✅ AI systems reinforce traditional media's role in corporate reputation
Corporate communications, public relations, media and management insight
How does your organisation show up in an AI large language model (LLM)? This question is top of mind for corporate affairs and communication directors.
AI systems can potentially disrupt reputation in the same way digital media and search engines have over the past 25 years. They are already actively used for research and insight in both a business and consumer context.
Hard Numbers, a public relations agency focused on the finance and technology sectors, has taken one of the first looks at AI's impact on corporate reputation and how corporate communications directors are responding to this emerging area of risk and opportunity.
Its report Coverage to Capital: AI and Reputation suggests that AI doesn’t disrupt traditional media dynamics so much as reinforce them while also creating new opportunities and challenges for reputation management.
Hard Numbers analysed GPT-4's responses about quality, trust, innovation, and value across Forbes' top 100 brands, tracking and categorising all cited sources.
It found that traditional media dominates AI-generated content about organisations, challenging assumptions about the disruptive impact of AI on the media landscape. This effect is particularly strong when AI systems assess an organisation's trustworthiness, validate its claims about value and evaluate market positioning.
It identified the following sources as driving LLM responses.
🗞 Editorial media: 61%
💻 Owned media: 44%
❓ Customer review/ratings websites: 10%
📊 Analyst reports: 10%
🏆 Industry awards/lists: 8%
📕 Books: 2%
🎓 Academic studies: 1%
📱 Social media: <1%
While earned media remains the dominant source of influence, AI systems place a high level of trust in corporate communications and owned media channels, particularly around claims of innovation and technical capability. Social media has almost no impact whatsoever.
Hard Numbers has also sought the perspective of communications leaders at organisations, including the British Business Bank, Lenovo, Rio Tinto, Vodafone and the UK Government Communication Service, to understand how they respond to this challenge.
I support Hard Numbers as a non-executive director and wrote the foreword for the report. My blog has a full writeup and a link to the report.
Have an excellent week and don’t let anybody spoil it.
Industry
🌟 INDEPENDENT IMPACT: The Independent Impact 50 Awards celebrate the role and influence of independent practitioners in public relations, recognising their contributions to clients, professional development, and the PR industry's evolution. The new award scheme has been created by independent crisis practitioner Rod Cartwright and the PR Cavalry’s Nigel Sarbutts. Source: The Impact 50.
🖋 AD GIANTS UNITE: Omnicom and Interpublic are in advanced merger talks to create the world's largest marketing services firm, surpassing WPP in revenue. This deal, valued at $13-$14 billion, signals a strategic response to technological disruption. It would significantly impact the public relations landscape as both holding companies own marque PR brands. Source: Wall Street Journal.
🔄 EDELMAN RESTRUCTURES: Edelman is laying off 330 staff, more than five per cent of its workforce, as part of a restructuring aimed at greater integration across corporate reputation, public affairs, and brand services. CEO Richard Edelman describes the move aligning with client needs for agility and interconnected expertise amid rising geopolitical and media challenges. Source: PRovoke.
🌍 BRIDGING THE GAP: Corporate Communications Review aims to fill a global gap by connecting management and corporate communications, as well as theory and practice. Inspired by publications such as the Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review, its goal is to provide high-quality research and actionable insights. I’m a member of the launch editorial board. Source: Corporate Communications Review.
Media
🗞️ OBSERVER OVERHAUL: The Scott Trust has approved the sale of The Observer to Tortoise Media, sparking a 48-hour strike by journalists concerned about job security and editorial independence. Tortoise Media plans to invest £25 million to revitalise the 233-year-old newspaper, maintaining its Sunday print edition and enhancing its digital presence. Source: Financial Times.
📱 BBC TOP NEWS APP: The BBC News app has surpassed Apple News as the UK's most popular news application, reaching 14.2 million users in October - a 12% increase over the past year. In comparison, Apple News attracted 14 million users, reflecting a 4% growth during the same period. Source: Press Gazette.
📺 OFCOM OVERHAUL: Ofcom is consulting on proposed revisions to its procedures for investigating broadcast licence breaches, including introducing a time limit for lodging complaints and ceasing direct notifications to complainants about assessment outcomes. These changes aim to streamline processes and enhance clarity in regulatory practices. Source: Ofcom.
📰 ULTRA-PROCESSED NEWS: Local journalism increasingly prioritises page views over public interest, with AI generating content that risks inaccuracies and fails to scrutinise public relations spin. Former journalist Philippa Davies critiques the shift as feeding readers "ultra-processed news," sacrificing relevance and quality for mass appeal. Source: West Country Voices.
Social media
🌤️ SKY’S THE LIMIT: Bluesky aims to become part of the Westminster conversation with plans for a new verification system and a commitment to fostering constructive dialogue over echo chambers. COO Rose Wang emphasises the platform's goal of creating a space for balanced conversations, not confrontational shouting matches. Source: Politics Home.
🚀 REDDIT GROWTH: Reddit is the UK’s fastest-growing major social media platform, reaching 52% of online adults by June 2024, according to Ofcom Online Nation 2024 report. With a 47% year-on-year increase, its 24.6 million users have propelled it to the fifth spot, surpassing LinkedIn and X. Source: Ofcom.
🧠 BRAIN ROT: Oxford University Press has named ‘brain rot’ as its 2024 Word of the Year, reflecting a 230% surge in usage to describe the effects of overconsuming low-quality online content. Though first coined by Thoreau in Walden (1854), its revival highlights modern concerns about social media's impact on human cognition. Source: Oxford University Press.
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