Protecting trust in an age of AI and impersonation

There was a time when typos and odd grammar made it easier to spot a scam, but recently I’ve received a few emails, both scam and genuine, that have made me think twice about their authenticity, and I’m not alone. 

According to National Trading Standards’ new AI Scam Watchlist, 47% of UK adults think it is getting harder to tell what’s genuine online. The continued acceleration of AI capabilities make it easier for scammers to create genuine-looking content, including images and videos.

The same report found that while 31% of us say we’re checking emails, messages and websites more carefully, almost one in five are going as far as avoiding some online activities because of concerns about scams.

And AI isn’t only damaging reputations because of scammers. Separate research from Optimizely found that 62% of UK consumers trust marketing content less since brands began using AI, while 66% believe brands are prioritising quantity over quality. This risks damaging their relationships with brands they might previously have trusted.

For me, both of these issues raise concerns about the continued ability to reach audiences effectively online, and I’ve been thinking about what organisations can do to help their customers and stakeholders feel confident and happy with the content they see.

1. Impersonation: reduce confusion and prepare for response
   
   As part of a comprehensive crisis preparedness plan, it’s important to incorporate questions that help uncover where misuse of your company identity might pose the most risk. For example, where do you communicate with your audiences and stakeholders; what information does your organisation ask people to share and where; and which of your leaders are publicly visible?

By asking these questions and taking cues from other industries, including banking, every organisation can start to mitigate the risk of impersonation scams and help keep stakeholders safe. 

Ways to help stakeholders recognise genuine communications include:

• Keeping up-to-date and consistent contact details across platforms so your stakeholders can easily verify information.
• Understanding where people are talking about you and monitoring for impersonators – even if your organisation isn’t active there.
• Showcasing credible spokespeople within branded content on official channels, so stakeholders become familiar with trustworthy people they might hear from.
• Connecting all internal teams who interact with stakeholders to ensure any potential issues are flagged and dealt with quickly and agreeing ahead of time who owns crisis escalation. 

2. AI content creation: hold real people accountable for output

The acceleration of AI capabilities isn’t all bad – in fact, it can help organisations with limited resources produce higher-quality content than they could otherwise. However, we should be using AI for its efficiency whilst not overestimating its ability:
 

• People must still have clear ownership of image and video content produced – a real person should be prompting AI, challenging outputs, editing as needed, and ultimately publishing content.
• Copy needs editorial judgement - AI-generated text should be reviewed for accuracy, audience relevance, brand tone and messaging before publishing. 
• Time saved shouldn’t simply mean more content – use any time saved by using AI to engage your stakeholders in other meaningful ways, crafting first-person thought leadership, listening to your audience or growing relationships with titles they read.

AI continues to accelerate at pace, creating threats and opportunities for companies when it comes to stakeholder trust. As communications professionals, we’ll have to work hard to keep the trust we’ve earned.