Ant Moore, head of corporate reputation, FTI Consulting Strategic Communications UK  

Reputation is harder to control than ever and much of what shapes it now sits outside a company’s control. That makes judgement about what to say, and when, more important than ever. We’re putting a lot of time and investment into understanding how real-time scrutiny, powered by AI, is reshaping reputation, risk and decision-making.  
 
External forces, geopolitics, regulation and media dynamics set the context in which corporates are judged, often beyond the reach of traditional strategic communications planning or messaging frameworks built on assumptions of predictability and stability. The notion of the fixed ‘planning grid’ is long dead and I think those companies able to wrangle with that and look to more advanced analytics and insights will win the day. 

Clive Bidwell, strategy director, Friend Studio  

Companies are increasingly expected to respond to the demands of investor AI tools and evolving digital regulations by embracing digital reporting. Studies show that most investors and stakeholders now rely on AI as a primary search and analysis tool. For AI to deliver accurate insights, it requires trusted, structured digital sources, such as full online annual reports with XBRL tagging, rather than static PDFs.  

Testing demonstrates a clear gap, as PDFs typically provide only around 50% of the information requested by AI, while fully digital, XBRL-tagged reports deliver roughly 95–100%. Consequently, the fully digital annual report is now mandatory. Regulators have recently advised companies to focus more closely on the quality of this format under ESEF requirements and are increasingly scrutinising digital reports to identify errors and poor practices. 

Courtney Glymph, founder, YourStory PR 

As AI-powered search reshapes how audiences discover information, answer engine optimisation (AEO) and generative engine optimisation (GEO) will become essential metrics in measuring visibility and reach. Communicators who ignore these shifts risk becoming invisible to the audiences they need to influence, but measurement is only as valuable as the strategy behind it. The fundamentals still hold: a network built on trust opens doors that no optimisation can unlock.  

Critical thinking separates signal from noise in an increasingly crowded landscape, and strong media relations remain the bedrock of credibility that algorithms reward but cannot manufacture. In 2026, the winners will be those who embrace new measurement frameworks while doubling down on the human skills that make communications strategic, not just searchable. 

Darryl Sparey, managing director, Hard Numbers 

There are two trends from 2025 that we think will continue into 2026. Firstly, cybersecurity is at the top of the risk register and reputational concerns for many businesses. We expect that to continue into the new year, and so we invested in hiring and building a dedicated cyber security team. Secondly, we think there will be a continued, strong interest in generative engine optimisation (GEO).  

With adoption of AI search platforms continuing to increase, brands are looking to understand how they show up on these platforms, how they compare to their peers, and to know what they can do to potentially influence and improve the results. We won five new clients at the end of last year with these needs, which we think is a strong demonstration of how more and more in-house comms teams are thinking about how AI and LLMs are re-shaping brand discovery. 

Emma Williamson, head of brand and communications, Oak Engage 

In 2026, credibility will become the defining challenge for internal communications. Many internal communications professionals still lack true influence, operating as broadcasters rather than strategic partners, while leaders continue to overestimate how well they listen. Employees, meanwhile, are more selective than ever with their attention and increasingly intolerant of noise that doesn’t respect their time or intelligence. 

The next shift will be towards evidence-based internal communications: sharper measurement of understanding, trust and behavioural impact, not just reach. AI will accelerate this, but it also introduces ethical tension. Over-automated messaging risks eroding trust if employees sense manipulation or surveillance. In 2026, the strongest internal communications functions will succeed by building trust in small, practical ways, saying less, listening more and reflecting employees’ reality back to leaders. 

Ian Roe, chief engagement officer, Black Sun Global  

I predict 2026 will be a year of returns. AI will finally begin to deliver positive ROI as tools mature and workflows improve, allowing businesses to integrate it properly, even as they contend with growing volumes of low-quality output. ESG, after being both championed and criticised in 2025, will return with greater discipline.  

Organisations, particularly those with transatlantic stakeholders, will need to move beyond vague claims and clearly demonstrate how ESG creates long-term value, with governance playing a stronger role, especially in the UK. At the same time, authenticity will regain importance as stakeholders prioritise trusted data, audited reporting and genuine engagement amid rising noise. 

