Your crisis plan isn’t your crisis preparation

Hello,

We are all familiar with examples of a reputational crisis beginning with a cyber attack, data breach, leadership scandal or operational failure. But it can now also start with a convincing fake video, a false narrative spreading at speed, or – as we seem to hear on a daily basis – an AI system behaving in a way nobody expected.

Earlier this year, an internal AI agent at Meta acted without approval and gave incorrect advice that contributed to a major security incident. This month, an AI-enabled impersonation scam convinced Fideuram, part of Italy’s biggest bank, to transfer €95 million to fraudsters. As businesses give AI more freedom to act, and synthetic content becomes harder to spot, AI risk needs to become part of crisis planning.

Reassuringly, 98% of professionals see misinformation as a major threat. Yet 55% of companies have no formal plan for handling a crisis caused by it, according to Signal AI.

Crisis preparedness across the pond

In the US, crisis experience has driven home the risk of not being prepared. A Capterra survey reported by Forbes found that, among leaders who had already been through a crisis, 84% said they would increase how much they practised in advance.

The need to be ready for a crisis is only more pressing with the rise of deepfakes. US Comms Platform, Ragan’s 2026 research found that fewer than 4% of US communicators feel “very prepared” for deepfakes and synthetic media, while 51.5% either have no established response process or tools, or do not know whether one exists.

Put the plan under pressure

A crisis rarely starts with everyone neatly assembled around a table.

It starts with a partial picture. Cyber is still trying to work out what happened. Legal does not yet know whether it is reportable. A journalist wants a comment. A fake screenshot is starting to circulate. And the person who normally signs everything off is not answering their phone.

The organisations that cope best regularly rehearse this messiness. They map the scenarios most likely to damage the business, agree who needs to be involved and test how decisions get made when the information is incomplete and the pressure is real.

At With, we have access to cutting-edge crisis simulation technology that recreates the pace and pressure of a live incident before business continuity is at stake. As members of Privacy Rules, we can put cross-discipline crisis teams to the test or even pit one department against another. As this goes to press, our Senior Director Lizzie Jones is at Churchill’s war rooms along with other comms, cyber and legal experts doing just that.

There are still a handful of places available for a live crisis simulation workshop before the end of the year, so if you want to put your own team through its paces, contact Lizzie directly at elizabeth.jones@welcometowith.com.

A call to action

If your business would benefit from an updated crisis flashpoint map, a cross-department crisis management plan, crisis simulation training or put-you-through-your-paces media training, contact us at hello@welcometowith.com.

With two-thirds of US businesses experiencing a cyber event in the past year, rehearsal is hardly theoretical. Forewarned is forearmed. Fore-trained is even better.

The With Editor

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Your crisis plan isn’t your crisis preparation

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