Public Relations Stories and Strategies

50 percent. That's how much of the global population now trusts generative AI when searching for information about companies and brands. 

More than Instagram. More than Facebook. More than social media in general. 

And that number climbed 7 points in a single year. 

The data comes from the Page Society's annual Harris Poll study. 14 countries, more than 15,000 people surveyed in December 2025. Consumers aren't just using AI more. They're believing it more. And most of them aren't clicking through to the source. They're reading the AI answer and moving on. 

For communicators, this changes the job. It's no longer enough to optimize for search engines, you now need to optimize for the AI that sits on top of them. What does generative AI say when someone types in your brand name? Is it accurate? Is it current? Or is it surfacing something you said or did 20 years ago that no longer represents who you are? 

Listen For

3:26 How is declining consumer trust reshaping the role of communication leaders?
4:52 Why do consumers now trust generative AI more than social media for brand information?
12:28 What are the biggest risks of disinformation and AI hallucinations for brands?
15:45 Why can’t AI replace human experience and critical thinking in communications?
20:22 How should brands optimize for AI search while maintaining trust and accuracy?

Guest: Rochelle Ford, Ph.D., APR, CEO The Page Society

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Page-Harris Poll: Confidence in Business Index 2026

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Your Organisation says it's aligned. It probably isn't.

And the problem starts at the top.

Zora Artis and Wayne Aspland have spent 7 years studying the gap between what leadership teams say they're doing and what's actually happening inside organizations. And their findings are uncomfortable. 

In their latest global study, drawing on interviews with 55 CEOs and senior executives across five continents, they found that leaders routinely leave strategy meetings carrying completely different understandings of the direction they just agreed on. 

Nobody admits it. And communications professionals get handed the impossible job of aligning everyone else around a strategy the leadership team hasn't genuinely aligned on themselves. 

In this episode, we break down why the gap has barely moved in seven years, what's actually driving it, and what communications professionals are uniquely positioned to do about it. 

The full findings are being presented IABC World Conference 2026 in Toronto this June.

Register 

https://wc.iabc.com/ 

Download the full Report and Infographic Summary here.

Listen For

4:11 What does true organizational alignment actually mean beyond agreement?
7:44 Why do leaders think they’re aligned but act differently after meetings?
9:09 How do fear and ego silently destroy alignment in executive teams?
12:18 What is “glass head syndrome” and why does it derail strategy execution?
17:18 Is AI making organizational alignment better or worse?

Guests:

Zora Artis

Website Artis Advisory | Website Clear Leaders | Email | LinkedIn

Wayne Aspland

Website Clear Leaders | Email | LinkedIn 

Doug

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Every comms professional knows the playbook. A crisis hits, you move fast. Holding statement, talking points, media plan, stakeholder map. You do it well because you've trained for it. You bring the plan to the CEO expecting alignment and instead you get a polite nod and silence. Not pushback. Not disagreement. Just silence. 

And that silence is worse than any argument because it means the CEO has already stopped listening. Not because your plan was bad, but because it was solving a problem they weren't thinking about.

This is the gap that quietly erodes the comms function's credibility in organizations everywhere. Communicators are passionate people. That passion is their greatest asset, until it becomes a bias that pulls them toward issues that feel urgent but aren't connected to the core business. 

And when that happens enough times, the CEO doesn't fire you. They just stop inviting you into the room. 

Listen For

3:09 How Do CEOs vs. Comms Leaders Actually Respond to Global Crises?
4:26 When Should You Speak—and When Are You Giving an Issue Oxygen?
6:28 Do PR Professionals Need Financial and Data Literacy to Be Strategic?
11:44 Why Is Reporting Not Enough? And What Does Real Analysis Look Like?
15:13 Can AI Truly Make Your Communications Strategy More Effective?

Guest: Johna Burke, CEO and Global Managing Director, AMEC (International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication)

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Doug

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Every PR firm knows the drill. Client says here's my budget. Firm divides by twelve. Monthly retainer, same amount, January through December, whether the work demands it or not. 

Need a press release? Flat rate. Need ten? Multiply. 

Need an editor or a videographer? That's by the hour, and one minute is one hour. 

The pricing isn't creative. It isn't strategic. It's arithmetic dressed up as a business model.

And it worked fine, until AI started doing the arithmetic faster. Suddenly teams are twice as productive in half the time, and if you're still selling hours, you're punishing yourself for getting better. Meanwhile, the client's procurement department is happy to keep paying by the hour, because now those hours cost less. So, who's really winning? 

The firms who don't rethink how they price will be replaced. Not by AI, but by hungrier competitors who already have.

Listen For

3:42 Why Are PR Firms the Least Creative in Pricing?
6:34 Are You Losing Money by Defaulting to Retainers?
9:08 How Should Agencies Identify Where They Create the Most Value?
12:19 How Do You Avoid the “Bait and Switch” With Senior Talent?
15:27 Is AI Killing Hourly Pricing Models for Good?

Guest: Blair Enns, Win Without Pitching

Website | LinkedIn | Podcast 2Bobs

David’s books including Pricing Creativity

Doug

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Most communicators assume that if people reject a message, they must not understand it. Lord David Evans argues the opposite. Backlash often isn’t confusion. It’s threat. When people feel insecure, unheard, or looked down on, they don’t lean in. They shut down. And in that moment, facts don’t persuade, values don’t inspire, and “better messaging” can make things worse.

In this episode Lord David Evans breaks down what political campaigning can teach PR professionals about trust, psychological safety, and why populist narratives spread so quickly. This isn’t about copying tactics. It’s about understanding what your audience needs before they will even give you permission to listen. 

