When I first read Worldcom’s 2026 Future of Communications report, my first reaction was: this is not a “future trend” deck anymore – this is our daily reality, just accelerated.
As someone who has moved between academia and agency work in Vietnam and across Asia, I’ve watched the industry change with social media, then influencers, then data, and now AI. Each wave felt big. But the AI wave feels different. It doesn’t just add new tools; it quietly rewrites the rules of trust, visibility, and what it means to do PR well.
AI is no longer a toy – it’s the new infrastructure
The report makes it very clear: AI has moved from “let’s test this new tool” to “it’s embedded into almost everything we do.” Media monitoring, reporting, sentiment tracking, first-draft writing. AI is already eating these tasks.
From my experience working with young teams in Vietnam, I see two very different reactions. Some juniors are scared: “If the machine can write press releases, what’s left for me?” Others are too excited and over-trust the tool: “ChatGPT will do it all.”
As a PR practitioner, I think this means we need to reframe our own value. AI can write words, but it doesn’t understand consequences. It can summarize news, but it doesn’t feel how a sentence will land in a specific culture, in a particular political climate, or with a sensitive stakeholder group. That’s where we survive, and thrive.
If I had to summarize this shift for our region, it would be:
- AI does the typing.
- We do the thinking.
- Clients will pay for judgment, not just output.
Trust is the new currency – and it’s getting harder to earn
Across the report, different agency leaders repeat the same anxiety: in 2026, our biggest challenge isn’t getting attention, it’s getting belief. When any person with a laptop can generate fake quotes, fake videos, fake “expert” opinions in seconds, every message can be questioned.
In Vietnam and Asia, this is especially tricky. We are highly social, highly connected, and often mobile-first. Rumors travel faster than corrections. Screenshots are shared out of context. A deepfake doesn’t need to be perfect – it just needs to appear at the right moment in the right Facebook group or Zalo chat.
From my experience handling crises, I’ve learned that once doubt enters the conversation, it never fully disappears. You can correct information, but you can’t completely erase the emotional impact of that first shock.
So when the report talks about moving from “storytelling” to “story stewardship,” I find that language very accurate. Our job is no longer just to craft messages; our job is to:
- Build systems that make truth easier to verify
- Keep our spokespeople visible and human
- Design communication processes that still work when the environment is full of synthetic content
In other words, we don’t just “tell” stories anymore – we protect them.
Misinformation isn’t a crisis event – it’s the background noise
One part of the report that I think every Asian marketer should pay attention to is the discussion on misinformation and disinformation. It describes 2026 as the tipping point where misinformation becomes a constant condition, not an occasional crisis.
Honestly, I already feel this in my daily work. Clients come to us not just with, “We had a crisis,” but with, “There are strange rumors everywhere, we don’t know which ones to respond to.” The volume is exhausting.
From my experience, the companies that cope better with this new reality share a few traits:
- They monitor conversations before something goes wrong, not just in panic mode.
- They have clear internal rules on who can respond, through which channels, and how fast.
- They train their leaders to face the camera and show up as real people, not just logos issuing statements.
The report talks about “truth architecture” – building structures for verification, rapid response, and transparency. For our market, I would translate that into a very practical message:
If you don’t prepare a structure now, you will improvise under pressure later – and improvisation in a deepfake era is dangerous.
Content: more AI, but audiences want more human
Another interesting tension in the report is about video and audio. Technology makes it incredibly easy to produce polished content: auto-editing tools, voice cloning, AI presenters, and synthetic B-roll. Even a small team in Ho Chi Minh City or Jakarta can now produce something that looks like it came from a big studio.
But here is the paradox: the more perfect content we see, the more we crave imperfection.
As a PR practitioner, I think this means 2026 content strategies will have to grow up. We can’t just chase trends on TikTok or Reels with highly produced pieces and expect trust to follow. Instead:
- Short-form video will still dominate, but the ones that work will feel slightly unpolished and very human.
- Podcasts and long-form conversations will become more important for B2B, thought leadership, and serious topics – especially when people are tired of “shiny” content but still want depth.
- Brands will need to label AI use clearly and show real behind-the-scenes moments if they want to be believed.
I’ve seen that audiences in Vietnam respond very strongly when they feel they are “seeing the real person,” not just the brand. In a deepfake world, that feeling will be priceless.
Earned media becomes the backbone of AI-era discoverability
One of the most striking points in the report is the prediction that by 2026, traditional search engines will lose a significant share of information discovery to AI chatbots and answer engines.
These AI systems don’t just crawl websites; they prioritize credible, third-party sources – established media, reputable platforms, recognized experts. That means:
If you are invisible to journalists and trusted outlets, you will also be invisible to AI-driven discovery.
For PR in Vietnam and Asia, this quietly upgrades the importance of earned media. It’s no longer just “nice PR coverage” – it is a critical input into how AI will describe your brand.
Working with both local and international media, I think we will see more demand for:
- Serious thought leadership pieces, not just event coverage
- Deep, well-sourced articles that AI tools can safely rely on
- Consistent presence in respected outlets, not a one-time “splash”
We used to talk about SEO. Now we have to think about AEO – Answer Engine Optimization. And PR is at the center of that.
So what should communication professionals in Vietnam & Asia actually do?
If I had to turn all of these insights into a simple checklist for our region, it would look like this:
- Invest in AI literacy – not only “how to prompt,” but also ethics, bias, and verification.
- Redefine junior roles – train them to be analysts, strategists, relationship builders, not just content producers.
- Build misinformation playbooks – don’t wait for the first deepfake to start thinking about your response.
- Focus on human presence – leaders who can show up, speak clearly, and show emotion will become key assets.
- Strengthen earned media relationships – your future visibility in AI systems depends partly on your visibility in credible media today.
The teams that adapt fastest are not the ones with the fanciest tools; they are the ones who are willing to rethink how they define their own job. They stop asking, “Will AI replace me?” and start asking, “How can AI free me to do the part of this work that only a human can do?”
PR is becoming what it was always meant to be
Reading the report, I don’t see a future where PR disappears. I see a future where PR finally becomes indispensable again – not for writing press releases, but for navigating a world where truth is contested, technology is powerful, and audiences are skeptical.
As a PR practitioner, I think this is both a challenge and an invitation.
We can either defend the old tasks we used to do, or step into a new identity:
- not just storytellers,
- but stewards of truth in an AI-saturated world.
For Vietnam and Asia, where everything is moving fast, I believe those who embrace this new role early will shape not just their brands’ reputations, but also the quality of our public conversations in the years to come.
About the Author – Dr. Clāra Ly-Le
Dr. Clāra Ly-Le is a public relations scholar and practitioner with more than a decade of experience advising multinational brands, NGOs, and emerging companies across Vietnam and Asia. She is the Managing Director of EloQ Communications, an award-winning agency recognized for its strategic work in digital communications and crisis management. Clara holds a PhD from Bond University, specializing in social media use in crisis communication, and continues to combine academic rigor with real-world insights. She also serves in leadership roles in higher education, developing curricula for future communication professionals. Her work often bridges data, culture, and human behavior—helping organizations navigate reputation risks, stakeholder dynamics, and the fast-changing digital landscape with clarity and empathy.
The original article was published on EloQ Communications.