United States

Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

As Meltwater Summit 2026 entered its second day in New York City, conversations moved forwards from where communications and marketing are headed, to how brands can actively shape what comes next.

Across sessions on AI-powered workflows, creator-led campaigns, corporate storytelling, crisis preparedness, and data-driven decision-making, speakers explored what it takes to build trust and relevance in an increasingly fragmented information landscape.

From the FIFA World Cup’s cultural strategy to Mars’ efforts to connect its corporate brand to everyday consumers, Day 2 highlighted a communications industry balancing rapid technological change with a renewed focus on authenticity and human connection.

Here’s a recap of the biggest insights and themes from Day 2 at Meltwater Summit 2026. (You can check out day 1 here.)

Inside the Marketing Playbook of the FIFA World Cup

How AI Is Reshaping Communications Strategy

How Brands Are Building Corporate Relevance Through Culture

Three Key Themes from Meltwater Summit 2026 Day 2

Bettina Garibaldi, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer for the FIFA World Cup 2026 NYNJ Host Committee, opened Day 2 with an inside look at one of the world’s most ambitious marketing and operational undertakings.

The 2026 tournament will span three countries, 16 host cities, 48 qualifying teams, and 104 matches over 40 days, culminating with the final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. But beyond the scale, Garibaldi emphasized the importance of making the World Cup feel personal and culturally relevant to local audiences.

Rather than treating the event purely as a sports moment, FIFA is positioning the World Cup as a broader cultural experience that intersects with fashion, food, creators, music, and community engagement. Fan zones, art installations, local ambassador programs, and neighborhood initiatives are all designed to connect with audiences far beyond core soccer fans.

Garibaldi also highlighted how AI is helping streamline workflows and improve operational efficiency while reinforcing the importance of preparedness, crisis planning, and cross-agency coordination for an event of this scale.

The real creativity is in identifying how I can reach somebody who might not be interested in soccer. My job is to ensure we are creating and designing moments and experiences that people want to be a part of. 

Bettina Garibaldi, FIFA World Cup 2026 NYNJ Host Committee

Artificial intelligence remained one of the defining conversations throughout Day 2, with speakers exploring how AI is transforming everything from audience targeting and content creation to crisis management and analytics workflows.

During “The Smart Shift: Using AI to Supercharge Comms Strategy,” Meltwater’s Antony Cousins outlined how the industry has evolved from traditional media, to algorithm-driven social feeds, and now into an era of AI-powered personalization at scale.

Instead of communicating to audience segments, brands increasingly face a future of “infinite personalization,” where AI tools tailor information to individuals based on their interests, values, and behaviors. Cousins emphasized that while AI can automate processes and accelerate analysis, human strengths like empathy, judgment, creativity, and strategic thinking remain irreplaceable.

He also described how AI agents and skills-based architectures are changing the way communicators interact with software, shifting teams away from manual workflows and toward more goal-oriented systems.

AI can deliver the lightning bug all day long. Humans still need to bring the lightning. 

That same balance between technology and human insight appeared in multiple sessions throughout the day. In “From Data to Decisions,” panelists from Havas PR, We Communications, Point600, Marketbridge, and Meltwater emphasized that AI is only as useful as the context and structure behind the data powering it.

Meanwhile, Noah Greenberg, CEO of Stacker, explored how AI-powered search is changing discoverability online. As large language models increasingly rely on earned media citations when generating responses, communications teams have an opportunity to shape visibility through trusted editorial coverage rather than traditional SEO alone.

Together, these sessions reinforced that rather than replacing communications professionals, AI is elevating the importance of strategic communicators who can provide context, direction, and trust.

How do LLMs surface and cite content from LinkedIn? 

At Meltwater Summit, Chris Hackney from Meltwater and Gina Kleiner from LinkedIn for Marketing just took the stage to tease something big: a new… | Meltwater

Several Day 2 sessions explored how brands are moving beyond traditional corporate messaging to create stronger emotional and cultural connections with audiences.

Ana Baptista from Mars Incorporated shared how the company uses communications to support business-critical priorities by increasing awareness of the broader Mars portfolio, from pet nutrition and veterinary health to sustainability and local economic impact.

