How Businesses Can Use AI Without Losing Trust

Artificial intelligence is changing how communications teams plan, write, and measure work. This article delivers two practical checklists: 20 ways to use AI without losing trust and 20 ways AI can damage trust fast. Both are built for PR, media relations, and influencer marketing teams.

The stakes are simple. Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose through automation.
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Use the two lists below as a checklist for client guidance, internal policy, and approvals before anything goes live.

Cision’s Generative AI Adoption 2025 found that “Three in four comms professionals feel confident in their organization’s ability to take advantage of AI, while 37% use generative AI to review or optimize content.” That makes clear disclosure and approval policies a baseline, not a bonus.

In this conversation featuring Sinead Bovell and The Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson, the discussion examines how artificial intelligence is forcing a fundamental reset in journalism, credibility, and public trust. Although focused on media, the insights apply directly to media relations and any role responsible for managing narratives in an AI-driven environment.

​How to Use AI Without Losing Trust ​

In the Reuters report US requiring new AI safeguards for government use, transparency (Mar. 28, 2024), David Shepardson said agencies “will be required to implement concrete safeguards when using AI in a way that could impact Americans’ rights or safety.” For PR teams, that mindset translates to securing human approval before anything public is released.

“Consumers trust AI when they have transparency into how it is utilized and how their personal data is being used to make their lives better,” said Ben Cox in an interview with Martech Record for “Expert Interview: AI and the Future of Partnership Marketing” (2024). That standard applies to content, targeting, and data handling.
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For a broader perspective on trust and AI in modern marketing, this TED Talk by Amaryllis Liampoti explains how AI reshapes brand relationships and why trust must be intentionally designed rather than assumed.
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Transparency in AI Marketing ​

In Creating realistic deepfakes is getting easier than ever. Fighting back may take even more AI (AP News, Jul. 28, 2025), the Associated Press wrote, “It’s no longer about hacking systems — it’s about hacking trust.”

Peer-reviewed research also shows that “seeming credible” is not enough. In Being Trustworthy Is Not Enough (Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Apr. 16, 2023), Banovic et al. wrote, “Participants showed inability to assess AI competence by misplacing their trust with the untrustworthy AI, confirming its ability to deceive.”

According to the Office of Management and Budget’s 2024 Federal Agency AI Use Case Inventory (released 2025), “2133 AI use cases” were reported, including “351 rights-impacting and/or safety-impacting use cases.” Transparency reporting is becoming an expectation, not a niche practice.

In practice, how AI affects trust in public relations and influencer marketing comes down to disclosure, oversight, and consistency in tone. When brands blur that line, brand trust and artificial intelligence goals can collide.

In AI firms must be clear on risks or repeat tobacco’s mistakes, says Anthropic chief (The Guardian, Nov. 17, 2025), Dan Milmo reported that Dario Amodei warned that “where they knew there were dangers, and they didn’t talk about them,” trust was lost.

The infographic below compares trust-building vs. trust-damaging AI choices at a glance.
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Practical Checklist: 20 Do’s and 20 Don’ts ​

20 Ways Businesses Use AI Without Losing Trust

• Disclose AI assistance where it affects audience understanding
• Keep human approvals for anything public-facing
• Verify facts manually before publishing
• Use real spokesperson photos (not synthetic stand-ins)
• Label synthetic or AI-generated visuals clearly
• Use AI to brainstorm angles and story hooks
• Use AI to summarize research (then confirm sources)
• Draft outlines and first passes—not final statements
• Run legal, compliance, and privacy reviews
• Protect prompts, inputs, and proprietary data
• Audit outputs for bias, stereotyping, and exclusion
• Maintain a human brand voice and point of view
• Log which tools were used and where
• Use AI for social listening and trend detection
• Use AI for sentiment analysis (with human interpretation)
• Improve accessibility with captions and alt text
• Translate with human review for nuance and risk
• Optimize timing based on performance signals
• Monitor influencer fraud and authenticity signals
• Train staff on policy, disclosure, and approvals

20 Ways Businesses Lose Trust Using AI

• Hide AI authorship or automation
• Publish hallucinated or unverified claims
• Fabricate testimonials, reviews, or case studies
• Rely on AI alone during a crisis
• Impersonate real people or spokespeople
• Deploy deepfake endorsements or synthetic “proof”
• Use copyrighted assets without permission
• Collect data without explicit consent
• Ignore platform, legal, or disclosure rules
• Over-personalize in ways that feel invasive
• Spam journalists with automated pitches
• Replace experts with bots in high-stakes topics
• Present errors with false confidence
• Automate layoffs or sensitive messaging without care
• Manipulate audiences with emotional targeting
• Target vulnerable or trend-driven audiences opportunistically
• Give health or finance guidance without a qualified review
• Buy fake engagement or synthetic influence signals
• Invent expert quotations or citations
• Erase human identity until the brand feels automated

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What’s your biggest takeaway or question when it comes to using AI without losing trust?

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References:
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• Associated Press. (2025, July 28). Creating realistic deepfakes is getting easier than ever. Fighting back may take even more AI. AP News. Retrieved from https://apnews.com/article/da90ad1e5298a9ce50c997458d6aa610
• Banovic, N., Yang, Z., Ramesh, A., & Liu, A. (2023, April 16). Being Trustworthy is Not Enough: How Untrustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI) Can Deceive the End-Users and Gain Their Trust. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 7(CSCW1), 1–17. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1145/3579460
• Bovell, S. (2025, December 4). A once in a lifetime journalism reset is coming | The Atlantic CEO, Nicholas Thompson [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/6reO4XaFjVQ
• McNerney, M. (2024, August 22). Expert Interview: AI and the Future of Partnership Marketing. Martech Record. Retrieved from https://martechrecord.com/interviews/expert-interview-ai-and-the-future-of-partnership-marketing/
• Milmo, D. (2025, November 17). AI firms must be clear on risks or repeat tobacco’s mistakes, says Anthropic chief. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/nov/17/ai-firms-risks-tobacco-anthropic-artificial-intelligence-dario-amodei
• Office of Management and Budget. (2025, January 23). 2024 Federal Agency AI Use Case Inventory. Retrieved from https://github.com/ombegov/2024-Federal-AI-Use-Case-Inventory
• Reynolds, S. (2025). PR Statistics: 2025 Comms Report by the Numbers. Cision. Retrieved from https://www.cision.com/resources/articles/pr-statistics-2025-comms-report/
• Shepardson, D. (2024, March 28). US requiring new AI safeguards for government use, transparency. Reuters. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-requiring-new-ai-safeguards-government-use-transparency-2024-03-28/
• TED. (2025, February 20). Love, Trust and Marketing in the Age of AI [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GpNYaDkBcs