Why managing a brand's reputation is more complex than ever in the age of AI

Business Insider's Lara O'Reilly takes a pulse check of roundtable attendees.

Victoria Baud for BI

It's no secret that many unofficial channels — like Reddit threads or customers posting on TikTok — shape a brand's reputation. Now, marketers are adding AI to that list of influencers."The discovery of the brands and products is starting to happen through the prompts and the agents," Oshiya Savur, CMO of e.l.f. Brands, said during Business Insider's "New Rules of Reputation" roundtable held during the 2026 Cannes Lions Festival, and presented by Omnicom Public Relations.The roundtable included communications and marketing leaders from Commonwealth Fusion Systems, FedEx, Genius, HubSpot, Johnson & Johnson, the NBA, Pacsun, Pearson, SharkNinja, Stanley 1913, Target, Understood, and Wikimedia Foundation.Gathered in a tight circle of chairs, several leaders said that AI was forcing them to rethink how they present their brands digitally.HubSpot CMO Kipp Bodnar said that attracting the attention of AI platforms means brands must have a much broader online presence."These AI engines are looking for consensus across the web versus traditional page rank and authority," he said. "So earned media hits, how you show up on rating and review sites and other affiliate sites, matter a ton more."Simply having articles on your own webpage won't cut it any longer, he added.