{"id":918325,"date":"2026-10-06T15:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T15:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/918325\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T15:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T15:36:08","slug":"misuse-of-ai-is-brands-top-reputational-threat-new-survey-says-ai-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/918325\/","title":{"rendered":"Misuse of AI is brands\u2019 top reputational threat, new survey says | AI (artificial intelligence)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Misusing artificial intelligence<\/a> (AI) is the top threat to companies\u2019 reputations \u2013 more so than being accused of putting children in the way of mental, emotional or physical harm and issues exposed by the US-Israel war on Iran, among other brand risks, according to a new survey of more than 150 public affairs leaders.<\/p>\n

Those findings in the new edition of the quarterly Reputation Risk Index, released on Tuesday, came on the heels of other perhaps more dire warnings from leading tech figures that AI in the wrong hands could precipitate<\/a> existential threats on a mass scale such as nuclear war or destruction by bioweaponry.<\/p>\n

The index<\/a>\u2019s publisher, the Global Risk Advisory Council, acknowledged that misuse of AI is not a particularly new concern in its area of focus, having been identified as a top worry repeatedly since the first edition<\/a> of the survey in April 2025.<\/p>\n

But the council said what is new is its attaching an advisory to its latest survey advising business leaders to \u201ctake immediate and decisive action to mitigate potential long-term brand damage\u201d with respect to AI, as the technology has \u201cbecome a clear and present danger to public confidence for many corporations\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs AI is rapidly deployed for productivity gains, we have also seen diminishing public trust in the technology, elevating the need for businesses to take measures to protect their brands,\u201d council chair Isabel Casillas Guzman said in a statement. \u201cIn this environment, AI use or overuse can quickly damage a company\u2019s standing with customers, investors, or other key stakeholders, making it essential for companies to deploy preventive tactics now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The creators of the council and the Reputation Risk Index \u2013 the Washington DC-based public affairs firm Global Situation Room \u2013 said such tactics include removing or reducing the use of AI content and relying on humans for customer service.<\/p>\n

The Global Situation Room said that the Reputation Risk Index released on Tuesday surveyed former heads of state, government ministers and senior executives from more than 20 countries in five continents who were invited to participate after establishing their credentials in responding to crises.<\/p>\n

Respondents to that survey collectively perceived the technology to have shown great promise in creating \u201corganizational efficiency\u201d \u2013 while simultaneously \u201caccelerating safety and data concerns, hacks, fraud, straining privacy protections, upending the workforce, and dragging companies into court as lawsuits increasingly link AI products to real-world harm\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, actions or accusations of putting children at risk of mental, emotional or physical harm also ranked highly behind misused AI \u2013 along with infringing individuals\u2019 sensitive information, according to the index results published on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Unethical or illegal behavior used to gain a strategic advantage or profit and, separately, poor strategic or operational decisions resulting in reduced financial or public standing rounded out the top five, according to the index.<\/p>\n

The index noted that its preceding edition released in July identified supply chain issues, divisive political stances and other factors associated with the war<\/a> that the Trump\u2019s administration started in Iran alongside Israel as the leading risk to companies\u2019 reputations. But those surveyed indicated that those anxieties had eased as the conflict dragged out \u2013 and perhaps despite it remaining unresolved since it was launched in February.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe geopolitical shock \u2026 hasn\u2019t gone away, but its first, sharpest reputational blow has faded, and the conflict has slipped out of the top tier [of concerns] even as it grinds on,\u201d Guzman said in a \u201cmessage from the chair\u201d included in the index.<\/p>\n

Guzman put out her message two days after Donald Trump\u2019s administration named a new AI czar: director of national intelligence Jay Clayton. The president said in a social media post that Clayton would oversee an entity coordinating \u201cthe federal government\u2019s engagement with consumers, public interest groups, religious organizations, critical infrastructure providers, and\u201d AI tech companies.<\/p>\n

Clayton had previously told federal lawmakers that AI was a \u201cgamechanger\u201d but also posed \u201ca threat\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Misusing artificial intelligence (AI) is the top threat to companies\u2019 reputations \u2013 more so than being accused of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":918326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-918325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/918326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}