Maintaining Executive Reputation in the AI Era

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As generative AI tools reach a new pinnacle with web-connected platforms like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, and others, we’re at an inflection point on the issue of executive reputation control. 

A major piece of traditional online reputation management (ORM) is managing the narratives of executives and leaders to ensure brand trust. That remains the same, but AI search and what it says about you is now a major ORM component. 

Now that people are relying heavily on AI search tools — ChatGPT just reached 2.5 billion daily queries, for one — ensuring accurate answers about executives is an imperative. 

Why executive reputation matters now

Executive reputation has always been a benchmark signal for brand health. A negative reputation is contagious, often spreading to the leader’s brand. It’s been that way for decades. 

But the importance of one’s reputation is having a resurgence amid AI’s skyrocketing growth in adoption and narrative-crafting power. A few key trends are driving change.

AI disruption

AI search shifted and disrupted the entire information landscape, changing the way audiences learn, research, and make decisions online. 

Consider ChatGPT’s full web access, Google’s transformative AI Mode, and agentic AI. AI can do more, it’s more integrated into search, and it can surface just about anything out there on the web. 

For executives facing reputational issues or trying to prevent them, it’s a challenging time as AI tells the world about you based on uncontrolled web content alone.

Behavioral shifts

The buyer’s journey changed, too. Consumers increasingly turn to AI for major life decisions like career moves, investment and financial choices, insurance, and more. Audience research is starting to surface reputational information about large brands and their leadership as a result. 

These dynamics place more scrutiny on executive reputation as a proxy for consumer trust, faith in management, brand perception, and ultimately, willingness to transact. A negative reputation (or one not being proactively insulated from harm) is the biggest brand vulnerability of the moment.

The unknown future of search

As soon as AI search began to develop, it was our top priority to understand and influence it, just like organic search. As time passed, it appeared that AI search would be a parallel experience alongside traditional organic search. 

Now, despite Google’s claims, it’s not possible to rule out Google AI Mode replacing the “ten blue links” experience altogether. 

The risk lies in being unprepared if AI search suddenly becomes the dominant source of information about your brand or leadership. Even now, AI is quietly chipping away at executive perception in small but meaningful ways.

The threats that AI poses

While there are functional and efficiency benefits to AI’s ascent, there are also serious reputational threats for major brands, large organizations, and public figures. Beyond the disruption potential, the nature of AI’s growing storytelling prowess is a key element that makes it a reputation killer.

The rival storyteller

AI is telling stories about you whether you’re involved or not. That’s why we call it a rival storyteller. AI tools try to help users as much as possible through generated narratives, but these tools are also reducing your control of your own story. 

The question is: will AI tell your version, someone else’s, or its own?

Narrative challenges

AI was a decent storyteller but now it’s a narrative superpower, crafting narratives at remarkable speed. People trust it, too. AI can re-shape your narratives at scale, reaching millions of searchers at dizzying speeds. 

It can also hallucinate, make errors, and get facts about your story incorrect, especially if your organic search footprint (what pops up when you Google your name) contains stale content, uncontrolled third-party information, or gaps.

AI relies on access to fresh, accurate, factual information, but it’s also not shy about citing Reddit, forums, and dubious social media content. If executives do not have a strategy to provide substantial, consistent content across the digital venues they control (owned assets), they’re letting AI define their story and reputation for them — negativity included.

Negativity loops

In its mission to help users, AI learns what people are engaging with and what they’re seeking to learn, then builds associations. When negative content exists unopposed online about executives, the stage is set for AI to surface it if someone asks. 

Engagement based in negative sentiment signals an association between an executive’s name and controversies that can be continually replicated and disseminated. The damage can compound if you’re already facing reputation challenges. The risk of a kind of “negativity loop” dynamic is an urgent one.

How to take control of your reputation

Fortunately there are steps you can take now to repair, isolate, and prevent reputational harm from both organic and AI search results. As part of an online brand enablement strategy and generative engine optimization (GEO), you can start measuring what matters, get more perspective, and build the assets that mitigate risk.

1. Adopt visibility metrics

Consumers aren’t following the traditional funnel. AI search tools have replaced the typical research path. We’re not comparing reviews or reading blogs, we’re asking ChatGPT. We might not visit a brand site until we’ve made a decision if AI can handle the entire process for us.

This is a less trackable journey and the KPIs of the past like clicks and traffic are less relevant. Consumers aren’t clicking on search links. Switching to visibility-based metrics reveals where you stand and lets you capture the value of being positively included in AI answers. The new AI visibility metrics focus on inclusion and sentiment, recentering the value target.

2. Fully understand your digital landscape

Because the organic search space feeds AI tools content and sources to support answer generation, executives need a fuller picture of this entire space beyond a simple Google search. 

Seeing everything like gaps, vulnerabilities, competitors, negative content, allies, profiles, and opportunities requires a deep analysis of thousands of results. But it’s the key to maximum control.

3. Optimize your assets

With the complete perspective and all the insights of a deep assessment, you can begin identifying, classifying, and prioritizing all the new assets and asset optimizations needed to regain narrative control. 

In other words, you optimize the online content you control, and create more, where gaps arise in your asset network. The more assets within your control, telling your true story, the better fortified your reputation will be if a threat arises.

Each digital asset you create or optimize is one small point in that network. Each one strategically communicates your voice, your values, and your vision, taking the initiative to define your reputation on your terms.

Control in a transformative era

In a time of AI-driven disruption, proactively managing your reputation is essential, and it requires consistent effort and continuous iteration. With online brand enablement, you can assert control and help generative AI platforms and search engines surface accurate, favorable information that reflects your character and leadership.

The result is a future-facing executive reputation strategy that is built to combat tomorrow’s unforeseen challenges. And it’s ready to evolve with future needs and events.