James Hilditch, founder and executive creative director, BearJam  

Our big prediction is that B2B brands will increasingly adopt video podcasts as a core corporate communications format, not just for marketing, but for leadership visibility, stakeholder trust and long-form narrative building. This shift puts real people, along with their experience and expertise, front and centre. Audiences now actively prefer watching conversations, and they accept (even value) lower production polish when it signals authenticity. This creates extraordinary value: hours of engagement at a fraction of traditional video costs.  

Alongside this, fully AI-generated video will become commonplace in ads and corporate content, enabling teams to stretch budgets further while increasing creative output and speed.   

Joe Gilliver, founder and executive producer, The Chameleon Agency  

In 2026, internal communications will decisively move beyond inbox-led engagement. Employees are overwhelmed by constant emails, intranet posts and virtual town halls that struggle to cut through the noise of day-to-day working life. Connection, clarity and culture will need to be felt, not forwarded, and organisations that fail to respond will feel it fast. 

Internal events will become mission critical. The moments leaders use to take people out of distraction-heavy environments and into spaces designed for focus, alignment and belief. The strongest strategies will treat these events as strategic interventions, not tactical outputs. 

We’re already seeing clients shift away from broadcast-style formats towards participation-led experiences that invite dialogue, humanise leadership and turn messaging into shared moments. Success will be defined by belief, behaviour change and advocacy. 

Jon Schubin, global head of content, Cognito 

The writing process will shift toward a more quantitative approach. We’ll be able to use new technology and analytics to answer a question that’s stood behind so much communications work in years past: “Is this writing any good?” We’ll start with words and phrases that are signs of bad writing, from the “it’s not X – it’s Y” cliché to nonsensical jargon like “supercharge” and “best-in-class”.  

From there, things become more individual as we develop our own and the company’s styles. While much of the writing will remain manual, we can use technology during editing to ensure overall alignment. Imagine an individualised, stylistic DNA that can be deployed across short, medium and long form writing, and proprietary voice checks deployed the same way we now use spell and grammar checks. 

Julian Walker, executive vice president, TEAM LEWIS  

Industry consolidation will continue apace. A glut of skilled practitioners will be available on the market. Unencumbered by overheads, many will freelance successfully and undercut agencies. Downward prices will force larger firms to fish in smaller pools.

Agency differentiation will be essential, so too AI applications. Clients will prioritise strategic communications over noise. 2026 will be a tough though defining year for our profession. 

Lulu Trask, managing director, Blueprint Partners 

In 2026 we’re going to see brands become bolder. It’s taken a long time amid a global pandemic and political uncertainty, but towards the end of 2025 the brands that took the spotlight were the ones who stepped forward and did something different.  

Any brands with their fingers on the pulse will know this is the way to win 2026, so I'm looking forward to seeing some really exciting marketing activity over the next 12 months. 

Mark Horley, chief creative officer and founder, Tonic  

In 2026, employer brand isn’t about sounding authentic. It’s about being credible. Where reputation beats rhetoric every time, because people trust patterns of behaviour. Consistency of experiences, proof and promises kept. They want clarity, not poetry. Real insights. Real experiences and real connections.  

AI can remove hiring friction, but it can’t disguise a broken experience, it can’t replace human connections. I think skills will matter more than the CV, because careers no longer move in straight lines. And employees will continue to be the most effective voice. Which is why the employer brand can't be treated as a campaign. It must be managed. Smartly, constantly and effectively to bring true business value.   

Mark Lethbridge, executive chairman, Gravity Global

Brand is firmly back on the board agenda for this year, as leaders look to ‘protect and grow’ in a sluggish and flat market environment that’s fiercely competitive. From a growth perspective, 2026 feels like an evolution of 2025, with modest tailwinds but no broad demand surge, so the focus shifts to out-performing peers, not relying on market lift.  

