When AI is the crisis: reputation and credibility when the machines make the mistake

I opened my session at the PWorld Crisis Communications Bootcamp in Toronto with a disclosure. I told the room I use AI in my work and I showed a slide on how I used and verified the information.

Then I asked two questions.

How do you feel right now about my presentation?

Does my disclosure impact how you will receive my insights?

The reaction was mixed. Some people said my disclosure improved their trust. Others said it made them immediately skeptical. Either way, I knew the pressure to not sound like an LLM had just gone way up.

It was a deliberate point, and one that is increasingly impacting trust and reputation. What happens when your audiences learn AI was involved in a decision, a message, a recommendation or a mistake?

Disclosure matters and it matters more when something goes wrong.

A familiar scenario

A board gets an update. The team presents AI-assisted market analysis that projects a significant drop in demand. The approved response involves cuts and layoffs.

Weeks later, on an earnings call, someone asks a basic question about the assumptions behind the forecast. The answers are hard to find. After digging around, the team discovers the AI tool produced incorrect information, including two reports that didn’t exist.

The first responses are predictable.

• Experimental tool
• Third-party technology
• We are reviewing the system

This scenario is fiction, but it points to a pattern we’re seeing in crisis response related to AI.

The early cyber years are a warning

In the early years of major cyber incidents, many organizations responded similarly. Sophisticated attack, bad actor, vendor issue, or we take this seriously. The organization positioned itself as the victim, blamed the technology, or the vendors and avoided accountability.

The result was a loss in trust, and eventually regulations around disclosure and communications.

We’re seeing this with early AI incidents or mistakes. Blame the tool. Downplay the impact. We’re abandoning the basic principles of crisis communications: own it, acknowledge I and fix it..

Trust is already uncertain

Most organizations are moving fast on AI adoption. Governance not so much. In fact, the best way to put people to sleep is to start talking AI governance. I’ve started leaning into verification to get people to pay attention.

But while we’re all using AI more, trust is declining. A recent KPMG report indicates most people use AI regularly (66%), but trust is much lower (46%) and there is growing support for regulation (70%). The same report shows that 66% of respondents rely on AI output without evaluating accuracy, even while 56% admit they have made mistakes at work because of AI.

Inside organizations, most leaders say ethical AI matters. Most teams are using AI. And yet the 2025 CPRS State of PR in Canada study showed less than a third of communications and public relations professionals reported having a well-established AI policy.

What makes it more interesting is that another recent academic study indicated that prior disclosure on AI use reduces trust, but exposure, being found to have used AI after the fact has an even greater impact on trust.

I feel the disclosure dilemma is relatively short lived. As AI becomes more prevalent, disclosure will be expected. Those who disclose now may experience a slight dip in in trust but will rebound quickly and avoid the larger drops that come with being found out.

But that’s not what’s happening today. Organizations avoid disclosure until they are forced into it and then it comes with ‘disappointment’ in the technology and a lack of acknowledgement of the impact. Quick tip – your AI chatbot should be as locked down and accountable as your human spokespeople. 

At the end of the day, do you want disclosure to happen on your terms or through screenshots, speculation and mockery.

AI crisis communications is still crisis communications.

There’s no secret to AI crisis communications. Here is the framework I shared in Toronto.

Identify it. Map out where AI is being used. Not just the final output. Look at prompts, datasets, tools, review steps and any decisions influenced by the output.

Assess it. Assess impact before you draft language. What changed because of the AI output? Who was impacted? What decisions were shaped? What public-facing content, financial analysis, safety guidance, or policy decisions were influenced?

Own it. Accountability sits with the organization. “The tool did it” is not good enough. “We are investigating” is not a substitute for responsibility. Ownership means clear responsibility for the decision and the next steps.

Fix it. Correct the output and deal with the consequences of acting on it. If AI influenced layoffs, pricing, safety guidance, or services, the fix must address those consequences. And if you’re ‘standing by the decision’, you’d better have credible data to back that up.

Prevent it. Build verification and escalation into your workflow. Decide who signs off, when AI use is disclosed, and how. Practice an AI crisis scenario under time pressure, the same way many organizations now practice cyber simulations.

In almost every AI incident I see discussed, the same friction points show up:

• AI is used across the organization often without leadership visibility. IBM reports that close to a quarter of Canadian employees using AI at work are doing it on non-enterprise tools. This means your company information is likely sitting in the free version of ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
• Verification is treated as optional and everyone assumes someone else has done it
• Legal, comms and IT are all talking about it, but there’s no shared plan, and likely no risk mapping of AI use across all functions.
• Leaders default to vendor language, or anthropomorphize the tool saying, ‘it surprised me’ or ‘it let me down’, eroding accountability.

If you are a CEO, a board member or the head of communications, you need to understand where AI is being used, what verification exists and who owns what. Here are five questions to get you started:

1. Where is AI being used in your organization?
   Can you name the functions where AI is influencing public-facing content, analysis, or decisions?
   
2. What verification do you have in place?
   What guardrails exist before AI-assisted output can shape public communication, financial analysis, safety guidance or policy decisions?
   
