AI Can Write the Words. It Can’t Carry the Consequence
Mon, Apr. 13, 2026
By Gil Bashe
In communications, where trust is earned and lost in moments, human judgment, experience and responsibility will define the future far more than artificial intelligence ever can.

Cortney Stapleton, Chief Strategy & Business Officer at Highwire PR and former CEO of The Bliss Group, joins Taking the Lead to share the leadership philosophies that have shaped her career.
Many O’Dwyer PR readers may have been fired by a PR client, but what do you do if you think the client is not working out for your agency?
Artificial intelligence, combined with experienced human judgement, has severed the link between time spent and value delivered.
Why the “worst” part of public relations isn’t a dirty job—it is the job.
For decades, public relations leaders framed reputation as a soft-power instrument - something to manage, protect, or repair. That framework now feels outdated.
Much is made of the importance of proper planning to anticipate and manage a crisis—but what matters most is understanding how decisions will be made once the crisis is underway.
Slow and procedural messaging without emotional resonance, fragmented leadership communication, overwhelming policy‑heavy language and a pervasive gap between words and observable action have repeatedly undermined corporate credibility.
In our conversation on the Taking the Lead podcast, John G. Clemons reflects on how trust must be earned, how credibility is constantly tested, and why courage can carry a different weight for Black and Brown leaders.
A practical trend-reports playbook for food and beverage marketers.
The opportunity in front of our industry is not whether to use AI. It is how to integrate it in ways that strengthen and enhance strategy rather than shortcut it.
WPP CEO Cindy Rose unveiled “Elevate 28,” a strategic plan to simplify the troubled company, which reported a 5.4 percent drop in 2025 revenues to $13.6B.
What our industry needs now is an immediate reexamination of structure, upskilling of talent, and re-assessment of how work is designed, executed, and delivered to clients.
After several years of extraordinary euphoria, litigation against AI tech companies is now growing.
While finding the right solution to a problem is still important, the work that differentiates effective communications leaders is problem-finding—identifying the real risk before it becomes visible, reputational or irreversible.
Executives are moving faster, embracing flexibility and making decisions with urgency even in the face of uncertainty, a new study from Padilla finds.
In this episode of Taking the Lead, DePaul University's Ron Culp reflects on what effective leadership looks like when career paths are less predictable, expectations are shifting, and leaders are being asked to develop people at every stage of their journey.



















