AI tops corporate priorities for first time, reshaping reputation and intangible asset management

For the first time in its eleven-year history, a sweeping study of corporate priorities across Iberoamerica has crowned artificial intelligence as the dominant concern reshaping how organizations think about reputation, trust, and intangible assets. The Approaching the Future 2026 report, compiled by Corporate Excellence-Centre for Reputation Leadership in partnership with Canvas Estrategias Sostenibles and the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, surveyed more than 2,100 professionals to understand which invisible forces—reputation, communication, talent, purpose—matter most to the modern enterprise. What emerged was a decisive reordering: AI now claims 55.5 percent importance and concentrates 47 percent of organizational resources and effort, displacing the priorities that have dominated the conversation for a decade.

The shift is not merely numerical. AI has moved from the margins of strategic planning into the center of how companies think about their future. In Spain, 61.4 percent of organizations now rank it as their most pressing concern; in Latin America, 52.8 percent do. Yet there is a gap between aspiration and action. Only 54.8 percent of Spanish organizations and 43.4 percent of Latin American ones report actively working on AI implementation. When they do engage, the focus falls first on training and upskilling employees, then on deploying AI for content creation and communication work. The real obstacles—continuous learning requirements, governance structures, and the organizational restructuring that AI demands—remain largely unresolved.

Communication holds the second position at 52.8 percent importance, and it continues to absorb the largest share of corporate resources at 48.3 percent. Organizations are pouring effort into creating original content, building narratives around corporate purpose, and experimenting with new formats and channels. Yet the field faces a persistent blind spot: few can convincingly demonstrate that communication actually moves the needle on business performance or strengthens corporate reputation. Reputation itself, along with reputational risk, ranks third at 49.4 percent importance—particularly in Latin America, where it leads at 52.9 percent. The trend here points toward integration: companies are weaving reputation management into their core decision-making systems and risk frameworks, connecting it directly to business outcomes and social legitimacy.

The arrival of AI introduces what executives call a new scenario. Algorithms now shape how reputation forms and spreads; they amplify or diminish trust in ways that traditional communication strategies cannot fully control. María Luisa Martínez Gistau, president of Corporate Excellence and head of communication at CaixaBank, framed the challenge during the report's presentation: technology must serve as an engine of progress, but it cannot replace human judgment, responsibility, or the capacity to build genuine relationships. "Our task as corporate communicators," she said, "is not simply to adopt AI, but to do so without losing what defines us: human perspective, purpose, and trust." The tension is real. Innovation and authenticity must somehow coexist.

Responsible leadership ranks fourth at 48.6 percent, while talent management and new work models occupy fifth place at 47.7 percent. The study identifies talent and organizational structure as prerequisites for successful technological transformation—you cannot deploy AI effectively without the people and systems to support it. Sustainability, once a rising priority, has begun to fade. Spain saw a 20-point drop in a single year, suggesting that the urgency around climate and social impact is competing for attention and resources against the AI imperative. Isabel López Triana, general director of Canvas Estrategias Sostenibles, cautioned that sustainability remains strategically vital, but organizations must move beyond commitments to demonstrate tangible results and long-term value creation.

For the first time, the study also incorporates public affairs and government relations into its analysis of corporate priorities. The inclusion reflects a hard reality: companies now face mounting exposure to regulatory, institutional, and geopolitical forces that shape their operating environment. The implication is clear—the old model of managing intangible assets in silos no longer works. Reputation, communication, brand, purpose, sustainability, and public affairs must connect to business decision-making systems, performance metrics, and long-term value creation. The organizations that succeed will be those that integrate these elements rather than treating them as separate domains. AI will accelerate this shift, but only if companies can harness it without surrendering the human judgment and authentic relationships that trust ultimately requires.