3. Who is accountable if AI gets it wrong?
   Hint: it is not your vendor.
   
4. What is your policy on disclosure?
   When do you proactively disclose AI use?
   
5. Have you practiced an AI crisis scenario?
   Have you run an AI-specific crisis simulation that tests verification, escalation, and messaging under time pressure?

If you can’t answer these quickly, you’re likely at risk. The point is to see it clearly and take steps to reduce that risk and be ready when, not if, the machines make a mistake.

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Why reputation is one of your most valuable (and fragile) assets

Brand is the promise an organization makes to its audiences. Reputation is how well an organization keeps that promise. 

We say this to clients all the time.  But there’s a third concept, the most important of all, that every organization wants but not all of them have: Trust. 

Trust is what an organization earns (or loses) as a result of that promise and how well it’s kept.  

How do these three concepts interact?  

We think of trust as a bridge between brand and reputation. It’s built slowly over many years, even decades, through consistency, quality, and earned reputation. When what an organization promises and what it delivers are aligned, the bridge holds. But what takes years to build can collapse in a matter of seconds.  

And yet, many organizations still rely on instinct rather than data to tell them whether that bridge is holding. 

How trust is actually built (and why it’s so hard to do)

Every organization wants to be a trusted brand. They invest in building their brand and managing their reputation, assuming that if those two things are strong, trust will naturally follow. But it doesn’t work quite like that.  

Brand and reputation create the conditions for trust, but they don’t guarantee it. Brand is something you build and reputation is something you manage; but trust, that is something your audience decides. 

You can’t control trust directly, but that doesn’t mean you can afford to ignore how it is built or lost. To understand why, it helps to think about how trust forms at the most human level, and why organizations can’t replicate it the same way. 

With a person, trust is all about the relationship. Your interactions are personal, contextual, and forgiving: a trusted friend can have a bad day without significant consequences. In a brand context, whether it’s a company, public institution, government, or platform, external people rarely have access to decision makers in an organization. When intent isn’t visible, trust gets built through signals: what organizations say, how they act, policies, other people’s experiences, press coverage, delivery on their brand promise, and even who endorses them can all have impact. 

This is the challenge: trust has to be earned and built over time. And because institutional trust is built on foundations an organization can’t fully control, everything can be done correctly and you’re still one bad weekend away from watching that bridge collapse.  

Reputation is more fragile than most brands assume

Reputation can rupture in a split second. Some audiences are more forgiving than others, but history has taught us that pressure builds quietly, until a single decision, message, video or event undoes years of bridge-building.  

Reputation rupture event: a triggering moment that occurs when accumulated pressure on an organization’s credibility is suddenly exposed. In other words, when the bridge collapses. 

Today, these events can spread in seconds thanks to screenshots, reposts, X messages, Reddit communities, and un-trackable text messages. Social media has given audiences a plethora of platforms, and the motivation to speak up — sometimes anonymously, sometimes personally — faster than any communications team can respond. This turns into a bigger risk if that person has a considerable following of their own. 

This is why monitoring and tracking brand reputation and online presence is fundamental. And now, in an AI-driven environment, that job is more urgent and complex. This is not just social media listening or sentiment tracking. Most brands are measuring what’s loud, while pressure points are building tension over time. These pressure points are embedded across operations, employee experience, stakeholder trust and public perception, which are areas traditional monitoring usually overlooks. 

The warning signs are often subtle. Repeated complaints not escalated or employee reviews not addressed can cause small gaps between the brand promise and how well it’s maintained. Moments might seem isolated but point to something deeper. When tracked collectively, these signals begin to reveal patterns of declining confidence and legitimacy, long before they show up in traditional metrics.    

Reputation rupture events rarely come out of nowhere. In most cases, the pressure was visible, but wasn’t recognized. This is becoming a more prominent risk in an AI-driven world, with decisions amplified and interpreted at scale.  

In February 2026, two AI companies faced the same decision. One said no, one said yes. Both decisions were rooted in existing tensions around transparency, control and trust. The aftermath of those two events was a reputation rupture event that played out in real time. 

Chat, why are they losing so many users? — OpenAI’s reputation rupture event

In early March 2026, the Pentagon labeled Anthropic “a supply chain risk, effective immediately¹” — a label usually reserved for US adversaries, never before applied to a US company² . The designation was blocked by a US judge in March 2026, then reinstated on appeal in April³. Anthropic is currently excluded from Department of War⁴ contracts while the litigation continues. They also designated Claude “a national security risk⁵” after Anthropic refused to remove restrictions on two specific uses: mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. The Department of War demanded the right to use Claude “for all lawful purposes⁶” without exception.
The US government making that designation should have been enough to cause a reputation rupture event and inflict massive damage to Anthropic’s reputation … but it wasn’t.  

The reason? Anthropic’s response to these requests. On February 26^th, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a statement pushing back on the DOW’s requests. Anthropic stood by their principles and didn’t budge. Many users online praised this decision, but the story wasn’t over. 

