David Hickey.
The AdNews end of year Perspectives, looking back at 2025 and forward to next year.
David Hickey, Executive Director, Asia Pacific, Meltwater.
In 2026, “crisis-as-usual” will become the new operating reality for communications and corporate affairs teams. When a single AI-generated video or viral misinformation loop can reshape perception in seconds, trust will be the defining factor that determines whether a company weathers the storm or falters in the public eye.
Of course, reputation has always mattered. What’s changing is the speed at which it must now be earned, protected, and measured. Real-time social media loops and generative AI have made crises more frequent and far harder to control. The pace is unforgiving: misinformation spreads in seconds, narratives take hold without warning, and public sentiment can be easily manipulated by anyone with malintent. Despite this, many organisations still treat reputation as a lagging indicator. Something reviewed after the fact, measured only through primary research or sentiment scores.
That won’t be enough in 2026.
Reputation is no longer just an outcome of brand building or media relations. It’s a financial asset; something that must be managed proactively, in real time, and with precision. Just as financial risk is managed with forecasting tools and governance frameworks, reputational risk now requires the same level of investment, speed, and cross-functional coordination. The stakes are simply too high. Brand equity can be undermined by a misinformation campaign, a misquoted executive, or a moment of silence when rapid response is expected.
As organisations embed AI deeper into daily operations, its role in communications is rapidly evolving. Generative AI is being used to create content, distribute it across channels, and analyse vast volumes of media data to surface insights. This brings significant productivity gains. But without the right guardrails, it can also expose sensitive data, generate inaccurate messaging, or amplify brand missteps. For communications and corporate affairs teams, success will depend on how well AI is implemented and governed. The goal is not just speed or scale, but safe, strategic use that supports brand resilience.
Reputation, in this context, becomes the connective tissue across the business. It links owned content, stakeholder trust, advocacy, and crisis response into a single, strategic narrative. But it also requires integration — of data, tools, and teams. Where communications once operated in silos, separate from marketing, risk or IT, those lines are now dissolving. In 2026, reputation becomes a shared metric, shaping decisions across departments, from influencer partnerships to AI vendor selection.
If reputation is to be treated this way, organisations need systems that can track sentiment and trust across every relevant input; not just traditional media, but also social platforms, Net Promoter Scores, employee engagement and positioning on large language models. Managing this landscape demands unified tools, increasingly powered by AI, that connect data, insights, and workflows across the business. The next evolution in brand management is moving from hindsight to foresight — not just reacting to reputational shifts but predicting them before they escalate.
Reputation may not sit neatly in a spreadsheet, but in 2026, it will be the metric every boardroom is watching.
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