AI misuse tops brands’ reputational threats, survey finds

The findings, published Tuesday in the quarterly Reputation Risk Index by the Global Risk Advisory Council, come after warnings from leading technology figures that AI in the wrong hands could cause mass existential threats such as nuclear war or destruction by bioweaponry. The council acknowledged AI misuse is not a new concern in its focus area, having been identified as a top worry repeatedly since the survey’s first edition in April 2025. But it said what is new is an advisory attached to the latest survey urging business leaders to “take immediate and decisive action to mitigate potential long-term brand damage” related to AI, because the technology has “become a clear and present danger to public confidence for many corporations.”

“As AI is rapidly deployed for productivity gains, we have also seen diminishing public trust in the technology, elevating the need for businesses to take measures to protect their brands,” council chair Isabel Casillas Guzman said in a statement. “In this environment, AI use or overuse can quickly damage a company’s standing with customers, investors, or other key stakeholders, making it essential for companies to deploy preventive tactics now.”

The council and the Reputation Risk Index were created by the Washington DC-based public affairs firm Global Situation Room. The survey questions former heads of state, government ministers and senior executives from more than 20 countries across five continents who are invited to participate after establishing credentials in crisis response.

Respondents collectively perceived the technology as showing great promise in creating “organizational efficiency,” while simultaneously “accelerating safety and data concerns, hacks, fraud, straining privacy protections, upending the workforce, and dragging companies into court as lawsuits increasingly link AI products to real-world harm.” Behind misused AI, actions or accusations of putting children at risk of mental, emotional or physical harm also ranked highly, along with infringing individuals’ sensitive information, according to the index. Unethical or illegal behavior used to gain a strategic advantage or profit and poor strategic or operational decisions resulting in reduced financial or public standing rounded out the top five.

The index said its previous edition, released in July, identified supply chain issues, divisive political stances and other factors associated with the war that the Trump administration started in Iran alongside Israel as the leading risk to companies’ reputations. But those surveyed indicated those anxieties had eased as the conflict dragged out, and perhaps despite it remaining unresolved since it was launched in February. “The geopolitical shock … hasn’t gone away, but its first, sharpest reputational blow has faded, and the conflict has slipped out of the top tier [of concerns] even as it grinds on,” Guzman said in a “message from the chair” included in the index.

Guzman issued her message two days after the Trump administration named a new AI czar: Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton. Clayton had previously told federal lawmakers that AI was a “gamechanger” but also posed “a threat.” Donald Trump said in a social media post that Clayton would oversee an entity coordinating “the federal government’s engagement with consumers, public interest groups, religious organizations, critical infrastructure providers, and” AI technology companies.