Hours later, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman published on X that his company had finalized a deal with the DOD to deploy models in the DOD’s classified network. That single message ignited a rupture event: 

1. ChatGPT uninstalls jumped 295%⁷ within 24 hours.  

2. One-star app reviews surged 775%⁸ the same day. 

3. A Reddit post urging ChatGPT cancellation hit 30,000 upvotes⁹ before the weekend ended. 

4. The QuitGPT movement gathered over 4 million¹⁰ digital participants and organized a physical protest outside OpenAI’s San Francisco HQ. 

5. Claude topped the App store’s download¹¹ charts. 

Same DOD contract, same weekend, opposite decisions, completely different trust outcomes. And yes, after the fact, OpenAI said that they were rushed, and that they were working on the terms and conditions, that the deal “looked opportunistic and sloppy”. But the reputation damage was done: trust was broken.  

We used our proprietary brand health measurement tool, ChangeMakers RepScore^© to measure the impact in real time. Our Data Intelligence team identified a 34.3 point drop¹² from OpenAI’s baseline within a single day. This volume of movement reflects how quickly reputation can rupture when expectations fall out of alignment. It appears sudden, but it’s usually the result of underlying pressures reaching a tipping point.  

Uninstalls, reviews, and protest movements are lagging indicators: they tell you the bridge already collapsed. The backlash caused OpenAI to subsequently amend the deal to add surveillance restrictions, which is the real evidence: the reputation rupture event forced a course correction, proving the trust damage was real enough to change corporate behaviour. 

The question for any organization is: do you have a way to predict and measure the damage in real time, and do you have a baseline to measure it against? 

What keeps the bridge standing

Most organizations treat trust as a sentiment; something they feel is in good shape until suddenly it isn’t. But the organizations that protect it effectively aren’t reacting to crises; they’re tracking the pressure points to avoid a brand reputation collapse.  

Understanding how your reputation is perceived (and where the gaps between your promise and your audience’s experience might be growing) is what keeps the bridge standing. These gaps are early indicators of trust erosion that can impact everything from customer behaviour to employee retention. It’s why we built the Reputation Score^©: to give organizations a measurable read on the health of their brand reputation before it becomes a crisis, grounded in verifiable and relevant data points.  

When reputation is measured consistently, it becomes something brands can actively track. Knowing your Reputation Score^© helps you respond to risk with intention instead of reacting under pressure, and spot opportunities to build trust proactively. 

A brand promise has little value if audiences do not trust it.  

In a world where a single decision can destroy years of earned reputation, treating trust as a passive outcome is no longer a strategy any organization can afford. 

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Why reputation is one of your most valuable (and fragile) assets

Brand is the promise an organization makes to its audiences. Reputation is how well an organization keeps that promise. 

We say this to clients all the time.  But there’s a third concept, the most important of all, that every organization wants but not all of them have: Trust. 

Trust is what an organization earns (or loses) as a result of that promise and how well it’s kept.  

How do these three concepts interact?  

We think of trust as a bridge between brand and reputation. It’s built slowly over many years, even decades, through consistency, quality, and earned reputation. When what an organization promises and what it delivers are aligned, the bridge holds. But what takes years to build can collapse in a matter of seconds.  

And yet, many organizations still rely on instinct rather than data to tell them whether that bridge is holding. 

How trust is actually built (and why it’s so hard to do)

Every organization wants to be a trusted brand. They invest in building their brand and managing their reputation, assuming that if those two things are strong, trust will naturally follow. But it doesn’t work quite like that.  

Brand and reputation create the conditions for trust, but they don’t guarantee it. Brand is something you build and reputation is something you manage; but trust, that is something your audience decides. 

You can’t control trust directly, but that doesn’t mean you can afford to ignore how it is built or lost. To understand why, it helps to think about how trust forms at the most human level, and why organizations can’t replicate it the same way. 

With a person, trust is all about the relationship. Your interactions are personal, contextual, and forgiving: a trusted friend can have a bad day without significant consequences. In a brand context, whether it’s a company, public institution, government, or platform, external people rarely have access to decision makers in an organization. When intent isn’t visible, trust gets built through signals: what organizations say, how they act, policies, other people’s experiences, press coverage, delivery on their brand promise, and even who endorses them can all have impact. 

This is the challenge: trust has to be earned and built over time. And because institutional trust is built on foundations an organization can’t fully control, everything can be done correctly and you’re still one bad weekend away from watching that bridge collapse.  

Reputation is more fragile than most brands assume

Reputation can rupture in a split second. Some audiences are more forgiving than others, but history has taught us that pressure builds quietly, until a single decision, message, video or event undoes years of bridge-building.  

Reputation rupture event: a triggering moment that occurs when accumulated pressure on an organization’s credibility is suddenly exposed. In other words, when the bridge collapses. 

Today, these events can spread in seconds thanks to screenshots, reposts, X messages, Reddit communities, and un-trackable text messages. Social media has given audiences a plethora of platforms, and the motivation to speak up — sometimes anonymously, sometimes personally — faster than any communications team can respond. This turns into a bigger risk if that person has a considerable following of their own. 

