AI didn’t break trust. It simply exposed the crisis.

As AI adoption rises, comms pros are faced with the reality that automation-related misinformation has eroded trust for many audiences, including internal ones.

During Ragan’s Crisis Communications Certificate Course, Gerry Rodriguez, executive vice president and U.S head of brand purpose and impact at Edelman, said that communicators need to think about how they’re embedding trust into their messaging.

“The rise of AI isn’t really what caused the trust crisis or broke trust; it just exposed it,” Rodriguez told the audience. “It’s been the accelerant on a fire that was already happening.”

He also urged communicators to show up for their colleagues internally before any crisis goes public to ensure trust is foundational in every message.

“Employees often experience the trust crisis before customers or the public do,” he said. “They’re not separate from society, they’re living in it. So they’re feeling polarization, grievance and uncertainty in real time, and that shows up inside organizations first.”