Trust Rivals Quality and Value as PR Moves Up the 2027 Business Agenda

Trust is almost as important to purchasing decisions as quality and equal to value for money, according to new international research — a finding that Joseph Henry, CEO of Vivaldi Public Relations, a Thailand-based public relations and corporate communications consultancy, says should put reputation firmly on the business agenda for 2027.

The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report⁠, based on 17,688 respondents across 15 markets, found that 89% regarded quality as important or a critical deal breaker, while 88% said the same of both trust and value for money. Unpaid voices, including reviews, friends and online communities, also had greater impact on willingness to trust a brand than brands’ own communications.

“When trust sits alongside quality and value in purchasing decisions, reputation is not merely a communications concern; it is both a source of business value and a potential business risk,” Henry said. “It can affect confidence among customers, employees, investors and business partners. The influence of independent voices means credibility must be built before it is tested.”

The strategic role of communications is reflected in corporate reporting lines and spending priorities. A Korn Ferry study reported by Axios⁠ found that more than half of the Fortune 500 communications chiefs surveyed sit on their company’s executive committee. The proportion reporting directly to the CEO rose from 40% in 2023 to 47% in 2025.

Gartner’s 2026 CCO Spend Survey⁠ found that although 46% of communications leaders across North America and Europe reported budget cuts resulting from company-wide cost reductions, PR remained their largest area of communications expenditure, accounting for 14.3% of budgets. Crisis communications recorded the largest year-on-year increase among the activities measured.

“Taken together, these findings help explain why communications expertise needs a place in leadership discussions,” Henry said. “Communications cannot be treated simply as the function that explains decisions after they have been made.”

Henry said purposeful investment should help organisations identify potential risks early, understand which stakeholders matter most and prepare before an issue begins to undermine confidence. It should strengthen stakeholder relationships, monitoring, crisis preparedness and senior counsel rather than focus only on generating coverage.

AI is also changing how communications teams work. The 2026 Ragan Communications Benchmark Report⁠, based on more than 800 communicators worldwide, found that 50% were using AI to produce more content, while 29% were reinvesting the time saved in strategy and 24% in measurement and analysis.

Henry said AI can also support research, monitoring and analysis, but these applications must be combined with experienced human judgement.

“AI can help teams process information and identify patterns more quickly, but it cannot take responsibility for difficult decisions or fully understand cultural context, relationships and emotion,” he said. “The opportunity is to use technology to strengthen human expertise, not substitute for it.”

For 2027, Henry identified three priorities: build trust before it is needed, prepare for reputational risk before it becomes a crisis, and bring communications expertise into business decision-making from the outset. Reputation, he added that should be treated as a cross-functional responsibility involving leadership, operations, employees and communications advisers.

“As businesses become faster and more data-driven, trust may become harder to build and more valuable at the same time,” Henry said. “Leaders do not need to turn every decision into a PR exercise, but they must understand how decisions may be interpreted by the people on whom the organisation depends. Investing in communications expertise provides the insight, preparedness and judgement needed to protect trust while the business grows.”