This is why monitoring and tracking brand reputation and online presence is fundamental. And now, in an AI-driven environment, that job is more urgent and complex. This is not just social media listening or sentiment tracking. Most brands are measuring what’s loud, while pressure points are building tension over time. These pressure points are embedded across operations, employee experience, stakeholder trust and public perception, which are areas traditional monitoring usually overlooks. 

The warning signs are often subtle. Repeated complaints not escalated or employee reviews not addressed can cause small gaps between the brand promise and how well it’s maintained. Moments might seem isolated but point to something deeper. When tracked collectively, these signals begin to reveal patterns of declining confidence and legitimacy, long before they show up in traditional metrics.    

Reputation rupture events rarely come out of nowhere. In most cases, the pressure was visible, but wasn’t recognized. This is becoming a more prominent risk in an AI-driven world, with decisions amplified and interpreted at scale.  

In February 2026, two AI companies faced the same decision. One said no, one said yes. Both decisions were rooted in existing tensions around transparency, control and trust. The aftermath of those two events was a reputation rupture event that played out in real time. 

Chat, why are they losing so many users? — OpenAI’s reputation rupture event

In early March 2026, the Pentagon labeled Anthropic “a supply chain risk, effective immediately¹” — a label usually reserved for US adversaries, never before applied to a US company² . The designation was blocked by a US judge in March 2026, then reinstated on appeal in April³. Anthropic is currently excluded from Department of War⁴ contracts while the litigation continues. They also designated Claude “a national security risk⁵” after Anthropic refused to remove restrictions on two specific uses: mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. The Department of War demanded the right to use Claude “for all lawful purposes⁶” without exception.
The US government making that designation should have been enough to cause a reputation rupture event and inflict massive damage to Anthropic’s reputation … but it wasn’t.  

The reason? Anthropic’s response to these requests. On February 26^th, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a statement pushing back on the DOW’s requests. Anthropic stood by their principles and didn’t budge. Many users online praised this decision, but the story wasn’t over. 

Hours later, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman published on X that his company had finalized a deal with the DOD to deploy models in the DOD’s classified network. That single message ignited a rupture event: 

1. ChatGPT uninstalls jumped 295%⁷ within 24 hours.  

2. One-star app reviews surged 775%⁸ the same day. 

3. A Reddit post urging ChatGPT cancellation hit 30,000 upvotes⁹ before the weekend ended. 

4. The QuitGPT movement gathered over 4 million¹⁰ digital participants and organized a physical protest outside OpenAI’s San Francisco HQ. 

5. Claude topped the App store’s download¹¹ charts. 

Same DOD contract, same weekend, opposite decisions, completely different trust outcomes. And yes, after the fact, OpenAI said that they were rushed, and that they were working on the terms and conditions, that the deal “looked opportunistic and sloppy”. But the reputation damage was done: trust was broken.  

We used our proprietary brand health measurement tool, ChangeMakers RepScore™ to measure the impact in real time. Our Data Intelligence team identified a 34.3 point drop¹² from OpenAI’s baseline within a single day. This volume of movement reflects how quickly reputation can rupture when expectations fall out of alignment. It appears sudden, but it’s usually the result of underlying pressures reaching a tipping point.  

Uninstalls, reviews, and protest movements are lagging indicators: they tell you the bridge already collapsed. The backlash caused OpenAI to subsequently amend the deal to add surveillance restrictions, which is the real evidence: the reputation rupture event forced a course correction, proving the trust damage was real enough to change corporate behaviour. 

The question for any organization is: do you have a way to predict and measure the damage in real time, and do you have a baseline to measure it against? 

What keeps the bridge standing

Most organizations treat trust as a sentiment; something they feel is in good shape until suddenly it isn’t. But the organizations that protect it effectively aren’t reacting to crises; they’re tracking the pressure points to avoid a brand reputation collapse.  

Understanding how your reputation is perceived (and where the gaps between your promise and your audience’s experience might be growing) is what keeps the bridge standing. These gaps are early indicators of trust erosion that can impact everything from customer behaviour to employee retention. It’s why we built RepScore™: to give organizations a measurable read on the health of their brand reputation before it becomes a crisis, grounded in verifiable and relevant data points.  

When reputation is measured consistently, it becomes something brands can actively track. Knowing your reputation score helps you respond to risk with intention instead of reacting under pressure, and spot opportunities to build trust proactively. 

A brand promise has little value if audiences do not trust it.  

In a world where a single decision can destroy years of earned reputation, treating trust as a passive outcome is no longer a strategy any organization can afford. 

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ChangeMakers Names Stefan Moores as Chief Executive Officer  

Moores’ appointment signals commitment to innovation, evolution and delivery on client outcomes

ChangeMakers, one of North America’s leading independent strategy and communications firms, announced Stefan Moores as Chief Executive Officer. The appointment reflects the firm’s ongoing evolution to an integrated, AI-native consultancy at the intersection of change, markets, and people.  

“Stefan has the business acumen, entrepreneurial spirit and integrity that has earned him the trust of his team. We are energized by his leadership thus far and look forward to all that ChangeMakers will accomplish together under his guidance,” said Dale Tingley, Co-Managing Partner of the Canadian Business Growth Fund (CBGF) and Chair of the Board. “Under his leadership, ChangeMakers is well positioned to make waves in today’s evolving business market.” 

