AI’s rapid integration into business and government brings unprecedented opportunities, but also complex challenges. Algorithms now influence hiring, healthcare, public safety, and even the legislative process. The very qualities that make AI powerful—its ability to process vast amounts of data, learn patterns, and automate decisions—also raise concerns about transparency, accountability, and fairness.

​

In 2024, researchers at Bordeaux University Hospital published the results of a study revealing that a widely used large language model assigned significantly lower triage severity scores to female patients compared to male patients with identical clinical profiles. The algorithm wasn’t malicious — it was simply trained on years of biased data.

​

Public Affairs and communication professionals now face a shift as profound as the technology itself. Their role is no longer limited to protecting reputations, convey the organization’s views on a given policy, or securing stakeholder buy-in — they are being pulled into the heart of ethical and strategic decision-making. Not because it’s fashionable, but because no one else is asking the right questions loudly enough.

​

From Messaging to Meaning

Public Affairs teams are often the first to spot reputational risks — but with AI, they must look deeper: who was excluded from the data that trained the tool, and who stands to benefit — or be harmed — by this deployment? Is the organization ready to explain how its AI works — and why it failed, if it does? These aren’t technical questions. They are governance ones. And they require professionals who understand the interplay between policy, perception, and public interest.

​

Ethics Can’t Be Outsourced

It’s easy to write an AI ethics statement. It’s much harder to turn that statement into internal alignment, policy advocacy, or crisis response when things go wrong. Transparency in AI is often an illusion: many systems are built as “black boxes,” unintelligible even to their creators.

​

Yet the demand for trust is real. Regulators, civil society, and citizens are asking harder questions — and they won’t be satisfied with classic PR. What they want is clarity, accountability, and an honest recognition that AI mistakes can’t be swept under the rug. That’s where Public Affairs comes in: not as moral cheerleaders, but as translators of risk, tension, and responsibility across domains.

​

The Coming Storm

AI regulation is accelerating — from the EU’s AI Act to draft frameworks in the US, Latin America, and Asia. But most companies are still in catch-up mode. Ethics is often siloed in legal or compliance teams, and communication is treated as an afterthought — or worse, as a shield.

​

This is a mistake. The most forward-thinking organizations are creating cross-functional teams where public affairs, legal, tech, and HR sit at the same table. They’re doing impact assessments, involving stakeholders early, and preparing for the possibility that things might go wrong — publicly.

​

A Different Kind of Leadership

Let’s be honest: it’s uncomfortable to slow things down when everyone is chasing innovation. But sometimes, asking “Should we?” instead of “Can we?” is the most radical act of leadership. AI will not wait for us to get ready. It will continue to evolve — fast, unevenly, and sometimes invisibly. That’s why we need communicators and strategists who aren’t afraid to challenge the hype, question the defaults, and advocate for the human consequences of technical decisions.

​

Because when the headlines hit, when trust erodes, when systems fail — someone will be in the hot seat. Better that it’s someone who saw it coming.