The AI Era: Year One

With apologies to Taylor Swift, the most important era we’re dealing with is the first year of generative AI and what that means for the future.

“The AI Era: Year One” was the topic of an FGS Global summit last week aimed at determining how to use AI as a force for good while mitigating risks. 

The questions that dominated the discussion six months ago – Can I put confidential info into the tools? What about IP protection? – have largely been solved. We now are dealing with much more challenging problems around how and where to deploy (or not), and what those choices say about who you are and what you do. 

Organizations are going to have to make choices without many guardrails from law or regulation. That raises the importance of thinking through strategy with reputational risk and opportunity firmly in mind.

Start with these three principles in this uncertain time: 

1.   Defining what you’ve done is equally as important as defining what you haven’t done. Stakeholders want clarity on how organizations are building with AI, safely and responsibly, and to also understand what they haven’t leveraged — and what would be needed to change those decisions.

2.   AI carries massive potential reward and risk at once. The starting place for any company’s journey into AI has to be directly connected to your mission, balanced by your purpose and values, so there are guardrails that consistently shape decisions as you progress.

3.   Craft a framework for how you’ll progress to manage risk and take advantage of coming opportunities. How you explain what you decide is likely to be at least as important as what you do decide. And how leaders clearly explain those decisions to stakeholders will be critical to corporate reputation.

If you have any questions about the event or our offerings, please reach out to ai-era@fgsglobal.com or view our capabilities here.

Companies face a host of increasingly interconnected legal and reputational risks. FGS Global’s Rebecca Houck talked to Bloomberg Law about the standard operating principles to help ensure a best-in-class communications response for companies navigating high-profile cross-border disputes:

• Leverage a core global working group. The core team must be small, agile and empowered to make quick decisions that reflect the totality of the organization, while accounting for diverse and often competing stakeholder interests.

• Align legal and communications strategies. A tightly aligned legal and communications strategy will help the company advance its legal goals and corporate reputation and avoid generating new risks.

• Meet audiences where they are. While it is crucial that a company speak with one voice, it must tailor communications for delivery to specific audiences through appropriate channels.

• Secure on-the-ground communications support who can act as the company’s eyes and ears, assess sentiment, monitor local media and share key developments.

• Educate key reporters on foreign legal systems. It may be beneficial for counsel to conduct educational background briefings for key reporters in foreign markets about critical components of an unfamiliar legal system.

• Create a dedicated microsite. This should serve as a global source of truth and clearly present the company’s position to external audiences in one place.

​COP28 provides a wide range of opportunities for businesses to be part of the climate solution. 

As the conference approaches, our subject matter experts reflect on key considerations for several major programmatic areas to help businesses connect their program and media engagement at COP28 to the official agenda. 

We’ll be highlighting one sector each week in the leadup to the conference, starting with Energy insights from FGS Partner Catharine Ransom.

What are the key trends in this space and the most prominent solutions on the table?

All eyes are focused on the oil and gas sector heading into COP28. The UAE’s COP28 Presidency has made it clear it’s working to recruit a broad group of heavy emitters and oil and gas companies to commit to significant emissions reductions.

While no announcement is expected before COP28, a recent gathering of top executives in the UAE raised the stakes on the negotiations. Skepticism is understandably high, and corporate pledges coming out of this process will be subject to significant scrutiny.

What is the view from the U.S.?

A current trend is the move toward non-traditional policy measures to encourage the growth of low carbon, clean energy economies across the globe – as opposed to binding regulatory mechanisms. Recent legislation will deliver billions of dollars of direct funding and tax benefits into the clean energy sector, focused on speeding deployment, building infrastructure and growing domestic manufacturing.

How can corporates engage?

Plan to use this gathering of thought leaders to expand your network and establish or reinforce your company’s role in the clean energy transition. Through a combination of direct engagement with third parties and policymakers, event participation and a clear communications strategy to elevate announcements or progress, companies can quickly have an outsized impact on their reputation. 

Find more details here.