“Our aspiration is simple: make ChangeMakers the most trusted partner for organizations and leaders who seek to achieve measurable business outcomes. Whether it’s tangible results like sales or revenue, or the harder to quantify cultural and reputational measures, communications is the engine that powers progress,” said Moores. “We will be on the cutting edge of AI, technology and innovation while keeping our focus on the human-centered relationships that build trust, drive results, and enhance reputation. That’s how we will deliver value every day.” 

Moores’ vision for the company centers around the drive to positively impact every client’s business, from strategic planning through organizational change management and market execution. Whether navigating executive leadership changes and cultural challenges, or driving awareness and sales, ChangeMakers is the strategic partner that helps leaders execute well and move confidently. 

“Whether change is the chosen path, or takes our clients by surprise, our role at ChangeMakers is to turn it into a strategic advantage,” said Moores. “We see massive opportunity in leveraging our expertise in crisis and risk management, organizational change management, public relations, marketing and social impact to change the way companies think about, execute and capitalize on change. We do that by applying all our different crafts with technology and human expertise to move with confidence.” 

Moores is uniquely positioned to take ChangeMakers into the future. He brings decades of experience in business management, human resources, finance, investment and operations at leading management consulting, communications and public affairs firms across Canada and the U.S. Most recently, Moores served as Chief Operating Officer for ChangeMakers. He also previously served as President of Argyle and co-founder of The Castlemain Group. Moores holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, an MSC in International Politics, Economics and Business from The London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BA in Economics from Queen’s University. 

“The next era of communications belongs to the doers — those who don’t ask if change can or will happen, but how to make it work. That’s the mindset we’re building at ChangeMakers,” added Moores.  

ChangeMakers’ independence and cross-sector expertise allow it to deliver outcomes—not just activity—for the C-suite, senior leadership and the teams they lead. With more than 400 professionals across 10 North American offices, the firm offers end-to-end, sector-shaped solutions that help clients thrive through disruption and emerge stronger. 

Stop Surviving Change. Start Operating Within It.

There was a time when change felt episodic — a system implementation, a reorganization, a strategic shift — distinct enough that organizations could prepare, execute, stabilize, and return to normal. 

That time is gone and never coming back.

Today, change is a constant and multi-dimensional. Technology evolves, markets shift, leadership turns over, regulations move, and strategic priorities adjust — often all at once. By the time one initiative begins to settle, another is already competing for attention and resources. 

In this environment, performance depends on more than managing individual initiatives well. Organizations have to rethink how their people understand change, make decisions, and execute under pressure. Volatility isn’t temporary anymore. So if change is constant, your operating model also has to reflect that new reality.

Five Change Realities 

Here are five truths every organization must accept:  

1. Change is Unavoidable and Must Be Normalized

Change can no longer be treated as a rare occurrence that surprises the team and eventually passes. Teams need to anticipate change as part of how they operate.  This means shifting the mindset from “we’re going through change” to “this is how we do business.” Leaders must not only communicate that expectation clearly and consistently – but create the environment of trust and belonging that enables people to embrace change for what it is.  

Competitive advantage today depends less on executing a single change event well and more on sustaining momentum across multiple, overlapping initiatives. When teams understand that adaptation is part of the job, they stop bracing for disruption and start operating within it. 

2. Change is a Team Sport 

Employees should understand how change management works. Most of the reactions we see during change are predictable: resistance, fatigue, confusion, or slipping back into old habits. When people understand those patterns, they stop personalizing the disruption and start navigating it more intentionally. Instead of reacting impulsively, they can respond strategically. The more your organization understands change management fundamentals, the less disruptive change actually becomes. 

3. Agility is the Ultimate Goal  

Agility is a buzzword that shows up in frameworks and tools, but its real impact comes from how people think. Resilience is built when teams test assumptions, ask better questions, incorporate feedback, and adjust course when needed. In today’s environment, complete information is rarely available before action is required. Strong organizations are able to make thoughtful decisions anyway and continue moving forward without losing focus on outcomes. Agile minds adapt quickly and deliberately. 

4. Leadership Alignment is Essential 

People know when senior leaders are aligned, and when they are not. The moment a crack appears, employees notice, and it creates space to question, delay, or ignore the change altogether. 

Leaders must agree on the direction, commit to championing the change, and reinforce it consistently as a team. If leaders send mixed signals, operate in silos, or quietly disagree, the organization will feel it immediately. Alignment isn’t a one-time conversation. It requires visible commitment and the willingness to hold one another accountable. When leadership is unified, change gains traction. When it isn’t, even strong strategies stall. 

5. Failure is Not an Option 

With so many priorities shifting at once, leaders can’t afford to treat change management as optional or informal. You can’t wing it with a well-written email and expect alignment to follow. Today’s environment requires an enterprise-level change structure that provides clarity, accountability, and consistency across initiatives. Leadership behavior, decision-making, incentives, and performance expectations all need to reinforce the direction of the change. When that structure is in place, execution holds and momentum builds. Without it, even strong strategies lose traction.

