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Raise your hand if you’ve been personally victimized by a company slapping “AI-powered” onto something that feels suspiciously like their same-exact-whatever but with a fresh coat of paint?

Yeah. Us too. 🙋‍♀️

Gird your loins, everyone. AI washing has arrived.

We know what you’re thinking: Great! Another new AI term! Ugh, we’re sorry, but we’re hurting too, okay? So let’s trauma bond. 👯‍♀️

Cause this is different than your average tech hype article. Because a main culprit is…us?!

According to reporting from The Guardian, PR is seeing a surge in AI-related pitches that stretch what products actually do. One PR professional described some of these efforts as requiring "Bikram yoga-level stretches" to manufacture an AI angle.

Oof.

So the uncomfy truth: PR isn’t just witnessing AI washing. We’re being asked to be the instrument of it.

AI washing (think greenwashing’s younger, more algorithmic cousin) is when companies exaggerate or…well, lie, about the role that AI plays in their products. 

It can be subtle: an automation tool suddenly becomes “machine learning,” a run-of-the-mill software update suddenly has an “AI transformation.” Not every AI claim is false. But they can be frustratingly vague by design: no explanation of how it uses AI, no actual proof of how it performs, lots of lofty promises.

Michael Atleson of the FTC said it well: AI has become a hot marketing term, and companies “won’t be able to stop themselves from overusing and abusing.” Andddd yeah, he’s probably right.

AI isn’t just a tech category anymore. It’s a market signal.

Investors reward AI narratives.

Media cycles amplify them.

Companies pivot to AI because the label is valuable.

Case in point: Allbirds. The sustainable footwear brand made headlines after announcing an AI pivot that made its stock soar (like, over 600% or something?!). 

Meaningful transformation? Or just a reflection of anything with “AI” attached to it being Wall Street’s Roman Empire?

It’s even become a strategic reframing tool during layoffs and restructuring. It may really be from broader economic or operational causes, but presenting it this way shapes public perception of a corporation’s priorities (makes them look all into ~growth~. 🙄 Yawn.) 

Sooo then AI washing moves from branding choice to business strategy…and that feels a little iffy.

AI washing shifts from shaping perception to shaping outcomes. It affects investor confidence, employee morale, customer trust, and media credibility. 

BUT, le sigh, if the reality doesn’t match the story, then we’ve got a gap in trust, and once an audience feels that, they don’t forget it. 

And you know what that means! 

A reputation problem! 🥳

So it’s time for a cleanup!

That the PR peeps have to do! 🥳

More and more, PR teams are being asked to

🚩Validate AI claims that are still evolving

🚩Elevate narratives that may outpace product reality

🚩Turn ambiguity into confidence

But the line between positioning and distortion is getting harder to see, especially when AI is treated like the golden ticket to relevance. 

Clients need competitive AI narratives, and the media and audiences keep getting more AI-literate. In turn making them more skeptical.

So PR gets stuck in the middle, sometimes having to stretch the truth about innovations.

The question really is, are we describing innovation? Or manufacturing it? We’ve seen this kind of thing before – so many places started making sustainability claims (greenwashing) that it taught audiences to start asking for receipts. 

AI is going through the same scrutiny phase. 🤨

But we can promise you, the companies that will win aren’t the ones shouting AI from the highest rooftop. They’re the ones that can clearly explain

✅ What it actually does

✅ Why it matters

✅ Provide proof

Credibility is becoming the real differentiator. 

The question isn’t if AI washing exists (it does). The real question is what role comms plays in it. 

More often than not, we’re the ones asked to tell these stories with a straight face (why do we have to do everything ourselves?!). 

This raises a difficult question – and this is where you’re noodling. 

How much do we owe clients? 

And how much do we owe the public?

Ash & Lizzy

Who's going where and why it matters. Not just job shifts - power dynamics, layoffs, and who's headed out.

🥳 Davey Alba is back from maternity leave and has returned to Bloomberg News to cover everything from tech platform accountability to algorithmic bias.

👀 Eater, The Verge, and SB Nation were sold to Penske Media.

🧳 Anissa Gardizy is joining The Wall Street Journal to cover cloud computing and AI infrastructure.

🎉 Sharon Goldman has left Fortune (where she covered AI) to launch an independent media platform called Ground Level AI.

💔 Caroline Hyde has left Bloomberg Television after 18 years.

💔 Joe Keegan was laid off from Sherwood, Robinhood’s news service, along with 10% of the company’s workforce.

🧳 Kevin Roose, a tech columnist at the New York Times, will leave the outlet in August. He plans to start a new media venture focused on AI.

👀 The Stack has agreed to buy Runtime, and the two companies are teaming up to build a powerful enterprise technology journalism platform for tech builders and buyers. The Command Line and Runtime newsletters will be merged.

🧳 Harriet Weber has joined Investors.com/Investor’s Business Daily to cover energy, AI infrastructure, finance, and more.

Get to know Ashley and Lizzy, learn more about The Colab, or pass The Brief along to a friend who should be reading this too.