AI social licence

AI is transforming society and the economy. But are you ready? 

Ensuring social licence for AI is a corporate priority. 

Research reveals an almost even split between the four in 10 who think it will improve their lives and benefit society and the economy; and the three in 10 who think it will make it worse. 

Companies and organisations face a challenge. If they want to benefit from using AI anywhere, they need ensure it is trusted by stakeholders. Even if they aren’t adopting AI they will reap the repercussions of irresponsible AI use by competitors and peers. 

We help corporate affairs leaders earn—and keep—trust in how their organisations use AI. 

Social licence for AI readiness diagnostic 

  • Audit of where and how AI is already used across your organisation (including generative AI, embedded AI and applied AI). 
  • Heat-map of risks and opportunities across priority stakeholder groups (employees, customers, communities, investors and regulators. 
  • Executive readout with a pragmatic 100day action plan. 
  • Benchmark against recognised principles and emerging regulation to identify gaps, immediate risks and quick wins. 
  • Board and ExCo briefings on the strategic stakes of social licence for AI. 

AI governance and policy audit and build 

  • Audit of existing enterprise-wide AI governance and policies to identify reputational risks and opportunities across all stakeholders. 
  • Recommendations report to reduce reputational risk from AI use. 

Stakeholder intelligence and engagement 

  • Stakeholder perception research to identify hopes, concerns, and expectations about your use of AI. Purposeful Relations worked with OnePoll to survey 5,020 consumers about AI and trust.  
  • Stakeholder engagement, education and communication recommendations.  
  • Message and narrative testing (including AI synthetic audience tests where appropriate).  
  • Design and facilitation of engagement programmes including advisory panels, community dialogues, employee forums etc.  
  • Measurement and evaluation feedback loops to maintain and improve permission over time. 

Responsible AI communications and engagement strategy 

  • Leadership platform, Q&A packs, and spokesperson training for confident, consistent messaging.  
  • Owned channel explainers (web, newsroom, intranet, social) and content standards for disclosure and attribution.  
  • Media, policymaker, and influencer engagement plans that emphasise evidence over hype. 

Issues, risk and crisis for AI 

  • Scenario planning for AI specific incidents (hallucinations, copyright claims, bias, data leaks, deepfakes). 
  • Playbooks that integrate legal, security, product, HR, and comms 
  • Live simulations and testing of plans and people. 
  • Monitoring and early warning dashboards tuned to AI risk signals. 
  • Live incident support and post incident recovery communications. 

Why communications should lead on social licence for AI 

Social licence for AI is won—or lost—where technology meets people. Senior inhouse PR and corporate affairs leaders are uniquely positioned to align ethics, governance, and communications so AI adoption delivers value without eroding trust. We bridge the expertise of engineers, lawyers, and executives and turn it into clear, credible action stakeholders accept.