What’s Driving the Communications 2026 Agenda: Risk, Trust, and AI
Findings From the 2025 Global Communications & Corporate Affairs Survey
Communications leaders have entered 2026 with an unambiguous mandate: move faster, protect reputation, and help leadership navigate today’s geopolitical environment. Findings from our Global Communications & Corporate Affairs Survey, released late last year, validate what leaders are experiencing in real time. As external instability intensifies, the communications function is being pulled deeper into enterprise strategy to manage risk, perception, and trust.
Survey respondents identified global geopolitical challenges as the primary concern for leadership teams (77%), with domestic political environments close behind (57%). As these challenges continue through 2026, communications leaders are increasingly expected to serve as a stabilising force – advising the C-Suite through ambiguity and maintaining institutional credibility under pressure.
Yet measurement remains a critical vulnerability. Nearly a quarter (21%) of respondents disagree that their organisations employ effective measurement to gauge reputation strength. A significant proportion of communications leaders are being asked to deliver outsized impact without the infrastructure or investment to quantify it.
Against this backdrop, AI has emerged as both a potential solution and a pressure test. It is no longer theoretical. Teams are expected to adopt it rapidly, even while managing tighter resources, evolving stakeholder expectations, and heightened reputational risk. More than a quarter of respondents (27%) ranked “leveraging AI and digital tools” as a top-five priority, alongside enterprise imperatives including reputation protection (63%), geopolitical and economic uncertainty (56%), and strengthening executive visibility (39%).
The profession’s outlook on AI is cautiously optimistic and more nuanced than the typical “fear of replacement” narrative. Nearly 91% of respondents expect AI adoption to increase over the next twelve months, yet few report it being fully embedded in day-to-day operations. The data reveals a critical gap: AI ambition is outpacing readiness. The principal concerns are not about job displacement, they’re about governance. Respondents ranked privacy and ethics in data usage (52.4%) and lack of internal readiness to implement AI effectively (46.4%) as the leading concerns.
The takeaway: communications leaders are being asked to expand their mandate and accelerate delivery whilst readiness, resources, and governance frameworks have yet to catch up.
The survey results point to an evolved definition of the modern communicator – one expected to be both storyteller and strategist whilst building more robust systems: rigorous measurement and evaluation, strong governance, and practical AI integration that serves the function without compromising institutional trust.
About GCSP: The Global Communications Search Partnership (GCSP) is a collaboration among four leading executive search firms specialising in communications, corporate affairs, government relations, marketing and investor relations: Heyman Associates (North America), Taylor Birchwood (EMEA), GK Personalberatung (Germany), and Barber Search (Asia). Through this partnership, we support organisations globally to identify and develop world-class leadership in these critical functions.