Artificial intelligence has changed the pace at which reputations are built and broken. A false claim can now be produced in minutes, a voice can be cloned from a few seconds of audio, and a rumour can circle the globe before an organisation has drafted its first statement. For public relations professionals, who have always been the first responders to reputational trouble, the technology brings both a threat and a tool.

According to communication leaders, the profession’s future depends on how quickly practitioners learn to use AI before a crisis forces the lesson on them. They argue that the technology will not replace the communicator, but that the communicator who understands it will hold a seat at every boardroom table.

From Reacting to Anticipating

Delivering the keynote address at the Crisis Management Advocacy Month Flagship Conference 2026, convened in Lagos by CMC Connect LLP under the theme “Crisis Management in the AI Milieu: Fresh Threats, Smarter Responses,” Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, spoke on the shift that data and technology make possible. “With the right data and systems, organisations can move from reacting to crises to anticipating risks,” he said, with the added advantage of managing them in real time.

He noted that crises cannot be prevented, but that preparedness shapes how organisations respond to them. The point carries particular weight for communication teams, whose value has often been measured by how well they clean up after an incident rather than how well they see it coming.

Opportunity and Threat

On his part, Segun Ogunsanya, Chairman of the Airtel Foundation, speaking at the same Crisis Management Advocacy Month conference, described AI as a force already at work in economies and societies. “It is here. It is changing economies, influencing societies and redefining the boundaries of human capabilities,” he said.

Yet he cautioned that the same power carries risk. “But with this power comes vulnerability, and the very systems designed to enhance our decisions can also expose us to new forms of risk,” he stated. He gave examples of what that can look like. “A single defective model can cascade into financial instability,” he said, and “a biased algorithm can widen social divides.”

Addressing these challenges, Ogunsanya called for governance that matches the technology. “We cannot have policies that are too gentle every day. Governance must also use AI to police AI,” he stressed. Ahead of the conference, he said, he asked an AI tool to identify the risks in its theme, “Crisis Management in the AI Milieu.” It flagged public backlash, political tension and misinterpretation. “It shows the power of this technology but it must be used very wisely,” he noted, and he closed with a principle that applies to the human communicator as much as the machine. “Whether artificial intelligence or human intelligence, the goal must be to serve humanity rather than destabilise it.”

Data and Intelligence in Everyday Practice

Moving forward, Beatrice Olalekan, senior associate, client partnerships at Red Media Africa, spoke on how the tools are already changing daily practice. “PR professionals are increasingly using data analytics and artificial intelligence to better understand their audience, track campaign performance, and optimize messaging,” she said.

According to her, the technology can analyse large volumes of data to identify trends, sentiment and audience preferences, helping practitioners tailor their messages for maximum impact. She identified AI-assisted audience segmentation and targeting among the emerging trends pulling public relations closer to digital marketing and content strategy.

The Human Side of the Crisis

Transitioning to the practitioner’s craft, Theodora Akpunku, senior business analyst (digital) at CMC Connect LLP noted that: “Crisis triggers emotions before logic gets a chance to be present. Control the panic and you have mastered the problem.”

Akpunku explained that crisis work is as much psychological as it is communicative. “Most stakeholders during a crisis situation operate from a place of fear or confusion,” she said, and practitioners must restore a sense of safety before they try to rebuild trust. In her view, communicators should see themselves as managers of stakeholders’ emotional state, not only as issuers of statements on schedule.

“It takes 30 minutes for AI to push a crisis,” she warned. “All it requires is three seconds of audio and a decision has been made even before your phone rings.” Once a fake is circulating, the damage is already under way. “By the time you want to push out that this is fake, people are already seeing the damage,” she said.

The same technology offers a defence. Social listening platforms can detect unusual shifts in sentiment and synthetic content in real time, she explained, so that teams can respond before a rumour turns into a crisis. She pointed to a case abroad in which a bank used AI listening tools after fraudsters cloned customers’ voices, then ran a public campaign encouraging families to agree on safe phrases for financial requests. “The same tool that caused the problem was what they used to mitigate the problem,” she noted.

An Invitation to the Profession

For Akpunku, the message to practitioners is plain. “The question is no longer if you should adopt AI,” she said, but “whether you understand it well enough to use it before a crisis forces you to learn it.”

She rejected the idea that the technology endangers the profession. “AI is not a threat to public relations. It is an invitation,” she stated. Professionals who learn to operate it increase their worth. “Becoming a PR professional who understands how to operate AI is where your value increases,” she said, and it “cements your place at every boardroom table.”

Strategic Solutions for the AI Era

The speakers pointed to practical steps. Organisations should build a crisis protocol before they need one. Practitioners should learn the monitoring and verification tools now available. Governance and policy must keep pace with the technology. And communicators must keep empathy at the centre of every response, because speed without sensitivity can deepen a crisis. “Build the protocol, learn the tools, and make sure that when your clock starts, you are already ahead of it,” Akpunku urged.

The Path Forward

With Nigeria preparing to host the World Public Relations Forum in Abuja in November, the conversations among government, industry and practitioners provide a roadmap for a profession determined to lead in the AI era. The tools will keep changing. The responsibility to protect trust, as the speakers made clear, belongs to the human communicator.