What has 2025 taught us about reputation management so far?

The time warp that is 2025 continues. It’s hard to believe that we’re now past the halfway part of the year and with many of us looking forward to what’s often the busiest last quarter, there are lessons to be learnt from looking back at what the year’s delivered so far.

Perhaps one of the reasons why the year seems to be flying by is that the pace of change continues to accelerate. The last few months alone have brought major developments in the industry, for example, the true power of GEO in the role of PR and the evolution of agency propositions in response to this. A study from MuckRack this week announced that AI prioritises genuine journalism in its search results rather than sponsored content and that media outlets including Reuters, AP and the FT score highest for trust. In response a load of PR professionals* (*me, and others on LinkedIn,) said, yeah, we know. Validation is sweet.

We all know that every challenge presents an opportunity, and while many continue to cite ‘the return of PR’, for those of us for whom PR never went away, it’s true that there is a clear need for experienced communicators with that ancient skill: common sense, AKA, discerning fact from fiction and not instantly believing everything you read online.

The latest whirlwind of news has highlighted the extent to which the power of AI, social media and community are now frequently shaping major events.

The all-consuming Astronomer story generated wall-to-wall coverage across every channel, from friendship WhatsApp groups to global headlines. It also obviously became an overnight crisis comms case study. The false statements that followed from Andy Byron and his wife were picked up and inevitably shared far and wide on social but also shared by legitimate media outlets. That’s the real crisis we’re facing.

Back in January, looking ahead to predictions about reputation management in 2025, I said: “It’s what you do that counts, not what you say – this classic crisis management rule is more important than ever.” And: “The surge in the use of AI has also led to deepfake content becoming more sophisticated than ever before and we can expect this trend to continue. This could mark a tipping point back to a renaissance of legacy media and old-school journalistic values, which are increasingly necessary to cut through the noise with facts.”

So, I think it’s safe to say this prediction will continue to ring true. The increasing sophistication of AI and the speed at which misinformation can spread means that we need to sharpen our critical thinking skills for life in 2025 and beyond. And if we can continue to train and educate others on the role that our industry plays in supporting sharing fact and not fiction, even better.