Using data-backed audience insights, Mars discovered that the more consumers understood the full scope of the company’s work, the more positively they viewed the corporate brand. Campaigns like “I Was Today Years Old When I Learned” used short-form social storytelling to connect familiar consumer brands like M&M’s and Pedigree back to Mars itself, particularly among Gen Z audiences.

At the same time, Mars paired emotional storytelling with measurable business objectives. Through partnerships with Calm and research into the human-animal bond, the company connected its pet care business to broader conversations around mental wellness and emotional health.

The emphasis on authenticity and emotional connection also appeared in sessions focused on creators and influencer partnerships.

SHEIN’s Lisa Zlotnick and Jennifer Brown explained how the brand’s Festival House campaign generated hundreds of millions of impressions by integrating creators directly into the campaign experience and allowing them creative freedom to produce authentic content.

Later in the day, a panel featuring creator Alaska, Canon’s Gareth Crew, and Meltwater’s Neil Brennan explored how platforms like Snapchat are reshaping creator marketing through more personal, high-frequency audience engagement.

Speakers emphasized that creators increasingly function less like paid amplifiers and more like community builders with highly engaged audiences. Rather than polished one-off sponsorships, successful partnerships often center around authentic behind-the-scenes storytelling and ongoing interaction.

Across sessions featuring experts from FIFA, YouTube, Mars, Microsoft, Canva, Six Flags, Havas PR, News Corp Australia, SHEIN, and more, three themes consistently emerged throughout the day.

1. Authentic communities are more valuable than mass reach.

Whether discussing YouTube creators, Snapchat audiences, or creator-led campaigns, speakers consistently emphasized that influence now comes from trust and community connection rather than scale alone.

Andrew Peterson from YouTube highlighted how niche communities have become some of the platform’s most powerful engagement drivers, with creators building long-term trust through personalized, highly specific content.

Similarly, speakers from Canon and Snapchat discussed how creators can drive stronger engagement by integrating brands naturally into everyday content rather than relying on polished campaign messaging alone.

The consistent takeaway: audiences increasingly reward authenticity, consistency, and relatability over traditional advertising approaches.

Trust and reputation management appeared throughout Day 2, particularly as AI-generated misinformation, narrative attacks, and deepfakes become more sophisticated.

During “Trust Under Pressure,” executives from Microsoft, Blackbird.AI, and We Communications explored how communications teams must now distinguish between genuine public backlash and coordinated disinformation campaigns in real time.

At the same time, McKenna Kelley from Jabil demonstrated how proactive crisis monitoring, localized listening strategies, and cross-functional stakeholder alignment can help brands identify issues before they escalate.

For many organizations, communications teams are increasingly becoming central players in organizational resilience and risk management.

Trust today is continuously computed, happening in almost real time. 

3. Data only matters if people understand the story behind it.

From PR measurement to executive presentations, multiple sessions reinforced that data becomes valuable only when it drives clear action and understanding.

Genevieve Brammall from News Corp Australia shared how her PR Value Score framework helped connect communications activity directly to business outcomes, moving PR conversations beyond vanity metrics and into measurable organizational impact.

Meanwhile, Canva’s Duncan Clark explored how visualization and storytelling dramatically improve audience comprehension and engagement with data. Rather than overwhelming audiences with dashboards and spreadsheets, he encouraged communicators to focus on clarity, pacing, narrative, and memorable visuals.

No one ever makes a decision because of a number. They need a story. 

As Day 2 of Meltwater Summit 2026 came to a close, the conversations reflected an industry in transition,  one where AI is accelerating workflows, creators are reshaping influence, and audiences are demanding greater trust and authenticity from brands.

But across every session, one idea remained constant: technology alone is not enough. The brands and communicators who succeed in this new environment will be the ones that combine data, creativity, empathy, and cultural understanding to create stories people genuinely care about.

1. What were the biggest themes at Meltwater Summit 2026 Day 2?

Day 2 focused heavily on AI-powered communications, creator-led storytelling, trust and reputation management, and the growing importance of authentic audience engagement.

