A PR crisis is one of the most daunting things an organization can face. Companies in industries like healthcare, AI and commercial aviation all faced recent public disasters. In general, public trust in companies across the board simply isn’t very strong.
While 90% of business executives believe customers “highly trust” their companies, only 30% of consumers actually do. This disconnect between corporate perception and consumer reality is a problem — but not unsolvable.
While companies once managed their reputations through carefully crafted press releases and strategic media placements, our modern ecosystem demands real-time responsiveness and authentic human connection.
From the recent backlash over healthcare costs and coverage to issues with AI and the side panels simply blowing off of Boeings, organizations across sectors are learning a crucial lesson: Technology might help, but it can’t solve reputation crises alone. The solution lies in combining technological innovation with a deeply human-centered approach.
The healthcare sector’s trust emergency
The healthcare industry’s reputation crisis didn’t emerge overnight. Years of consolidation, opaque pricing and systemic barriers to care created a perfect storm of public frustration. And in early December 2024, UnitedHealthcare’s (UHC) CEO was murdered on a sidewalk in Manhattan. Just before that, BlueCross BlueShield had announced they would limit the length of time anesthesia could be covered during medical procedures (a decision the company reversed one day after the attack).
This wasn’t just a PR disaster for one company — it was an industry-wide lightning rod for broader discussions about healthcare accessibility and corporate accountability. Social media was flooded with insurance coverage horror stories. And though the public largely acknowledged that murder is a condemnable act, Americans are still publicly sharing insurance-related nightmares nearly two months later.
What’s going wrong?
Healthcare companies are failing to monitor and respond to reputation signals before they reach crisis levels. Issuing corporate statements and policy explanations (or walkbacks) isn’t addressing the core issue. People feel unheard and unsupported when navigating their health needs. That’s the issue.
Tech insights
Modern reputation management requires active monitoring, sure, but it also demands action. Social listening and engagement tools like Sprout Social and Brandwatch are invaluable for tracking and collecting social media mentions so your team can engage with stakeholders frequently and across platforms.
Human insights
Look at customer-centric companies getting it right and take a page from their playbook. For instance, mental health-oriented tech company TARA Mind offers a collaborative healthcare access system that provides clear mental health insights for individuals, therapists and prescribers. It also connects patients with licensed practitioners who offer innovative therapies not always covered by other providers. This approach demonstrates how companies can signal commitment to a seamless user experience and high-quality care.
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AI’s trust paradox: The profit vs. public good debate
The AI sector faces mounting scrutiny over at least three key issues:
- Cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
- Environmental impact from massive data centers.
- Ethical challenges in AI development.
OpenAI’s recent announcement it plans to shift from nonprofit to public benefit corporation status has only intensified these concerns — partly because the narrative got away from them.
We can see the effect of this PR disaster in headlines from major outlets, like this one from The New York Times, “How OpenAI Hopes to Sever Its Nonprofit Roots.”
But while legal experts and regular folks are publicly questioning whether benefit corporation status truly ensures mission over profit, Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, was always a public benefit corporation. It’s a popular LLM tool similar to ChatGPT, yet nobody has batted an eye. What gives?
What’s going wrong?
Announcing major, controversial changes without prepping the public often results in losing control of the initial story. Neglecting to engage with customers to provide transparency consistently hardens people’s opinions and limits your opportunities to share your side of the story. It’s like when Wendy’s spontaneously announced it would start using dynamic pricing to sell its fast food. The public and the media slammed it as “Uber-style surge pricing” and Wendy’s never reclaimed the narrative.
Tech insights
AI companies can use media mentions and sentiment analysis tools like Agility and AlphaSense to track public reaction to corporate decisions in real time. This allows for faster course correction when messaging isn’t landing well.
Human insights
Companies that earn public trust prioritize consistent transparency over dramatic announcements. Anthropic has built trust by maintaining clear communication about its vision for the future, safety measures and ethical frameworks. Its leadership engages proactively with stakeholders about potential AI risks and mitigations and demonstrates their commitment to beneficial AI through consistent actions rather than reactive statements.
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The path forward: Operational excellence meets human understanding
Modern reputation management requires a network-like approach. It involves more than just monitoring social media sentiment or occasionally responding to online reviews. Organizations need to operationalize their commitment to human-centric service at every level — something Boeing learned the hard way after several years of incidents, including two fatal crashes, the blowout I mentioned earlier and whistleblowers alleging that questionable parts were used to assemble Boeings.
The aviation giant’s initial and retrospective technical explanations missed what matters most to customers: feeling safe. Forward-thinking companies are now creating feedback loops that connect digital insights directly to operational improvements, using this data to reshape everything from product safety protocols to customer communication strategies.
It’s important to understand that reputation management isn’t just about crisis response. It’s about building systems that naturally generate trust. We can all learn lessons from the healthcare, AI and aviation industry’s missteps.
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Building trust through authentic connection
Ultimately, companies need to understand that trust can’t be built through technology alone. AI and automation are helpful and can provide amazing tools, but genuine trust comes from actual human connections.
Reputation management isn’t just about “putting out fires” anymore. You must be responsive and transparent to build a culture where positive experiences and authentic advocacy happen naturally.
You can only build trust — you can’t force it. Companies that nail that sweet spot between cool tech and real human understanding will always stand out. That kind of authenticity is what makes people stick around.
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