Human-centric thinking still wins in 2025
Trust is currency. If your company loses it, you’re bleeding value—fast. And yet, most executives still don’t get it. There’s a massive trust gap between leadership and customers. Executives think their companies are highly trusted—90% of them do. But only 30% of consumers agree. That’s a staggering disconnect.
Too many companies still think reputation management is about controlling the narrative. It’s not. This isn’t the 1990s, where you could issue a press release, buy some media spots, and call it a day. The game has changed. News spreads in seconds, and if you’re not engaged in real time, you’re already behind.
The companies that win in 2025 won’t be the ones with the best media spin. They’ll be the ones that understand people. Consumers don’t trust words—they trust consistency. If your company’s actions don’t align with what you claim, you’ll lose control of the story, and once that happens, getting it back is nearly impossible.
Healthcare’s trust crisis is a system problem
The healthcare industry isn’t in trouble because of one bad decision—it’s years of systemic issues catching up all at once. The industry has been consolidating for decades, turning patient care into a numbers game. Pricing is a black box. Service is bureaucratic. People don’t feel like customers; they feel like obstacles in a system designed to extract maximum revenue.
Then, December 2024 happened. UnitedHealthcare’s CEO was murdered in Manhattan—an event shocking enough on its own. But what followed was even more telling. Just before that, BlueCross BlueShield announced they were capping anesthesia coverage for medical procedures. The backlash was immediate. They reversed the decision within a day, but the damage was done.
This wasn’t just a PR problem. It was an industry-wide moment of reckoning. People weren’t just angry at one company—they were angry at the system. Social media exploded with stories of denied claims, surprise medical bills, and life-or-death fights with insurers. The murder itself was condemned, but the frustration fueling the outrage didn’t go away. Two months later, people are still sharing horror stories about healthcare.
“If you wait until the crisis hits, you’ve already lost. Healthcare companies don’t need better systems. People don’t want apologies. They want transparency. They want pricing that makes sense. They want to feel like human beings, not policy numbers.”
Ignoring reputation signals is a “death sentence”
Reputation doesn’t collapse overnight—it erodes over time. The warning signs are always there. Most companies don’t pay attention until it’s too late.
The healthcare crisis is a perfect example. The outrage didn’t start when BlueCross BlueShield announced their anesthesia policy. It started years ago when people began feeling that healthcare companies weren’t on their side. Social media was full of signals—angry customers, viral complaints, trust at an all-time low. But those signals were ignored. By the time the crisis hit, the industry had no goodwill left to fall back on.
Companies that win at reputation management work to prevent crises before they happen. And the tools exist to make this easier than ever. Social listening platforms like Sprout Social and Brandwatch give real-time insights into what customers are saying. If you’re paying attention, you’ll know when sentiment is shifting before it turns into a full-blown PR disaster.
AI’s trust problem and the profit vs. public good argument
While the AI industry is moving forward at full speed, trust isn’t keeping up. Three major issues keep surfacing: cybersecurity risks, environmental concerns, and ethical decision-making. And when companies handle these badly, they pay the price.
Look at OpenAI. Their decision to shift from nonprofit to public benefit corporation might have made financial sense, but it was a PR disaster. The media framed it as a betrayal of their original mission, and OpenAI lost control of the narrative. Suddenly, the discussion wasn’t about AI innovation—it was about trust. The New York Times headline said it all: “How OpenAI Hopes to Sever Its Nonprofit Roots.”
Contrast that with Anthropic, another AI company, which has been a public benefit corporation from the start. Same business model, but no outrage. Why? Because they communicated clearly. They didn’t just drop a surprise announcement and walk away—they consistently engaged with their audience, explaining their mission and ethics along the way. The result? Trust.
The lesson here is obvious. If you make a major move—especially one involving money and ethics—you have to get ahead of the story. Otherwise, the public writes it for you, and trust in AI is already fragile.
“AI companies can track public sentiment in real time using tools like Agility and AlphaSense. But again, tracking isn’t enough—you need strategy. Transparency must become a habit. If you want trust, earn it every day.”
Transparency and proactive communication shape public perception
Trust isn’t built when things are going well—it’s built in the moments that test you. And when companies fail to communicate clearly, they lose control of the story.
Wendy’s made a similar mistake. They rolled out “dynamic pricing” and the internet exploded, calling it “Uber-style surge pricing for fast food.” The outrage was instant. Did they mean to jack up prices at lunch hour? Probably not. But their failure to explain it upfront meant the worst-case scenario became the dominant story. They never got the narrative back under control.
You can’t just announce major changes and hope for the best. The public doesn’t like surprises. If you don’t shape the story, someone else will. AI and big tech companies are already dealing with this—people don’t inherently trust the industry. Transparency is proactive, not reactive. If you’re explaining yourself after the backlash starts, you’ve already lost.
Think of reputation management as proactive trust-building, not crisis-response
Most companies think of reputation management as a fire extinguisher—something to use when things go wrong. That’s outdated thinking. Reputation is something you build, not fix.
Boeing is a prime example of what happens when you only react. After two fatal crashes and, more recently, a panel blowing off a plane mid-flight, they tried to control the narrative with technical explanations. But the thing is that customers don’t care about technicalities. They care about whether they feel safe. And Boeing failed to make them feel safe.
What they should have done is built trust long before things went wrong. Reputation management isn’t about what you say after a crisis—it’s about what you do before one happens. Companies that win at this will use public sentiment to make actual changes.
This is why companies need feedback loops. Digital insights shouldn’t sit idle in a report. Instead, they should be feeding directly into product improvements, safety measures, and customer experience upgrades. If Boeing had integrated this kind of real-time trust-building into their operations, they wouldn’t be in damage-control mode now.
Technology supports human-centric trust-building
AI, automation, and analytics are great. They can tell you what’s happening in real time, help you engage efficiently, and track sentiment shifts before they become disasters. But they can’t build trust for you. Only humans can do that.
Here’s the fundamental truth: No one trusts a chatbot. No one feels reassured by an automated response when things go wrong. AI can support customer service, but it can’t replace real, human connection.
Too many companies rely on technology as a substitute for trust-building. That’s why they struggle. Customers don’t care if you have the best AI-driven customer support—they care if they feel heard. Companies that get this balance right will always win. Those that don’t? They’ll keep wondering why their reputation keeps taking hits.
Look at the brands people trust most. It’s not because they have the best automation—it’s because they have the best human experience. People don’t remember that your response was fast; they remember that it felt real.
At the end of the day, trust is built between people. AI can assist, but it can’t replace authenticity. The companies that understand this will dominate. The ones that don’t? Well, their customers will move on to someone who does.
Key executive takeaways
- Bridge the trust gap: Recognize the stark difference between executive confidence and consumer trust. Leaders should implement systems to monitor real-time sentiment and adjust strategies accordingly.
- Prioritize proactive engagement: Move beyond reactive PR by actively engaging with stakeholders. Establish continuous communication channels to preempt and address concerns before they escalate.
- Emphasize systemic improvements: Address underlying operational issues rather than merely managing crises. Invest in transparent pricing and customer-centric processes to rebuild long-term trust.
- Balance tech with human connection: Leverage technology to track reputational signals, but ensure that human interactions remain central to trust-building. Integrate digital insights into operational decisions for authentic, proactive responses.