Listen For

2:22 Who is Lord David Evans and why does his perspective matter right now?
3:54 Why is behaviour change almost never an information problem?
6:36 Why do people get drawn to extreme political movements?
10:36 Are politicians themselves fueling fear and insecurity?
12:48 Is social media pushing people into fight-or-flight mode?

Guest: Lord David Evans

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Doug

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Public relations used to be seen as the function that shaped the message after the decisions were made. That is not enough anymore. In a world shaped by geopolitical shocks, cultural division, AI disruption, and rising reputational risk, communications leaders are being pulled closer to the centre of power. They are no longer just storytellers or spokespersons. They are becoming strategic sensemakers: the people expected to read the moment, interpret the pressure, and help leadership decide what to say, what to do, and sometimes whether to say anything at all. 

Our job is evolving to help brands survive the storm.

If you work in PR, corporate affairs, or communications leadership, this episode will feel familiar fast, because it names the job as it is now, not as it used to be. And if you have not yet felt that shift in your own role, you will soon.  

Listen For

3:00 How Has the PR Professional Evolved into a Strategic Sense-Making Role?
5:58 When Should CEOs Speak Out. And When Should They Stay Silent?
10:23 What Is Strategic Ambiguity, and Why Are Companies Using It Now?
13:09 What Skills Do Future PR Professionals Need to Succeed?
15:01 How Do Communication Leaders Really Feel About AI?

Guest: Tom Fife-Schaw, Uk Managing Director of Corporate Reputation, Ipsos

Email | LinkedIn | Navigating Through Turbulence Report 

Doug

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Communications is often described as a female-led profession, but that label can hide a harder truth. Women may make up much of the industry, yet the balance often shifts when it comes to senior leadership, influence, and decision-making.

So, what’s still standing in the way, and why has progress been slower than it should be? 

Natasha Plowman argues gender equity cannot remain a women-only conversation, yet many men still hold back because they are afraid of saying the wrong thing, unsure how to contribute, or feel the issue is not theirs to address. 

In this episode, why silence protects the status quo. And change usually starts when more than the excluded group speaks up.

Listen For

2:33 Why Does a Female-Powered Industry Still Struggle to Put Women in Leadership?
5:12 Why Are Men Reluctant to Join Gender Equity Conversations?
7:24 What Does Real Allyship from Men in the Workplace Look Like?
11:45 Is the Backlash Against DEI Actually About Performative Policies?
14:21 Would Simply Adding More Women to Leadership Solve the Problem?

Guest: Natasha Plowman

Spinning Red Website | Antiquoted Website | Email Break the Silence | Natasha LinkedIn

Doug

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You know that feeling when you look at your own brand and it somehow doesn’t feel like you anymore? The logo is the same, the words are mostly right, and the message is still “on brand”… but the visuals have started to wander. 

A new template here. A new font there. Someone’s “quick” Canva edit. A LinkedIn graphic that looks like it came from a different company. 

None of it is a big mistake. It’s just… a hundred small ones. 

And in PR, you can’t afford that moment when a stakeholder sees your work and thinks, Wait—who are we today?

Because we’re living in a scrolling, skimming world where people decide in seconds. They don’t stop to decode your intent; they feel something fast, or they move on. So how do you keep creativity alive without letting your brand drift into a different personality every week? And what actually makes a visual work now? What makes someone feel something immediately? 

Listen For

:15 Why did Boaty McBoatface become the perfect lesson in brand control?

3:17 What is visual drift and how does it quietly damage brand credibility?

4:53 Why should brands resist changing logos and colors too often?

6:14 How are Canva and easy design tools changing the role of visual experts?

8:55 How do brands win attention in the first 0.3 seconds of scrolling?

Guest: Stewart Cohen

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Doug

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What if the best market research started by IGNORING what people say?

What if, instead, you started modeling them based on proven behaviour?

Right down to the regional level?

And what if political polling was done this way too 

A new term is showing up in research and strategy circles with major implications for communicators: synthetic populations. This is not a cheap AI focus group. It is a data-built population model that reflects how people are distributed and behave at scale using high-quality inputs like official statistics, mobility patterns, and registration data, rather than relying only on interviews and surveys.

That matters because self-reported data is often aspirational, incomplete, or socially filtered. Synthetic populations offer another path: estimating market potential, testing where campaigns should start, understanding regional differences, and pressure-testing assumptions before rollout. The real question is not just what synthetic populations are, but what happens when strategy shifts from asking people to modeling populations.

Listen For

3:07 What’s the difference between a synthetic panel and a synthetic population?
5:13 How can a synthetic population be realistic without using real individuals?
8:49 Why do surveys over-claim luxury brands? And how does official data correct it?
11:58 What did Germany’s flat-rate transit ticket reveal about commuting by region?
14:15 Could synthetic populations change how political polling is done?

Guest: Eike Hartmann, Vice President Custom Research & Insights Business at Statista+

Website | LinkedIn

White Paper on Synthetic Populations

Doug

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In today’s world, PR leaders need to build and protect their brand’s reputation in an AI-shaped, polarized world, where owned media matters more than ever. 

Reputation is no longer a soft metric but an economic multiplier and an insurance policy. From the difference between brand and reputation to the growing tension between character and competence, this episode explains what actually moves corporate standing up or down in today’s environment.

We also share why owned media now plays a disproportionate role in shaping not just earned coverage, but AI-generated search results and stakeholder perception. 

Listen For

3:45 What Is the Real Difference Between Brand and Reputation?
5:07 What Are the Seven Drivers That Shape Reputation?
6:28 How Has AI Changed Third Party Advocacy and Media Influence?
9:58 Do Character Crises Damage Reputation More Than Competence Failures?
16:13 Why Is Reputation a Business Tool Rather Than Just an Image Strategy?

Guest: Stephen Hahn-Griffiths, RepTrak

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Doug

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