Recent European research shows branding as the number one priority for CMOs in 2026, ahead of performance and even generative AI, as distinctiveness and trust are recognised as key to resilient growth. Winning brands will double down on full‑funnel science and share gain, and lean more heavily into attention metrics as the key KPI, with ruthless focus.  

Marshall Manson, chief executive officer, FleishmanHillard UK 

The communications landscape is shifting fast, yet again. Audiences are getting more niche and trust is rapidly becoming more relative. Communicators will need to consider activities across a much wider range of sources, channels, and platforms to ensure relevant reach and effective connection with key stakeholder groups in a way that the audiences will accept.  

At the same time, geopolitical uncertainty continues to grow, and executives who have grown up in the age of globalism are finding the landscape unfamiliar. Successful communications strategies will require a higher level of sophistication with a greater capacity for managing complexity and the ability to deliver for a wider range of small but very influential audiences. Communicators also need to build repeatable systems for geopolitical sensing and ensure truly global voices and perspectives are part of decision-making. 

Nick Howard, partner, Brunswick Group  

In 2026, organisations will recognise that engaging a multi-generational workforce, worn down by constant change and uneasy about AI, is a defining leadership challenge. Employees are not a passive audience. They shape culture and reputation in real time. This is forcing corporate affairs teams to move beyond information delivery to proving impact. Employee engagement will be judged by its contribution to retention, productivity and successful transformation.  

AI will accelerate this, rewarding organisations that build trust and exposing those that, often inadvertently, fuel anxiety. The strongest teams will blend behavioural insight, analytics and change communications, while demonstrating measurable progress against clear objectives. They will treat employee engagement as a driver of commercial success and leadership credibility, not communications competence. 

Patrick D'ancona, CEO, Vigo Consulting  

2026 will see a continuation of many of the themes of recent times from a communications perspective. There will remain a clear focus on the value of reputation to businesses and an ever-growing awareness of the hard work required to build it as well as the ever-present risks of its very rapid diminution.  

AI will be a central part of communications thinking - understanding how it can best serve clients whilst supporting the highest value, and very human, advisory elements of consultancy work. And most evidently, a still volatile political backdrop will continue to dominate media agendas and impact business imperatives as the oil industry is already seeing in Venezuela! 

Richard Carpenter, CEO, Bladonmore 

We’re seeing a renewed recognition in some quarters of the value of higher quality communication with employees. We tend to see this ebb and flow with economic cycles and other trends, but the last few months have seen moves towards more informative, creative campaigns aimed at employees.  

Post-Covid, we have seen a range of ‘enthusiastic’ employee communicators cutting budgets as economic reality hit. But a few of them have now come full circle and are thinking about innovative, exciting ways to communicate with employees once again, rather than relying on dull, cold, e-mail blasts that no one reads. It’s refreshing to see senior leaders thinking about culture development and proper storytelling once again.

Simon Gittings, head of IR and corporate communications, IDX 

Every corporate communications team is saying the same thing: we need to be visible in AI. Fair enough, if you’re not cited when stakeholders ask ChatGPT, you’re not in the conversation. But being cited isn’t being trusted.  

The content AI cites well is exactly what it can summarise without sending anyone your way. You win the citation, lose the relationship.  

So, what’s your site actually for? It's where stakeholders get what a summary can't give them: depth, perspective, a reason to believe. In 2026, the winners will get both right: content AI cites, and substance that actually earns trust.  

Stephen Butler, executive director, Luminous 

We’re seeing AI quickly become a defining focus in reputation strategy, not just in how organisations operate, but in how they’re perceived. Boards are paying closer attention to AI governance and responsible use, from oversight and controls to ethical guardrails and accountability. At the same time, AI is being adopted across reporting processes, supporting drafting, feedback and efficiency.  

What’s really interesting is how AI accesses and interprets information. Investors, regulators and other audiences increasingly use it as a first filter, shaping perceptions based on what’s highlighted or overlooked. That makes clarity, structure and consistency in reporting more important than ever. Understanding how AI navigates your corporate narrative is becoming as crucial as understanding your human audiences. 

