The reputational risks you aren’t prepared for, according to communicators

Yeah, we know — you have plenty to worry about. But there may be a few under-the-radar comms concerns that should be higher on your long, long list of crises to plan for.

Dozens of communicators chimed in on LinkedIn to share the reputational risks they don’t think most brands are prepared for. This is a selection of their responses, lightly edited for brevity and style.

AI

AI-generated misinformation that appears to be authentic. I’m talking beyond the “deepfakes” — think along the lines of fake internal leadership emails or screenshots of customer support conversations, or even AI-generated videos that show employees in a negative light.

The speed at which people tend to believe and then share the inauthentic content is a problem bigger than the content itself, because by the time a company verifies the facts, a daunting task in and of itself, the narrative may already be established and spreading at an out-of-control pace. While many organizations have crisis protocols built around things like viral customer complaints, recalls or cyber incidents, far fewer have a playbook for this.

Kara Hauck, senior vice president, Sable Strategy

How AI compounds narratives.

I’ve seen a single product complaint from Reddit cited as a reason buyers should not choose a product. I’ve seen a Glassdoor complaint from two years ago surfaced as a ‘red flag’ for job candidates.

AI search is not a list of links that people click through. AI reads everything, synthesizes from everything and draws its own conclusions. Things that could once be buried with time and a bit of SEO/PR investment are now surfaced again and again in front of the people who matter to your business: buyers, job candidates, investors, journalists, etc.

It’s the Wild West, man.

Lindsay Lapchuk, head of GTM and communications, Notebook Agency

The fallout from a lack of AI governance. For example, some leaders have “banned” the use of AI by employees, but guess what? They’re using it anyway and feeding the bots your organization’s proprietary information. Trust and believe, those chickens will come home to roost eventually.

Margaret Fogarty, co-founder, Corkboard Communications

Brands are unprepared that the brand will lose its identity, aka its “brand,” after succumbing to too much AI-driven content development that lacks the intelligence and true thought leadership generated by its subject matter experts. Many firms are on a slippery slope and don’t realize there is a right and a wrong way to cull content. It’s a slippery slope into being vanilla instead of a bright light. I had a discussion on this with a colleague just today. While AI is a powerful tool, it should not replace original thought — there are consequences for that.

Cindy Morgan-Olson, head of global public relations and analyst relations at NICE Actimize

Speed, preparedness and crisis response

The biggest risk is not being prepared to react at the speed required today, regardless of the crisis that occurs. Many have plans for how to handle risk, but when it comes time to action it, they are often too slow and bogged down by process to properly respond in the fast-paced world we live in.

Braden McMillan, senior director of communications and public affairs, Business Council of British Columbia

Most brands don’t think about how they are perceived until it’s thrown in their face. They assume their goodwill gathered over years is enough to carry them through, when often it’s a small thing that snowballs. Communications leaders tend to think “worst-case scenario” and are among the best at thinking this through — both what could happen and what to do if it does.

Ellen Gerstein, digital and social engagement lead, Vera Therapeutics

The risk I frequently encounter is that brands prepare for a single point of failure when reputational damage actually behaves like a “pressure release” valve, in that once it’s open, everything vents through it.

Andrew Rossow, founder, AR Media Consulting

Creatively identical ads or content that are deliberately misleading. Done occasionally is problematic. Done automatically and at scale is a systemic issue that requires real-time reputation management the likes of which we’ve never had to deal with.

Paul Fabretti, executive and internal communications, Google

Workforce, leadership and internal disconnect

It’s an old story but still true. Brands are still underpreparing for the reputational risks caused by disconnection from their employee base. In the AI age, and when everything seems to be moving faster, brands need to remember to slow down and bridge the information gap to their employees. Despite what tech executives may wish, humans are still the most important capital across all business verticals. We’re all risking open revolt as executives move forward and forget to bring the people along with the business.

Alison Patch, director of communications, ICEYE US

Most organizations underestimate the reputational risk posed by their own workforce. The stakes get infinitely higher when the person involved is an executive. When a CEO faces harassment allegations or a CFO gets caught misrepresenting financials, it’s not just a personal scandal; it’s a referendum on the entire organization. The damage becomes existential, and you can’t just PR your way out of it.

Katie Huang Shin, global president, technology, Allison Worldwide

A CEO being involuntarily let go. It’s one of the issues no one wants to talk about, understandably. And it has the potential to damage your reputation with employees, customers, suppliers, investors, etc.

Christopher Beard, managing director, The Crisis Shop

Values, consistency and authenticity

The biggest reputational risk brands are facing is consistency — consistency of messaging and ideals with the reality of behavior. Reputation used to be about what you said; now it’s about what evidence can be found about you. It is not hard to fact-check against prior company messaging, leadership behavior, employee and customer experiences, and other publicly available information, and if it doesn’t align with what you are saying, that’s a huge brand risk.

The point I make to brands is that building a reputation starts with every step — it is not forged in a crisis moment. The level of authenticity demanded by the market today is one few companies are well-prepared for.

Natalee Gibson, co-founder and CEO, Songue PR

Flimsy values. Companies that have no values-grounded north star will make poorly considered choices about which politicians and policies they align with, whether they cut their DEI and sustainability programs, how they approach AI and their own workforce, and how they put profit before people, all with no explanation other than it felt right at the time. When the weather changes, they will be unprepared and unable to defend their decisions and won’t be able to repair their reputation.

Ashley Knapp is a strategic communications professional

Customer signals and operational risks

Only caring about quantitative data. Optimizing everything so much that they only see the aggregate of problems in a dashboard instead of the customer signals they need to see before they blow up into a crisis.

Christina Garnett, chief customer & communications officer, neuemotion

“Communicating facility shutdowns, employee layoffs, product mishaps and the like. Even when we think we’re as prepared as we can be to communicate these things, there will always be backlash.”

Stephanie Frazho, senior manager, marketing, Fresh Products