4 ways communicators can prepare for AI-driven reputation risk
Your AI strategy needs accountability.
As AI systems become part of how organizations make decisions, answer questions and present information to the public, communicators will have to manage what happens to trust when humans aren’t the ones speaking.
“If someone can’t tell whether they’re talking to a person or AI, that ambiguity itself becomes the story, whether you meant it to or not,” said Arlene Corbin Lewis, chief marketing officer at Code for America.
This is one piece of a larger challenge communications leaders should be preparing for now. Three senior comms pros point to the same underlying point heading into 2027, which is to stop thinking of AI as a tool that sits beside the communications function and start planning for what happens when it becomes part of the stakeholder experience itself.
Communicators need a role in AI decisions
Most teams still think about AI as something that helps them produce content faster, Corbin Lewis said. But AI is increasingly being used to make decisions inside organizations, usually before communicators are involved.
“Teams that get ahead of this in 2027 will be the ones who insist on being in the room when AI tools that will directly affect them are being adopted internally,” she said.
Comms pros may eventually be asked to explain the consequences of systems they had no role in evaluating, she said.
Stephen Hahn, chief reputation and strategy officer at RepTrak, says that comms leaders should broaden their definition of the audience itself.
“Comms leaders need to be more proactive in understanding how AI is judging and influencing corporate reputation as part of an integrated stakeholder ecosystem,” he said. “In many ways, comms leaders need to be thinking about AI as a stakeholder that wields significant influence.”
Gabrielle Gambrell, chief communications officer at Hachette Book Group, sees the same shift from the audience side. People are increasingly asking AI systems to explain companies, summarize controversies and decide which information appears credible, she said.
“Communications teams must think about what happens when someone asks an AI assistant, ‘What does this company stand for?’ or ‘Can I trust this brand?’” Gambrell said.
That means reputation management has to include the information AI systems are likely to find. Teams should audit their digital footprint, strengthen authoritative sources of information and develop a clear organizational narrative, while also preparing to monitor and respond to inaccurate or damaging AI-generated summaries, she said.
Transparency becomes operational
The next challenge is deciding how clearly organizations explain AI’s role in the communications people receive.
Corbin Lewis says she sees disclosure as part of the trust equation. If an organization would be uncomfortable explaining how a piece of content or interaction was created, it probably isn’t ready to publish it, she said.
Gambrell make a similar argument, especially when AI touches customer service, important information or decisions affecting individuals.
“People should not have to guess whether they are interacting with a human or an AI system,” she said.
But disclosure by itself will not solve the trust problem, Gambrell said. Organizations still need a person who is accountable for the information and the experience.
Hahn also cautions against thinking of trust as something that can be generated through messaging.
“Trust needs to be consistently earned over time as part of a series of dynamic brand interactions that include real human experiences,” he said.
Plan for the AI mistake now
Corbin Lewis’ most immediate concern is building an AI crisis plan now.
Many organizations have guidance for approved tools and content use. But fewer have mapped out what happens when an AI system produces something inaccurate, offensive or impossible to defend.
She said to decide:
- Who reviews AI work
- Where human sign-off is required
- Who explains a failure publicly
“The teams without that plan in place are the ones who’ll be writing their apology in real time,” she said.
AI literacy clearly matters, but the job is not to turn every communicator into a tech pro. It’s to make sure the organization can still explain its decisions, stand behind its information and protect trust when technology is involved.
“Technology can help us communicate faster and at a greater scale, but it does not eliminate the necessity for human judgment, authentic relationships, and corporate responsibility,” Gambrell sad.
