In this op-ed, Nielyn Jumao-as—account executive at Narrative Communications, a boutique agency specialising in crisis comms—delves into the risks of outsourcing crisis management to AI. Crises rarely unfold in a neat, linear fashion—they require a level of nuance and human counsel that can effectively build back trust. No amount of prompting can teach ChatGPT how to read the nuances of tension and underlying messages contained in human problems; it requires experienced crisis managers who can offer sound judgment, maintain empathy, and speak the hard truths.
Another week, another scandal. A CEO slips up, private details go public, or maybe it’s a cyber-attack. Whatever the trigger, it usually goes like this: leadership goes silent, hoping it blows over… until headlines break. Then it’s panic mode, and the comms team is scrambling to pick up the pieces.
For anyone in this industry, that story is all too familiar. It’s not the scandal that should surprise us, but how often companies get the crisis all wrong. They focus on the leaked message or an ignored complaint, thinking that’s the problem. In reality, the problem lies in the mismanagement of the situation, and increasingly, in the overreliance on AI tools to do the heavy lifting.
While AI can help with first drafts and final checks, its advice fails to address the real crisis: leadership that can’t, or won’t, step up, take responsibility, and act when it counts.
One of the first things we deal with in crisis communications is leadership paralysis – that moment when no one’s quite sure what to do next. Our job is to cut through that hesitation, and the fix is typically straightforward: make the crisis plan easy to follow with clear steps that are quick to act on.
Here’s where it gets trickier in the digital age. Today, AI tools can spit out exactly that, a full, easy-to-read crisis response plan in seconds. The advice generally looks something like this:
Acknowledge the problem
Take accountability
Launch an investigation or review
Communicate openly
Make a change
On paper, it sounds simple, and theoretically, the AI plan is right. But crises rarely unfold as neatly as that. In fact, they often arrive with jagged edges in unexpected ways; fuelled by boardrooms full of tension, employees whispering in hallways, and journalists circling like hawks.
These are the moments that require an instinctive grasp of nuance. No amount of prompting can teach ChatGPT how to read the silence in a room or manage an unrelenting journalist.
Outsourcing crisis management to AI risks repeating the very behaviour that often causes the damage in the first place: choosing shortcuts and optics over substance. A flawlessly drafted AI statement might buy 24 hours of breathing room, but it won’t rebuild trust. It won’t shift culture, and it certainly won’t change reality.
So where does that leave crisis managers and communications professionals? Ideally, with a renewed determination to show the value of human counsel, driven by the uncertainty (and the fear) of what AI might mean for our careers.
Because good crisis management isn’t just the statement everyone reads, it’s the “invisible” work too. It’s navigating the grey areas with sound judgement, maintaining empathy under pressure, and saying the hard truths no one else will. That’s why an experienced crisis manager is invaluable.
Technology will keep evolving. Scandals will keep breaking. But crises will always be human problems, and only humans can solve them.
