AI thumbnails got me clicks. Ruined my watch time

I recently automated my product demo video pipeline using AI to generate high-CTR video thumbnails and UGC-style covers. At first it looked like a big win click-through rates went up by than 35 percent.

Then I looked at the analytics a week later and the average watch time had dropped a lot. The AI-generated covers were making people expect something that the real product video didn't deliver. This caused a lot of people to leave away. I was focused on getting the click. I hurt viewer trust and made people stop watching.

For people who make video content for product launches how do you find the balance, between AI visuals that get clicks and real content that keeps people watching?