Daniel Munslow, Managing Executive: Group Communications, Absa Group, describes how the AI boom is creating a trust premium in communications. It was around the turn of the century that students in the fields of public relations and communications would have started encountering new curricula centred on what was then referred to as ‘new media’: an examination of the mainstreaming of the internet and the information platforms it enabled, and what all of this might mean for the more traditional practices the industry had become so attached to in the decades preceding.
Many would argue that the landscape has since undergone a profound and persistent rate of change, spurred forward largely by digital technologies and social media, which fundamentally altered who controls information and how it moves.
Yet with the growing ubiquity of Artificial Intelligence, perhaps the most consequential development since those early debates around new media, attention is being drawn back to a much older question: trust. To fully appreciate the correlation, it is worth considering the environment into which AI has arrived.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report for 2026 points to the emergence of a contested multipolar landscape in which confrontation is increasingly displacing collaboration, and trust is steadily losing value. The latest Edelman Trust Barometer paints a similar picture at a societal level, finding that seven in ten people globally exhibit what it describes as an insular mindset, characterised by an unwillingness or hesitation to trust those with different values, views, approaches to solving problems, or cultural backgrounds.
The role AI will ultimately play within this environment remains to be seen, but from a communications risk perspective, its implications are already becoming apparent in two areas: credibility and visibility.
For the first time, the cost and effort associated with producing content, whether written, visual, or audio, is falling dramatically, raising the prospect of a communications environment in which that content becomes almost limitless. That may be good news for productivity. It may even prove beneficial for creativity. But it also presents a challenge, because as content becomes easier to produce, communication may have to work harder to prove that it is worth believing.
The credibility question becomes particularly relevant when viewed against the growth of organised disinformation across the continent, with the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies reporting that the 189 documented disinformation campaigns active in Africa today represent almost four times the number recorded in 2022, a figure it still regards as an undercount. The Centre notes that these campaigns have helped drive violence, validate military coups, silence civil society voices and obscure corruption, developments that many analysts have linked, at least in part, to the proliferation of AI, which has become a boon for content farms and misinformation networks.
This means that as audiences become more discerning and the volume of synthetic content continues to grow, organisations may find themselves having to work harder to establish the authenticity of their messages and the reliability of the information upon which they are based. It also means there is far more competition for attention, a reality that places emphasis on visibility, believability and an organisation’s ability to cut through.
Precisely how much content now being generated by AI is difficult to determine, although some early studies estimate that anywhere between 30% and 75% of the text appearing on active web pages may originate from AI-generated sources. Whether the true figure sits at the lower or upper end of that range is almost beside the point, what matters is that the proliferation of AI-generated content is already well underway and shows little sign of slowing.
Audiences may not always be able to determine whether a piece of content was produced by a person or a machine, but they are often remarkably adept at recognising authenticity, expertise, lived experience, and genuine accountability when they encounter it. These qualities may become some of the most important differentiators available to organisations in the years ahead. In a world where content is abundant, trust in the institution behind the content may matter more than ever.
There is a certain irony in all of this. Many of the tools contributing to the proliferation of content are also proving useful in helping organisations navigate it.
Communications and public relations teams are using AI to adapt campaigns across different markets and cultural contexts with greater speed and precision; during live events like product launches and major announcements, audience sentiment can be analysed in real time, allowing messaging to evolve as conversations unfold; some organisations are using AI to run thousands of simulated crisis scenarios based on their operating environment, helping identify potential vulnerabilities and prepare response strategies before issues materialise; others are applying it to media engagement, analysing journalists’ reporting histories and areas of interest to develop more relevant and personalised outreach.
The same technologies are also beginning to redefine how organisations communicate directly with customers. At Absa, for example, the Abby virtual assistant helps clients access information, navigate products and services, and complete a range of banking activities through a chatbot platform. It is a demonstration of how AI is increasingly being deployed across the full spectrum of stakeholder engagement.
Those that benefit most from AI may not be those that automate everything, but those that understand which parts of communication should remain human. There is, however, a catch. Governance.
Surveys show that 59% of public relations practitioners expect AI and automation to grow in importance over the next five years, but at the same time, Africa has been found to have the lowest rate of governance-backed AI adoption at 24.8%, while only 20.5% of organisations report having responsible AI guidelines or policies in place.
There is an urgent need to invest in AI literacy and responsible AI training, ensuring employees engage with these tools critically and understand both their capabilities and limitations. Equally important is the development of clear governance mechanisms that guide how AI is used in practice, promoting greater accountability and transparency as these technologies become more deeply embedded in everyday communications activities.
At Absa, for example, the introduction of a Responsible Use of AI Policy has sought to establish clearer principles around transparency, human oversight and accountability, while complementary standards governing machine learning and AI models help guide how these technologies are developed and applied across the organisation.
The objective is not to constrain innovation, but to ensure that its adoption takes place within a framework that recognises both the opportunities and responsibilities that accompany it.
In many respects, that brings the profession full circle. For all the technological change communications has experienced over the past two decades, trust is the constant. The responsibility now is to ensure that it remains so.
ABSA
www.absa.co.za