The Results of Getting This Right 

When organizations normalize change, build change capability across the business, and reinforce adaptability through their systems, performance becomes steadier, even in volatile conditions. Resistance decreases, adoption speeds, execution holds, and initiatives deliver the value they were designed to produce. That consistency protects ROI and strengthens confidence at every level of the organization. 

At ChangeMakers, we recognize that change management and agility are not separate disciplines, but integrated capabilities that determine whether strategy performs under pressure. In an environment where change is constant, organizations that build this capability don’t just manage disruption — they operate effectively within it. 

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The Risk That’s Invisible – Until It’s Costly 

Too often, organizational change is treated like a project to be managed — rolled out through frameworks, timelines, and checklists, even when it’s labeled “agile.” What gets missed is that change isn’t just an initiative to execute; it’s a source of risk to be actively monitored. Because change is risk.

That lesson is clear in Boeing’s story. Its challenges didn’t begin with a single failure, they began with a shift.

After Boeing’s merger with McDonnell Douglas, the company gradually moved from an engineering-led culture to one driven by finance culture. Leadership drifted farther from frontline teams, internal dissent was discouraged, and critical warnings were treated as obstacles rather than signals. What looked like operational efficiency on paper quietly degraded decision quality, accountability, and trust — until the organization was forced into costly correction by crisis under public and regulatory scrutiny.  

The risk wasn’t invisible because it didn’t exist; it was invisible because no one was actively looking for it.

This is how change risk most often manifests. Not as an instant crisis or failure — but as subtle strain inside the system. Before performance metrics register a decline, decisions slow, workarounds proliferate, and managers struggle to translate shifting priorities. These signals are easy to rationalize in isolation, but together, they reveal that unorganized change is negatively reshaping the system, posing innumerable risks to strategy and value.  

The solution? Embedding change management within enterprise risk management.  

Unlike change management, risk management is inherently adaptive. It’s a continuous, iterative process embedded in daily activities, using sprints to constantly identify, assess, and mitigate risks. It considers financial performance, legal risks, business operations and interruptions, people and culture, and reputation.  

The Risk Most Dashboards Don’t Capture

Most organizations are disciplined about tracking financial, legal, and operational risk. These risks are visible, measurable, and embedded in dashboards and governance processes. Change risk behaves differently. It emerges through employee, partner, and customer behavior, interpretation, and decision-making—areas that are harder to quantify because they require deliberate intention. But they are no less consequential.  

Organizations experiencing change-related decline rarely notice it at the starting point. We’d argue that in today’s environment, most organizations are already in a state of decline driven by disorganized change, with systems absorbing the strain. Small degradations in clarity, alignment, and decision quality are normalized. The organization adapts to friction rather than correcting it.  

This is organizational drift: the slow, often unnoticed, gradual shift of a company’s practices, culture, or goals away from its intended path, values, or formal procedures—driven by internal shortcuts or external pressures such as competition and technology.  

And it is extremely costly – to financials, people, operations and reputation – if not recognized and addressed early and with urgency.   

Diagnosing and Reversing Organizational Drift

Leaders often sense that something is off before they can point to a specific failure — but by then, the drift is already underway. Because it develops gradually, leaders often hear organizational drift before they see it in metrics. It comes in the form of:

• “We’re not sure what to prioritize right now.”
• “This process keeps changing – what is the correct way now?”
• “I don’t understand why we’re doing this.”
• “Our team is overextended.”
• “Managers don’t have an answer either.”
• “No one told us about this.”

These statements signal that people are spending more time trying to understand what’s happening than getting work done. When the same questions, frustrations, or workarounds keep coming up, it’s a sign the organization needs to recalibrate before those issues become entrenched. This is where our change experts help leaders diagnose what’s happening beneath the surface and realign the organization before value erosion takes hold.

Turning Change Risk into Agility  

Early attention to change risk strengthens both resilience and agility. Leaders who monitor how change is landing across the organization maintain alignment between intent and experience, even in periods of disruption. Organizations must build their internal capacity to respond, change, and move without losing coherence; this is where true agility lives.

The question leaders must ask is whether they have adequate visibility into how change is affecting their organization—and whether they are prepared to act on what they discover. In ideal circumstances, this visibility is built into the change campaign before it starts. However, it’s never too late to get a pulse on how internal and external changes are impacting your organization. You just have to know where to look.

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ChangeMakers Names Stefan Moores as Chief Executive Officer  

Moores’ appointment signals commitment to innovation, evolution and delivery on client outcomes

ChangeMakers, one of North America’s leading independent strategy and communications firms, announced Stefan Moores as Chief Executive Officer. The appointment reflects the firm’s ongoing evolution to an integrated, AI-native consultancy at the intersection of change, markets, and people.  

“Stefan has the business acumen, entrepreneurial spirit and integrity that has earned him the trust of his team. We are energized by his leadership thus far and look forward to all that ChangeMakers will accomplish together under his guidance,” said Dale Tingley, Co-Managing Partner of the Canadian Business Growth Fund (CBGF) and Chair of the Board. “Under his leadership, ChangeMakers is well positioned to make waves in today’s evolving business market.” 