Eliott Friberg, content and martech specialist, Comprend

In 2026, I predict that marketing teams will move decisively from content chaos to content orchestration as growing volumes of content, channels and AI tools force organisations to rethink how work gets done. Success will depend less on producing more content and more on building a strong operational backbone. 

Content orchestration brings structure to how content is planned, created, approved and distributed across teams and channels. Instead of fragmented spreadsheets and disconnected tools, marketing teams rely on a single, governed process. 

Content marketing platforms (CMPs) sit at the centre of this shift. They provide a shared source of truth for strategy, workflows and performance, while increasingly acting as the integration layer for AI-powered capabilities. In 2026, orchestration will be essential to turning AI ambition into measurable marketing outcomes. 

Alex Rowe, corporate director, MSL UK 

As we move into 2026, we expect to see the AI ‘gold rush’ settle into a more mature, plateaued phase. As the novelty fades and outputs become increasingly commoditised, the real differentiator will swing back to human judgement, credibility and connection. In a volatile political and economic landscape, stakeholders are looking less for scale and speed, and more for clarity, reassurance and trust.  

This places executive communications firmly at the centre of reputation strategy. Leaders will need to show up with greater frequency, authenticity and emotional intelligence - not just as figureheads, but as visible, accountable voices who can explain decisions, set direction and build confidence. In an attention economy where visibility is hard-won, genuinely human leadership communication will cut through where automation cannot. 

Francesca Bennett, client growth and director, Radley Yeldar 

The corporate website plays a much more important role. As AI systems increasingly interpret organisations on behalf of audiences, the website becomes the source of truth for both machines and people, from investors and employees to regulators and media. It is where brand clarity is established, credibility tested and trust sustained.  

This creates new pressure for communicators to connect brand, digital experience, sustainability strategy, integrated reporting and employee engagement in one coherent place. Clear structure, strong governance and purposeful activation shape how information is understood and referenced by AI. Design plays a critical role in making complex content accessible and meaningful. In an AI-driven world, the corporate website is not just a channel, but a strategic communications asset. 

Andy May, managing director, SampsonMay Design Ltd 

Looking ahead to 2026, I expect a decisive shift towards quality, intent and confidence across B2B communications. As AI-mediated search accelerates, relevance and authority of content will matter more than volume. This will push organisations to invest more seriously in data, UX strategy and insight-led planning, using evidence to shape clearer narratives, defined personas and content designed around real behaviours and needs.  

At the same time, brand will continue to assert itself as a core growth driver. In a digital-first world, brand is often the first and strongest signal of trust and differentiation. Finally, we’ll see more purposeful use of AI within communication channels themselves, from AI-driven search and personalisation on corporate websites to content translation and intelligent content distribution, moving beyond experimentation to practical, governed deployment.  

Amy Skelding, managing partner - travel, FINN Partners

With AI everywhere, trust is fragile. This comment itself could be AI-generated, and that unease is justified. As GEO reshapes the communications ecosystem, practitioners must prove their humanity by abandoning polished corporate narratives in favour of authenticity. Journalists say they are flooded with synthetic, automated pitches, making real human contact our most valuable currency.

We are returning to fundamentals: the breakfast catch-up, face-to-face briefings, and genuine relationships built offline. This matters more than ever for securing coverage that truly moves the dial and keeps brands visible in a GEO-led world. Reputation in this remixed reality is not won by algorithms but earned through nuance, judgement and trust. Technology may handle the volume, but offline relationships provide context, credibility and impact.

Marta Domingo, business director and head of PR, Ogilvy Spain

In 2026, AI will not only optimise processes or personalise messages: it will redefine the way we connect. Its strategic integration will enable us to create immersive and dynamic communication experiences, where interaction and feedback become engines for co-creating value with our audiences. We're talking about authentic connections, at scale, that will transform the role of communication within organisations.

In this context, authenticity will be crucial to remain credible. This will apply to all types of communication, from corporate to influencer marketing and internal messaging. In an AI-driven world, we will need more human, empathetic narratives supported by verifiable data to counter misinformation.