This post first appeared in Anthony Bullick’s Daily Post column.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is shaping how people discover, understand, and judge brands, creating both opportunity and risk for businesses.
Through tools such as ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews, stakeholders are increasingly being given summaries of organisations before they ever reach a website, speak to a sales team, or read a company profile.
It pulls from the information available online and uses it to shape answers, summaries, and recommendations.
If your organisation is presented accurately, it can strengthen trust, improve visibility, and help people understand what you do.
However, what if the information online about you is outdated, incomplete, or misleading? What if an AI hallucination occurs, whereby the platform distorts or invents incorrect data?
This can damage perception and lead to negative decision making including not purchasing from you or not applying for a job vacancy. It could also lead to further issues, for example if it is shared on social media.
Is AI part of your brand reputation strategy?
Start by testing the obvious questions. What does your business do? Is it a good place to work? Is your organisation reputable? What are customers saying?
Then think beyond the basic queries. For example, potential customers may use AI to help them shortlist potential companies to work with as part of their buying process.
As well as highlighting gaps in your digital footprint, it’s also a good starting point to enhance the answers being brought back.
In addition, Google’s latest updates make it clear the search engine giant’s focus is on providing users with an AI experience as opposed to the traditional search engine people have been used to.
This is where PR and communications have a vital role to play. Strong media coverage, clear website content, expert commentary, case studies, reviews, and thought leadership all help shape how a brand is understood online.
A strong comms approach will consider all avenues that AI tools use to form their summary. A comprehensive strategy will cover everything from podcast appearances and YouTube videos to Reddit and LinkedIn articles.
To be clear, the goal is not to manipulate AI, but to provide a clearer, more credible picture.
Later this month, I will be hosting a seminar for North Wales businesses on AI and brand reputation.
One of the key messages will be that proactive businesses will be better placed to protect their reputation, improve discoverability, and ensure stakeholders see a fair, accurate, and credible version of who they are.