“Our aspiration is simple: make ChangeMakers the most trusted partner for organizations and leaders who seek to achieve measurable business outcomes. Whether it’s tangible results like sales or revenue, or the harder to quantify cultural and reputational measures, communications is the engine that powers progress,” said Moores. “We will be on the cutting edge of AI, technology and innovation while keeping our focus on the human-centered relationships that build trust, drive results, and enhance reputation. That’s how we will deliver value every day.” 

Moores’ vision for the company centers around the drive to positively impact every client’s business, from strategic planning through organizational change management and market execution. Whether navigating executive leadership changes and cultural challenges, or driving awareness and sales, ChangeMakers is the strategic partner that helps leaders execute well and move confidently. 

“Whether change is the chosen path, or takes our clients by surprise, our role at ChangeMakers is to turn it into a strategic advantage,” said Moores. “We see massive opportunity in leveraging our expertise in crisis and risk management, organizational change management, public relations, marketing and social impact to change the way companies think about, execute and capitalize on change. We do that by applying all our different crafts with technology and human expertise to move with confidence.” 

Moores is uniquely positioned to take ChangeMakers into the future. He brings decades of experience in business management, human resources, finance, investment and operations at leading management consulting, communications and public affairs firms across Canada and the U.S. Most recently, Moores served as Chief Operating Officer for ChangeMakers. He also previously served as President of Argyle and co-founder of The Castlemain Group. Moores holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, an MSC in International Politics, Economics and Business from The London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BA in Economics from Queen’s University. 

“The next era of communications belongs to the doers — those who don’t ask if change can or will happen, but how to make it work. That’s the mindset we’re building at ChangeMakers,” added Moores.  

ChangeMakers’ independence and cross-sector expertise allow it to deliver outcomes—not just activity—for the C-suite, senior leadership and the teams they lead. With more than 400 professionals across 10 North American offices, the firm offers end-to-end, sector-shaped solutions that help clients thrive through disruption and emerge stronger. 

Forget the Deliverables. Drive Business Outcomes. 

Across industries, transformation is constant. If you’re not evolving, you may be left behind. But the difference between success and failure isn’t simply who adapts fastest or the most. Those who will emerge as leaders in today’s business environment will be those who embrace and drive change best. 

That’s why communications teams can no longer afford to sit at the end of the decision chain to receive and act on a mandate—they must be present at the decision-making table, shoulder-to-shoulder with the C-suite. The communications function is capable of more than storytelling, media, and advertising if you allow it.  

At ChangeMakers, we demand it. 

Co-architect Business Strategies  

For too long, communications has been the messenger—not a co-architect—of business strategy. The result is often reactive campaigns, fragmented programs, or missed opportunities. 

We’ve entered an era that requires communicators to understand – and are given visibility into – the entirety of an organization and business context before executing on a task. Communications deliverables are a means to the end.  

To achieve business outcomes, communications must be at the core. Whether advising on organizational design, reputation risk, or stakeholder trust, engagement must be strategic, intentional, and continuous. Otherwise leaders will fail to build the trust required to execute successfully.  

That’s why our role at ChangeMakers extends beyond “telling the story” to building the systems and approaches that make stories credible. We’re helping set direction, identifying roadblocks, and supporting organizational changes to meet and exceed expectations. This requires effective integration—across disciplines, crafts, and technologies, both internally and externally.    

Leverage Communications as a Partner  

Immeasurable strength comes from integrating the entire communications landscape — from marketing and brand strategy to crisis management, organizational change, and social-impact advisory. Our excellence across this diverse skill set gives us an unmatched perspective that informs our approach to every business challenge.  

Communications can lead the next decade of organizational transformation. Doing so will require courage to collapse silos, to rethink traditional models, to show up in boardrooms armed not only with creative ideas, but with data, foresight, and strategic authority. 

For CEOs, boards, and senior leaders, strategic communications must be viewed as a key driver in every plan to achieve business outcomes. It’s the force multiplier — aligning people on the why, increasing adoption and execution, protecting reputation, and unlocking growth. Whether you’re introducing AI, repositioning a brand, driving rapid growth, responding to a crisis or reputational risk, or delivering social impact at scale, success depends on your ability to bring people with you – and communications is the catalyst for success. 

Use Technology and AI as a Catalyst 

People across every organization are using some form of AI – whether it’s endorsed or not. At its best, AI offers a promise of net new solutions, efficiency, cost reduction and automation. Executed inconsistently, it risks eroding trust and value among stakeholders that matter most.  

The most effective transformations pair data intelligence with human expertise — the ability to listen, interpret, give and take, and adjust. At ChangeMakers, we leverage technology to provide data and insight so our teams can focus on strategic counsel: shaping messages that move markets, align employees, or attract investors. 

AI is embedded in how we analyze sentiment, forecast risk, and measure impact. It helps us measure what was previously immeasurable. Our Reputation Score can quantify your reputation, analyze how competitors compare, predict reputational risk, and identify avenues for future growth.  