2. How is AI changing communications workflows?

Speakers discussed how AI is helping teams automate repetitive tasks, analyze larger volumes of data, personalize content, and improve operational efficiency. However, many also stressed that human creativity, empathy, and strategic judgment remain essential.

3. What did speakers say about creator marketing?

Sessions from YouTube, SHEIN, Canon, and Snapchat highlighted how creators are evolving from campaign amplifiers into long-term community builders and trusted voices with highly engaged audiences.

4. Why is earned media becoming more important in the AI era?

As AI-powered search engines increasingly rely on trusted editorial citations when generating responses, earned media is becoming a major driver of AI visibility and discoverability online.

5. How are brands connecting corporate reputation to culture?

Companies like Mars emphasized the importance of helping audiences understand the broader story behind the brands they already know and trust, using data-backed storytelling and cultural relevance to strengthen corporate reputation.

Key Takeaways from Meltwater Summit 2026 Day 2

Misinformation is everywhere. It spreads faster than facts and, thanks in part to AI, looks more convincing than ever. When misinformation circulates, it can wreck your brand before your team even spots it.

Platforms like Meltwater help you cut through the noise and spot false narratives early. This gives you a chance to respond before things spiral. They combine AI, human analysis, and real-time monitoring so you’re not flying blind.

Here’s a closer look at the top misinformation detection software in 2026 and how they can help you fight farce with facts.

The Urgent Need for Misinformation Detection in the Age of AI

What Is Misinformation Detection (And Why It’s Harder Than It Sounds)

The Top Misinformation Detection Tools 2026 You Should Know

How to Choose the Right Misinformation Detection Tool

The Real Payoff: Why Misinformation Detection Software Actually Matters

FAQs About Misinformation Detection Software

AI changed content creation, most notably by breaking the scale.

Here’s the real problem: misinformation exists, but it also performs.

It gets clicks, shares, and engagement, which compound its presence. That means it spreads further and faster, with more impact than ever before.

Brands get hit with reputational damage and lost trust. These have real financial impacts, so actively detecting misinformation is an absolute must. Otherwise, you end up reacting to damage late instead of preventing it or nipping it in the bud.

Misinformation detection is finding and flagging false or misleading content.

Along with dealing with fake news, you’re sorting through misleading statistics, out-of-context claims, manipulated images and videos, and coordinated narratives designed to look credible.

All of it spreads across multiple channels at the same time, which makes it harder to track and even harder to contain.

That’s why modern tools lean on a mix of technologies. They use machine learning to spot patterns and language processing to understand context and tone. Visual analysis can detect altered media, while network tracking can see how information moves and who’s amplifying it.

Because misinformation can take multiple forms and go viral in an instant, manual monitoring just can’t keep up. 

There’s no shortage of tools claiming to solve misinformation. Most of them sound similar on the surface, but they don’t all solve the same problem.

Some focus on real-time monitoring. Others go deeper into verification and analysis. A few can help you avoid unreliable sources altogether.

The key is knowing what you actually need, whether that’s early detection, deeper investigation, or better visibility into how narratives are spreading.

Here are the platforms worth paying attention to right now:

Meltwater acts as your early warning system. It tracks billions of data points across news, blogs, traditional media, social, and digital channels in real time. With real-time monitoring, you can spot narrative shifts before they become headlines.

Detects emerging misinformation trends early

Gives you dashboards your team will actually use

Best for: brands that want full visibility and faster response times

Most teams don’t struggle with data; they struggle with timing. By the time a spike shows up in a weekly report, it’s already a problem.

Meltwater flips that. It compresses the gap between signal and action so your team can move while there’s still time to shape the narrative, not just react to it. That’s a huge difference when conversations can spiral in hours.

It also centralizes what’s usually scattered. Instead of jumping between tools to piece together what’s happening, you get one clear view across channels. That kind of visibility makes alignment easier across PR, social, comms, and leadership teams. Everyone sees the same story, which means faster decisions and fewer mixed messages when it matters most.

Interested in learning more? Book a meeting today!

Logically AI goes deep on detection. It blends AI with human analysts to verify claims, identify coordinated campaigns, and map how misinformation spreads.

