Public companies are facing investor pressure to disclose AI strategy, AI vendor exposure, and AI-related risk in a coordinated, defensible framework. Most haven't. The investor relations frameworks built for traditional technology disclosure are not equipped for the AI-specific questions institutional investors are asking in 2026. Here's the disclosure framework public-company CFOs and IR heads should have ready this quarter.
John W. Hill (1890–1977) — founder of Hill & Knowlton, the firm that defined corporate and crisis PR through the twentieth century. Counsel to U.S. Steel, the American Iron and Steel Institute, and the Tobacco Industry Research Committee.
AI crises move faster than traditional brand crises. This article provides an hour-by-hour AI crisis playbook every brand should have pre-positioned, covering deepfakes, AI-generated hallucinations, and other AI-related incidents. Learn how to detect, verify, and respond within 72 hours, and what infrastructure to have in place before a crisis hits.
Arthur W. Page (1883–1960) — AT&T's first VP of public relations, author of the Page Principles, and the practitioner who put the corporate communications function inside the C-suite. The EPR In Memoriam canonical record.
The Omnicom–IPG merger put an estimated $1.35 billion of annual U.S. federal communications work under one holding company. EPR breaks it down.
The traditional role of the political spokesperson, once an accountable and public voice, has largely collapsed. Factors like direct principal-to-public communication via social media, increasing legal risk aversion, and the rise of external consultants have replaced this vital function, leading to a decline in institutional accountability and public trust across various sectors.
Every Fortune 500 company has a crisis communications plan. Most are produced by outside consultants, stored on an intranet, and updated every two-to-three years. When the crisis hits, the plan is opened under pressure.
Reddit is the second-most-cited consumer source in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity — behind only Wikipedia. No Fortune 500 comms team has a named Reddit lead. The most-quoted source on your brand is the one nobody on your payroll owns.
Microsoft is the canonical positive case study in corporate communications — 51 years across the PC origin, the 1998 antitrust crisis, the Ballmer lost decade, the Nadella reset, and the AI Communications era. EPR's canonical Microsoft hub.
ESG-related reputation crises are among the fastest-moving and most damaging category of corporate communications challenge in 2026. Why ESG crises are uniquely challenging — motivated adversaries, the pre-existing credibility gap, regulatory escalation risk — and how to prepare and respond when greenwashing allegations, supply chain labor stories, and environmental incidents surface.