In another case, we’re going beyond talking with clients about how AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google’s AI Overviews change the way people find information. We’re proactively workshopping content strategies and messages that resonate across audiences and organizational contexts, and are structured so AI tools can find, understand, trust, and quote them. 

No one person can keep up with the pace of change set by AI and technology. It requires partnership with a trusted advisor who can help you set the path and filter what’s valuable amidst the noise. 

Learn How to Do Change Well 

The pace of change today—technological, societal, regulatory—can feel overwhelming. Change is hard. And can be exhausting. Especially when poorly managed. 

Organizations with strong change management deliver 264% more revenue growth than those that don’t. What does “strong change management” mean? Following a change management methodology is not enough. Leaders must leverage their strategic communications team to take organizational change beyond process and protocols to embed lasting shifts in culture, performance, and resilience that maximize success.  

When done well, change builds credibility and confidence. When done poorly, it destroys both. Strategic communications is the difference. 

At ChangeMakers, that’s our purpose and our promise: to help leaders and their organizations navigate complexity with clarity, integrity, and measurable results. 

You can’t stop change. But you can do it well. 

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Can AI Save our Hospitals?

The future of AI in healthcare will be shaped by leaders who see trust as the foundation of adoption. 

America’s hospitals are running out of time. Staffing shortages are closing clinics, emergency rooms are over capacity, and clinicians are leaving faster than new ones can be trained. Burnout, backlogs, and budget shortfalls are eroding the foundation of care. The system is strained and signaling the need for urgent change and decisive leadership. 

At the same time, artificial intelligence (AI) tools are advancing quickly, promising to automate documentation, predict risk, and personalize treatment. Hospitals stand to reclaim thousands of clinician hours each year, reduce administrative costs, and ease burnout, improving access and efficiency across the system.  

The American Medical Association has already warned that adoption could stall if hospitals fail to address clinician and patient concerns. Without thoughtful rollouts that build genuine trust, even the best technology may fall short, leaving significant investments with little real-world impact.

Hospital leaders can’t afford to miss — or mishandle — this moment. Smart organizational change management will determine whether we succeed with one of healthcare’s most transformative opportunities in a generation. 

Here are three strategies to launch AI transformations that deliver lasting impact: 

1. Build Buy-In: Start with the “Why”  

Before we ask patients and clinicians to adopt AI, we must answer why the change should matter to them. Talk about AI tools in terms of human outcomes that benefit the users, like more face-to-face time with providers and less burnout for clinician, rather than in business terms like “efficiency” or “innovation.”

For example: “We know how frustrating it can be when clinicians spend visits typing into a laptop instead of fully engaging with you. We envision a future where conversations are face-to-face, uninterrupted, and centered on your needs. That future is possible with the help of our new AI-powered documentation tool.”

Patients and healthcare professionals need to see that these technologies bring time back to them to help them achieve their goals. If healthcare leaders fail to demonstrate that purpose clearly and repeatedly, adoption will remain half-hearted.

Actions: Align the rollout of AI tools with end-users’ values and goals. Every staff meeting, town hall, and newsletter should connect technology to purpose.  

2. Understand and Act on Concerns and Risks  

AI in healthcare evokes legitimate fears — of inaccuracy, data sharing without consent, and the loss of human connection. These concerns are shared by both clinicians and patients. Ignoring them, or labeling skeptics as “resistant to change,” only guarantees greater resistance. 

Clinicians don’t inherently reject technology, rather they question anything that might compromise patient care. Patients are no different; they want the best outcomes possible and are protective of their privacy. These concerns are indicators of where trust must be earned, and leaders who name fears early can shape the narrative before it shapes the AI initiative. 

Hospitals must name and address these worries before they metastasize into distrust. Be transparent about what isn’t working today and show how AI tools can relieve those pain points. Create open forums for clinicians and patients to raise questions, and publish clear, honest answers. Treat skepticism as data revealing where design improvements, education, reassurance are needed most. 

Actions: Build structured channels for feedback during pilot phases and early rollouts. Make it visible that concerns are understood and lead to change. Transparency is the currency of trust. 

3. Don’t Rush: Build for Real Adoption 

The biggest mistake leaders make is treating AI implementation as a checkbox. Real transformation takes time to test, adjust, and rebuild workflows. 

It’s no different than inviting nurses, physicians and surgeons to test a new operating room layout before it is built into a new hospital. Hospitals must plan for adaptive rollout with visible iteration. Invite early adopters to become change champions by testing the technology, informing instruction and rollout, and sharing watchouts. The goal is sustainable progress. When patients and clinicians see that leadership is listening and adjusting, they engage with curiosity instead of compliance. 

Action: Budget for iteration. Measure success by improved satisfaction, reduced burnout, and visible workflow efficiency. 

The Moment Is Now 

AI has the power to give patients and clinicians back their most precious resource: time. But that future depends on decisions made today. If leaders don’t invest as deeply in building trust as they do in technology, the promise of AI will stall in the waiting room. 

It’s time for leaders to stop asking “Is the technology ready?” and start asking “Are our people ready?” 

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