5 FAQs on how AI is reshaping crisis communications

In a recent webinar, Muck Rack’s VP of communications Linda Zebian and crisis communications strategist Molly McPherson unpacked how comms teams can expertly navigate reputation management in an AI-influenced media landscape.

Find a sampling of questions asked during the webinar below.

If you missed the webinar, you can catch it on demand or read the recap.

Q: Does the news cycle feel more accelerated than it was even one year ago?

Linda is unsure how she feels about the current news cycle.

“I feel like it has been at a 100 for the last five or six years and sitting at the same crazy pace,” she said.

Meanwhile, Molly says anecdotally she’s noticed that there are less reporters and media outlets, so we may not be seeing as many stories, but we are seeing more chatter.

“More journalists are becoming independent journalists. More people are creating their own Substacks or their own content, so I think the chatter has increased,” she said.

In terms of how this relates to reputation, Molly said that 40 years ago, reputation was shaped solely by legacy news, and it was much easier to manage the truth. When social media emerged, that added a new element of public sentiment.

AI has changed this entirely.

“It's as if the public square is AI, because everyone goes to AI. If you go to Google, you're going to get a Gemini summary. It doesn't matter where you go,” Molly said.

Q: Can you share an example of a brand that’s handling crisis comms well today?

Molly shared a great example involving Delta Air Lines.

USA Today summed up the news: “As the partial government shutdown continues to cause disruptions at the nation's airports, Delta Air Lines said on Tuesday, March 24, that it was suspending special services for members of Congress.”

“They didn't cause it, but TSA lines that last for hours in airports are going to impact Delta travelers. They're going to be incredibly frustrated. That frustration and injustice, that's what triggers a crisis,” Molly shared.

In this scenario, Delta took steps to recognize how their stakeholders are feeling, made a statement about it and stood true to their values systems of standing up for passengers.

Molly speculated that Delta relied on Dashboards and analytics to help them keep tabs on the public chatter around this decision.

“You have to assume there's a lot of measurement there,” she said. “They needed the data to support that decision.”

Q: Are there new metrics or signals that matter more now in AI when it comes to measurement?

“Whenever there is a crisis, I'm always looking for patterns. I'm looking for tone and I'm looking for behavior,” Molly said. “Because those are the things that break trust, and trust is my primary metric for determining if someone is in a crisis.”

In an AI driven environment, what shapes perception isn't just volume, Molly explained. It's volume mixed with velocity, sentiment and speed.

“AI is pulling all of that to form a narrative, and that's the narrative that organizations can see, but it's a narrative that the public can see as well,” she said. “If decisions that we make break trust, we're going to see that in the numbers. You're going to see that reaction with your public when trust breaks and the public breaks, the next thing that breaks is revenue. Then you're going to feel it in different ways.”

Q: How do you actually present metrics in a way the C-suite understands?

Molly likes to take a different approach than most crisis communications firms here.

“Most crisis firms provide a plan or a reaction. I'm not interested in that; it’s not as important to me,” she said. “What's important to me is why [a crisis] happened in the first place. So my job is to scan and to understand why it happened, and then I need to connect with that leader and be on their side, to be an advocate.”

The only effective way to get through a crisis is accountability.

“The only way to take accountability is by acknowledging the pain or the issue, whatever it is, with the stakeholder. So I'm doing the same thing with the CEO,” Molly said. “I tell them the risks, and this is where data comes in.”

Molly says you can show the C-suite data from a tool like Muck Rack or from a social media site or from earned media coverage. She then aims to tie the numbers to whatever matters most to that CEO—revenue, their job at risk, the reaction of the board, etc.

Linda said a lot of PR pros tend to underestimate the value of their ability to communicate well and to express real empathy.

“I find that we really do bring that human kind of connection piece that a lot of C-suite roles don’t use in their day to day,” she said.

Q: If you could give comms teams one piece of advice to prepare for the next crisis in the AI era, what would it be?

Molly’s advice is simple: Understand AI.

“Understand how it works, how it gathers information and that it can be an incredibly powerful tool,” she said. “But also know that it doesn’t replace judgement, accountability or human reaction.”

The human touch is still so important—and then layer in AI tools to help optimize, scan the environment and use Dashboards to make informed decisions based on data.

“I think the danger is if we overly rely on it, but if we use it to augment our own judgment and our own common sense, the two working together in harmony is an incredible, powerful, powerful tool, but it makes you also a very powerful communicator,” Molly finished.