’s 30th most distrusted brand. The result is significant because the US defence, intelligence and data analytics company was largely unknown to many Australians only a year ago.

“There have been several significant movements in terms of distrust in the most recent quarter highlighted by OpenAI (ChatGPT) which has deteriorated further by three spots to 16th most distrusted, and Palantir, declining 15 places to be the 30th most distrusted brand in the country,” Levine said.

“Both OpenAI and Palantir are two companies at the forefront of the AI revolution although OpenAI has a heavy focus on consumers via its ChatGPT AI platform, and Palantir is more focused on developing software for extensive contracts with government and businesses,”

“The latest results from the ongoing trust survey show distrust in both brands has grown quickly – despite neither facing a definable and definitive scandal such as alleged price gouging and profiteering by the large supermarkets, or significant service outages experienced by several of the distrusted telecommunications companies.” she said.

Unlike several companies near the top of the distrust rankings, neither OpenAI nor Palantir has experienced a single defining event in Australia comparable with a prolonged network outage or the allegations faced by major supermarkets.

Instead, the findings point to distrust accumulating around wider concerns about how AI companies operate and what their technology could mean for the public.

“Despite a lack of scandals, Australians are increasingly citing concerns about AI companies such that the customer interfaces don’t protect users’ privacy, the companies are unethical and dishonest, they’re too motivated by profit and greed,” Levine said.

Australians question the social and environmental cost of AI

Responses gathered by Roy Morgan show distrust is being shaped by more than fears about personal information. Australians also raised concerns about the use of copyrighted work, the effect of AI on creators and the demand that large data centres place on electricity and water supplies.

Some of the reasons given by Australians who distrust OpenAI/ChatGPT are:

• ‘They are rolling out AI tools with no consideration for ethics, society and people who aren’t obscenely rich.
  
  
• ‘Their AI has ripped off authentic creators and is a solution in search of a problem. The environmental and societal cost of their product is not being considered in the relentless pursuit of profit.’
  
  
• ‘They knowingly take resources like water and electricity from locals where their data centres are. CEO believes AI could end the world but runs the company anyway.’”

Google also slipped one position to become the 14th most distrusted brand, while X, formerly Twitter, fell to ninth. Both companies have heavily integrated their own AI systems, Gemini and Grok, into products already used by millions of people.

The rankings do not prove those AI products caused the declines, but they show technology companies are facing public scrutiny well beyond reliability and customer service.

For OpenAI in particular, adoption has moved much faster than confidence in the company handling the technology.

“There are many questions about how much trust we can place in AI companies as this technology develops at an unprecedented ‘machine speed,”

“To learn more about how trust, and distrust, are already shaping views on AI companies and brands, view the special ‘Future of Trust and Distrust in an AI World Webinar,” Levine said.

Fuel prices drive distrust in major energy brands

Distrust also rose for BP, Shell and Caltex/Ampol as Australians watched petrol prices vary between suburbs during the conflict in the Middle East. BP dropped two places to 18th, Shell fell three positions to 19th and Caltex/Ampol deteriorated nine places to 56th.

Hancock Prospecting entered the 20 most distrusted brands for the first time, falling four positions amid growing negative sentiment towards the company and its proprietor, Gina Rinehart.

The Roy Morgan Risk Monitor surveys between 1,500 and 2,000 Australians each month and measures trust and distrust across about 1,000 brands in 27 industries. Participants are asked which brands they trust or distrust and why, with responses collected through open-ended and unprompted questions.