January 2026
Happy New Year, everyone!
If 2025 felt “fun” – in the way root canals are “fun” – welcome to our Age of Chaos. If you spent last year dodging crises, correcting half-truths, and feeling like you were sprinting on a moving treadmill, well, to quote one of my favorite people, “buckle-up, buttercup,” because 2026 (and beyond) will present challenges for communicators and companies’ bottom lines.
In this new environment, reputation risk is being reshaped by misinformation, AI, and fragmented audiences – forcing organizations to prepare, verify, and respond at internet speed.
We’re no longer at the point where misinformation is just a side-show… it is the show. It is the top risk all organizations face, mainly because misinformation, half-truths, and out-of-context points move faster than the speed of truth. As Jonathan Swift said, “Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it.” powered by digital platforms with few (if any) fact-checks or guardrails left to rein in specious claims. Misinformation threatens share prices, can further politicize an already highly charged environment, and derail an organization’s core mission.
Probably the most talked about high-profile incident of 2025 was the “Kiss-cam” scandal involving Astronomer CEO Andy Byron caught at a concert canoodling with someone who was not his wife. Byron quickly issued a statement about the incident, which went viral. Except there was one small problem. The statement was fake. It took hours for Astronomer to respond, issuing an “investigation” statement a day later and a more comprehensive response two days later.
Again, misinformation moves faster than truth.
At Jackson Spalding, we’ve been on the leading edge of spotting and battling these misinformation trends. We put the following strategies into practice nearly daily and advise clients to consider:
You need tools and people who can spot misinformation at “internet speed.” If something goes viral at 2 a.m., you can’t wait for the morning meeting. That’s how conspiracy theories about your CEO end up trending next to videos of raccoons stealing pizza.
I cannot stress the “people” part of this enough. There are great monitoring and analytics tools available (we created JS Radar ®), but our strength is having reputation experts put issues in context and guide next steps.
We call it “fact-fighting,” and it isn’t just correcting the record; it’s building credibility and pre-positioning the truth long before misinformation hits. It’s never been easier to torpedo a company with half-truths and lies. Fact-fighting needs to become the biggest part of corporate reputation management, yet too many companies are reactive, assuming the truth will surface on its own.
AI videos are fun until they aren’t. Think about what happens when a CEO announces a merger or acquisition through corporate video. They immediately impact markets, with extensive repercussions. But what if that video is fake? By the time you finish reading that sentence, share prices will be down 10% and spiraling.
Teams need the ability to quickly validate what’s real and what’s synthetic – visuals, quotes, data, everything. Photoshop is quaint now – today’s deepfakes are 4K with flawless voice clones. If you can’t verify fast, you can’t act fast.
Three foundational steps to reputation protection.
Jackson Spalding’s Reputation and Issues Management and Creative teams can help protect your brand in this new age. There are three foundational steps:
This might be more of a hot take than a trend, but “Corporate Affairs” is having an identity crisis. I’m not sure the term works or resonates any more.
Whatever you want to call it, smart companies are growing this function, but those leading it need new knowledge, new flexibility and better awareness of the interplay between functions.
A great communications team without lawyers can get you sued. A legal department without communicators can get you cancelled. Like all the other functions, you need them at the same table; understanding one is not more important than the other.
Employees see it first, talk about it first (with each other and in the community), and can either be your best storytellers or your major disruptors. If you don’t treat them like priority stakeholders, you are handicapping the other functions and your bottom line. Don’t skimp on internal communications or employee engagement.
Corporate Affairs (no matter the name) must have a seat at the C-suite table. More than any other function, Corporate Affairs has the daily pulse of the organization from multiple perspectives and should be at the CEO’s right hand.
Issues management is no longer a side job for your public or media relations lead. It must be “always on.” You need partners with hybrid skills: the usual storytelling and reactive media relations, but also data-savvy (sentiment analysis, AI monitoring), strategic foresight, stakeholder mapping, and reputation risk forecasting.
Traditional media are losing dominance as people increasingly consume news from diverse, niche, or non-traditional channels. Your next crisis may spark in a subreddit, a group chat, or a podcast rant.
This is a different landscape for most organizations, requiring agility, speed, and platform-savviness.
In the Age of Chaos, truth moves slowly, rumors move quickly, and only organizations that prepare, verify, and adapt at internet speed will keep their reputations and bottom lines intact. With the right preparation and partners, we can handle the rollercoaster that is likely to be 2026.
Connect with our Reputation and Issues Management team to pressure-test your plan, strengthen your detection capabilities, and stay ahead of the next false narrative.
