The warning advises companies to stop using AI-written content to speak for them and to put people back in customer service, which AI now handles.

Key Takeaways

• AI ranked as the most serious threat to an organization’s reputation in Global Situation Room’s quarterly Reputation Risk Index for the fourth time in less than two years, with 58% of the advisory council it surveys rating AI 8 or higher on a 10-point severity scale.
• Global Situation Room issued its first-ever Reputation Warning. It tells companies to stop using AI-written content to speak for them, put people back into customer service that AI handles, and publish a way to check statements that claim to come from them.
• In a section on financial firms, only 7.7% of the members of Global Situation Room’s Global Risk Advisory Council agreed that AI will help the sector’s reputation.
• 56% of council members said banks will take most or all of the reputational blame when fraudsters use AI to cheat bank customers.

AI is the top reputation risk for organizations in the third-quarter 2026 edition of Global Situation Room’s Reputation Risk Index, a report published Oct. 6. It is the fourth time in less than two years that AI has topped the index. This time, Global Situation Room also issued its first-ever Reputation Warning.

The index ranks the threats to an organization’s reputation that members of Global Situation Room’s Global Risk Advisory Council consider most serious. The council has more than 150 members, including former heads of state, government ministers, and senior public affairs executives.

The warning tells companies to keep people in charge of what is said in their name

Global Situation Room said that because AI has stayed at the top of the index, faster AI adoption could damage the confidence customers, investors, and others have in a company’s brand.

It advised companies to take three steps now. First, stop using AI-written content to speak publicly for the company. Second, find ways to put people back into customer service that AI now handles. Third, publish a way for people to check whether a statement claiming to come from the company or its executives is real.

AI returned to first place after one quarter in second

AI ranked first in the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. In Q2, it fell to second, behind the war with Iran. The council’s chair, Isabel Casillas Guzmán, wrote that AI slipped “only because the war with Iran overwhelmed everything else, not because anyone’s concern had eased.”

In Q3, 58% of council members rated AI 8 or higher on a 10-point severity scale, and 37% named it their single largest risk. Child safety, privacy, and fraud ranked second, third, and fourth, respectively.

Few members expect AI to help the financial sector’s reputation

The index covers organizations across industries, but this quarter’s report also includes a “spotlight” section on banks and other financial firms. Council members ranked fraud and misconduct as the sector’s top risk, followed by controversy over what senior executives say and do. AI was also among their top concerns. The council’s chair, Isabel Casillas Guzmán, warned that adopting AI quickly, without regulatory safeguards, leaves financial institutions “at risk of being held fully responsible for any negative impacts,” from privacy problems to AI-enabled cyberattacks.

When asked whether AI will positively affect the financial sector’s reputation, 7.7% of members agreed. Another 48.8% disagreed, and 43.6% were unsure.

56% said banks will take most or all of the reputational blame when fraudsters use AI to cheat bank customers. 74% disagreed that most financial firms are prepared to manage reputational damage from a major cyberattack.

Global Situation Room said it will publish more guidance on the AI warning in the coming months.