Ai chatbots paint different pictures of corporate reputation
When you ask your trusted chatbot about Inditex, Iberdrola, or Santander, where does it get the information? In collecting data on these companies, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot don't drink from the same fountain. Each model queries different sources, weighs them differently, and consequently can project varying narratives about a company's reputation.
Companies hold more sway than they think
The content that carries the most weight in the responses of the three models isn't the media, but rather the material published by the companies themselves, such as annual reports, sustainability memos, and earnings releases. As a result, companies have more influence over what AI says about them than they realize.
However, this advantage comes with a significant limitation. Sixty percent of reputational risks stem from past issues. These can be scandals, lawsuits, or controversies that the company already addressed and closed, but still linger online and thus appear in AI responses.
The problem is that the models often mention the risk but not the solution, leaving the narrative incomplete, and always to the company's detriment. Furthermore, the role of platforms that comms departments barely control cannot be overlooked. In this context, Reddit appears in over a third of ChatGPT's responses regarding reputational risks of IBEX 35 companies. Wikipedia is frequently used to construct narratives about companies' pasts. And platforms like Glassdoor and LinkedIn are gaining weight in everything related to internal culture and employer reputation.
Each chatbot has its method
Moreover, the three models don't function alike. ChatGPT is the most heterogeneous in its sources, combining forums, Wikipedia, and authoritative content, making it more sensitive to any negative content online. Gemini has a similar profile but incorporates more social media content, including Facebook, and is the only one to cite YouTube videos from media outlets. Copilot, integrated into Microsoft's ecosystem, is the most institutional of the three: it relies mainly on specialized investment media and has minimal exposure to Reddit or Wikipedia.
The practical outcome is clear: the same company can have a different reputation depending on the AI model a user consults. Therefore, comms teams might be overlooking a crucial job,