#WeLeadComms: Elif Guvencer

Today’s #WeLeadComms honors go to London-based strategist Elif Güvençer.

She shares her take here:

“Persuasion no longer starts from a blank page, it starts from a machine-made baseline.

“A buyer asks an AI assistant which vendors to consider. The system returns a shortlist. That shortlist is two things at once: a commercial gate that decides whether the company makes the cut, and a reputational shorthand that shapes stakeholder opinion before the company has said a word. This gives communications a new reputational mandate.

“At the same time, the same technology is automating the production work communications has historically been measured on -a real risk for value propositions built on outputs rather than outcomes.

“Communications functions that use AI to reclaim strategic bandwidth and redesign for AI-mediated reputation will solidify their position. The rest risk demotion to an executional function.

“If this view did not give it away already, I am a strategist with more than 16 years of experience across agency, in-house and advisory roles, operating at the intersection of corporate reputation, strategic communications and the systems that shape how organisations are understood and trusted.

“I began my career at Ogilvy and Edelman managing communications for global brands. I then moved in house and served as senior strategic lead during the formation of pladis, a multibillion pound snacking company, where I led the global company launch and the creation of the corporate communications function. I am now a Vice President at RepTrak, the reputation intelligence company, advising C-suite leaders on stakeholder perception, communication effectiveness and reputation risk.

“Agency side, in-house, advisory – having seen the communications function from every angle gives me a rare altitude on the risks and rewards AI brings.

“Nowadays, I find myself increasingly occupied with one question: in a world accelerated by AI, how do we pause the immediate clock of what we need to do and focus on the structural one of who we become. I am still working out what that means for me personally. For the communications function, my answer is already there.

“The Two Clocks, an independent framework I published (https://www.reputationsignal.co/two-clocks), defies the idea that AI is a productivity layer for communications and sets out what it changes structurally for the function and, most importantly, what leaders must do before it gets decided for them.”

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