Corporate communications leaders at some of the world's largest organisations have adopted "strategic silence" as their default position, staying quiet on potentially divisive issues even when they could authentically speak out.That is the headline finding of the latest Ipsos Reputation Council report, "Life After Predictability," based on 200 one-to-one conversations with senior communications and corporate affairs leaders from 21 global markets. The Council was created in 2009. According to the report, 84% of Reputation Council members said their organisation takes political factors into consideration when deciding whether to speak up about an issue.But 61% said that even if their organisation could authentically speak up, they preferred to stay quiet on potentially divisive issues. That marks a sharp shift from last year, when just 32% said they preferred to stay quiet on contentious topics and 21% said they still preferred to speak up.More than a third, 35%, admitted that in the last 12 months, their organisation had stayed quiet on issues it previously would have spoken out about.Only 17% of Council members agree that their "strategic silence" is a sign of corporate cowardice. The report does not clarify what, other than concerns about potential backlash, is motivating the hesitancy. ESG Goes QuietThe impact is most visible in ESG communications. Almost a quarter, 22%, said they had consciously under-communicated credible ESG progress in the past year.Those still communicating about ESG achievements are doing so in a much more targeted way, with 61% admitting their ESG communications are more targeted than ever.Council members told Ipsos that commitments to more polarising topics like DEI remain, but organisations are less likely to communicate when goals are achieved or "shout loudly" about DEI and ESG topics as they might have in the past."For many organisations, strategic silence has become a deliberate response to a more fragmented, polarised and unpredictable environment," said Milorad Ajder, global service line leader, corporate reputation at Ipsos. "The challenge for communicators today is exercising judgement: knowing which issues to engage with, which battles to fight, and how to help organisations make sound decisions when certainty is unavailable."AI Surge, Governance GapThe other defining theme is artificial intelligence."Meaningful" AI use among Council members has risen from 43% in 2025 to 76% in 2026.Yet only 12% believe their organisation's existing ethical policies are sufficient for AI adoption, highlighting growing concerns around trust, accountability and governance. While respondents said AI has made content cheaper, faster and easier to produce, it is also placing a new premium on human judgement.Council members consistently described LLMs becoming an "intermediary" between organisations and their audiences, influencing what stakeholders learn, believe and share, renewing the importance of earned media and reinforcing the role of reputation in decision-making.Populism As Material RiskCommunications leaders also described a more fragmented stakeholder environment where consensus is harder to achieve and trade-offs increasingly unavoidable.Nearly half, 46%, said populism represents a material risk to their organisation, which Ipsos said reinforces "the need for communicators to help leaders navigate competing expectations, define non-negotiable principles and determine what backlash the organisation can afford to absorb." Future communicators, Ipsos said, "will need to combine storytelling and relationship-building with AI fluency, data literacy, commercial awareness and resilience. Across the report's findings, judgement emerges as a growing source of competitive advantage as information becomes more abundant and machine-generated."(Photo by Smartworks Coworking on Unsplash)