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While the danger of being on the president’s bad side is seen as a major source of concern for brands, the potential negative effects of artificial intelligence pose an even greater reputational threat.
That’s the consensus of the Global Situation Room’s Global Risk Advisory Council in the Q4 2025 edition of its Reputation Risk Index, which put AI at the top of its list and moved Donald Trump (who was at #1 in Q3) into second place.
On a scale from 1 to 10 (10 representing the most severe threat), 77 percent of the Council members said AI misuse is a major risk, ranking it at a “6” or above. More than half (53 percent) ranked it at “8” or higher.
“As AI regulation lags behind the technology’s maturation,” the report notes, “harmful applications—from biased decision-making to manipulative use—are rampant.”
The Reputation Risk Index cautions organizations against using AI without adequate oversight, saying that the result can be “immediate damage to their credibility and perhaps lasting damage to their most valuable asset: public trust.”
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When it comes to the power of a thumbs-down from the president, things are, as might be expected, more divided. While more than half (51 percent) put his risk ranking at “9” or “10,” a full 15 percent gave him a score of “1,” indicating the lowest level of reputational threat.
Nonetheless, the report said that negative attention from President Trump and other high-profile politicians “can trigger regulatory investigations, customer boycotts, and market volatility that operate outside of standard business frameworks.”
The remainder of the top 10 includes such issues as data privacy violations (#3), child safety/harm (#4), anticompetitiveness/antitrust (#5) and fraud (#6).
A few risks dropped out of the top 10, such as CEO controversy, organizational ethics failures, Elon Musk and racial discrimination.
The index also revealed a drop in the public perception of global health companies. Almost three-quarters (71 percent) of Council members said trust in the pharmaceutical industry had “declined dramatically” in 2025.
A large majority also think that medicines and vaccines will be on the hot seat in the coming year. Over nine in 10 think that political attacks on those will rise in 2026, with more than three quarters (77 percent) thinking it is at least “somewhat likely” that Trump administration anti-vaccine policies will spread to other countries.
“These risks don’t exist in isolation and the stakes are higher than ever,” said Global Risk Advisory Council chair Isabel Casillas Guzman. “Public perception and trust can shift in the blink of an eye. The old playbook for managing reputational risk is officially obsolete.”
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