Uniquely Human Capabilities Are Still Needed in the Eye of a Storm
9/17/25 – – All forms of corporate communication are being produced with the assistance of generative artificial intelligence. Some of it is pretty good. But when it comes to the strategic messaging critical to crisis response, AI is an unreliable partner.
Successfully navigating a reputational storm requires human traits difficult for machines to duplicate. Trust, empathy and authenticity empower a company or individual to be persuasive under fire. That’s what audiences look for during a crisis.
Timeless Elements of Persuasion
The philosopher Aristotle, an old-school communications specialist with impeccable credentials, taught us that persuasion (and by extension, crisis response) can be achieved through the use of three rhetorical strategies: ethos, pathos and logos.
In Book 2 of On Rhetoric, Aristotle explained that persuasive messages 1) establish your credibility and ethical character (ethos), 2) appeal to emotions to make people sympathize with you and your position (pathos), and 3) present solid facts and reasoning (logos).
Essentially, when you’re trying to convince someone of something and get yourself out of trouble, your messaging options come down to one or a combination of trust, emotion and logic.
Properly balancing these elements is more an art than a science. Human instincts and experience come into play. In fact, a crisis communicator incorporating ethos, pathos and logos in just the right proportions for a specific crisis situation (no two crises are the same) is a lot like a five-star chef uniquely combining a recipe’s ingredients to create a new, wonderful flavor.
Prompts Are Not Enough
You might be thinking, why can’t communicators dealing with crises simply prompt the generative AI program they’re using to incorporate Aristotelian rhetorical techniques into the prose they’re creating?
There’s no question that AI excels at logic. With the right prompt, relevant (mostly accurate) facts are generated in seconds. But with emotion and trust, AI is less effective.
Aristotle, emphasizing the importance of empathy and human emotion, observed that the most persuasive communicators, in addition to reasoning logically, have the ability:
“. . . to understand human character and goodness in their various forms, and to understand the emotions—that is, to name them and describe them, to know their causes and the way in which they are excited.”
Does AI “understand human character and goodness” or “understand the emotions” and how they are manifested? Most AI experts believe these capabilities are at best years off for even the most sophisticated large language models.
There’s No Shortcut to Trust
Your reputation, earned over time in the real world, is central to successful crisis response. What people think of you heading into a crisis determines the extent to which your messages will be believed and how well you will navigate the storm. Aristotle placed a very high value on reputation:
“It is not true, as some writers assume in their treatises on rhetoric, that the personal goodness revealed by the speaker contributes nothing to his power of persuasion; on the contrary, his character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion he possesses.”
While it’s becoming clearer every day that AI can do a lot of things better than humans, building a foundation of trust is not one of them.
AI’s Supportive Role is Growing
While AI’s homogenized, derivative prose may not be effective during a crisis, AI tools can and are playing an important role in crisis preparedness and response. Issue tracking, vulnerability assessment, audience research and media monitoring are among the functions dramatically enhanced by the professional use of artificial intelligence.
A number of AI programs have “Aristotle” in their names. I think that’s in homage to the philosopher’s timeless wisdom and rhetorical powers programmers hope to tap. At least for now, you can’t rely on algorithms or prompts to deliver authenticity or trust.
I give the win to Aristotle. Communicating with persuasion when a company’s or individual’s future is at stake still requires a human touch.
Crisis Quotient Blog 