Best for: teams that need investigative-level insight

This is less about monitoring volume and more about understanding intent. Logically AI digs into why it’s trending and who is pushing it. That’s critical when misinformation isn’t random but coordinated. If you’re dealing with organized campaigns, surface-level insights won’t cut it.

The human + AI approach matters more than most teams expect. Pure automation can miss nuance, while manual analysis doesn’t scale. Combining both gives you speed without sacrificing accuracy.

NewsGuard takes a different approach by focusing on source credibility. Instead of chasing every piece of content, it scores the sources behind them.

Rates news sites based on trustworthiness

Helps teams avoid unreliable inputs entirely

Best for: organizations focused on content validation and media literacy

This flips the typical workflow. Instead of reacting to questionable content after it spreads, you filter brand risk at the source. That’s a smarter way to reduce noise, especially when your team is overwhelmed with volume. If you know which outlets consistently publish unreliable information, you can deprioritize them before they influence your strategy.

It’s also a strong fit for teams focused on long-term credibility. When you build your monitoring and decision-making on trusted sources, your outputs get sharper. Messaging becomes more grounded, and you spend less time debunking and more time communicating. 

Blackbird.AI focuses on narrative intelligence. It detects, analyzes, and predicts how information operations and disinformation campaigns evolve across digital ecosystems.

Identifies narrative manipulation in real time

Maps how stories move across platforms and communities

Uses AI to predict potential reputational threats

Best for: brands facing complex narrative risk or operating in high-stakes environments

This is where things move beyond monitoring into foresight. Blackbird.AI shows you what’s happening now and where a narrative is going. That predictive layer is a big deal when you’re dealing with fast-moving or politically charged conversations that can escalate overnight.

It’s especially useful when reputation risk isn’t isolated to one channel. Narratives today don’t stay in one place; they jump from fringe forums to mainstream media fast. Blackbird helps you track that journey so you’re not caught off guard when something suddenly breaks into the spotlight.

Brandwatch is built for deep consumer intelligence at scale. It combines social listening, analytics, and audience insights to help brands understand what people are saying and what it means.

Advanced social listening across global channels

Audience segmentation and insight generation

Custom dashboards for cross-team reporting

Best for: teams that want to connect reputation signals to broader consumer behavior

Context is Brandwatch’s strong suit. Instead of just telling you when sentiment drops, it helps you connect that shift to specific audiences, campaigns, or moments. That’s key if you’re trying to move from reactive reputation management to a proactive strategy.

It also plays well across teams. Marketing, insights, and comms can all pull from the same data but use it differently. When everyone’s working from the same source of truth, you get faster decisions and fewer internal gaps when pressure hits.

There’s no single “best” tool here. It all comes down to what you’re trying to solve. Start with this:

Before you spend money on a tool, take a hard look at where misinformation is most likely to affect your brand. That could be social media, news coverage, internal comms, or a mix of all three.

The point is to get specific early. Different risks create different problems, and they won’t all require the same setup. When teams skip this step, they usually end up paying for more than they need.

Focus on the features that will actually help your team

A long feature list can look impressive. But that doesn’t mean your team will use half of it.

Keep your attention on the capabilities that make your response faster and easier to manage. Real-time monitoring and strong AI and NLP matter in brand reputation management.

Dashboards matter: if your team can’t make sense of the data quickly, the tool won’t help much. Custom alerts are also worth prioritizing, so you can catch important shifts without drowning in noise.

The Meltwater Blog

Key Takeaways from Meltwater Summit 2026 Day 2

Top Misinformation Detection Software Solutions in 2026

Key Takeaways from Meltwater Summit 2026: Day 1

What Is Substack Marketing? How Leading Brands Use It

AI-Generated Misinformation: Detect Harmful Narratives in LLMs

The Ultimate Guide to X (Twitter) Social Listening for Influencer & Social Teams

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Introducing Verified YouTube Data in Meltwater Influencer Marketing

PR Crisis Management: 10 Steps to Protect Your Brand in 2026

The Top Branded Influencer Posts of Coachella 2026

How LLMs Recommend Sunscreen Brands: An Analysis of AI Search Visibility in SPF

The 13 Best Market Research Tools in 2026