From Measurement to Management: A New Era for Brand & Reputation

An interview with Kasper Ulf Nielsen, Co-Founder, Acumion

Your recent study explored how CMOs and CCOs are responding to AI. What was the biggest takeaway?

The biggest finding was the gap between ambition and readiness.

Our study suggests that executives recognize AI will fundamentally change their responsibilities, but they are far less confident that their organizations are prepared to capitalize on it.

I think that reflects a broader challenge. Much of the conversation about AI in marketing and communications still revolves around productivity, automation, and doing existing things faster.

But the bigger opportunity is to rethink how these functions operate.

“The biggest opportunity with AI isn’t doing the same things faster. It’s fundamentally changing what we are capable of doing.”

For me, brand and reputation management are perfect examples of that opportunity.

CMOs and CCOs have different priorities. Why do you believe they need a more connected approach?

CMOs are typically focused on growth, customer preference, brand strength, and commercial performance. CCOs are more focused on trust, stakeholder relationships, corporate reputation, and risk.

Our synthetic study reflected those differences.

But customers, employees, investors, regulators, and the broader public don’t experience a company through separate marketing and communications functions.

They form perceptions based on everything they see, hear, and experience. Those perceptions influence whether people buy your products, recommend your brand, trust your company, or support your business.

“Brand drives preference. Reputation builds trust. Both are shaped by stakeholder perceptions, and both ultimately influence business performance.”

That is why I believe CMOs and CCOs need a more connected intelligence foundation, even when their objectives and responsibilities differ.

What needs to change about traditional brand and reputation management?

For decades, companies have invested heavily in measuring brand performance and corporate reputation.

They survey customers and stakeholders, analyze perceptions, identify drivers, benchmark competitors, and develop recommendations.

That intelligence is valuable. But too often, the process effectively stops with the report.

Responsibility then passes to separate strategy, marketing, communications, creative, and media teams. By the time actions are implemented, the market or stakeholder environment may already have changed.

And when the next measurement arrives, the organization often starts the process again.

“We’ve become very good at measuring brands and reputations. The next challenge is becoming equally good at managing them.”

The problem isn’t the quality of traditional research. It’s the fragmented process connecting intelligence to action.

How does AI change that operating model?

AI allows us to connect activities that have traditionally been separated.

We can bring together stakeholder intelligence, brand and reputation research, AI-LLM signals, data analytics, strategy, content creation, activation, and optimization in one continuous process.

Instead of moving through disconnected projects, companies can operate through an integrated platform where intelligence informs action, and the results of those actions inform the next decisions.

That is what we mean by a new operating model for Brand & Reputation Management.

It is AI-powered, stakeholder-focused, and designed to connect intelligence directly to activation.

“The future of brand and reputation management isn’t another dashboard. It’s a connected intelligence and activation platform.”

Where do Digital Twins fit into this model?

Digital Twins change how we can develop customer and stakeholder intelligence.

Traditional research tells us how people perceive a brand or company at a particular point in time. Digital Twins allow us to explore how different audiences might respond to potential decisions, messages, products, and actions.

At Acumion, we use a structured personality framework to model motivations, decision-making styles, trust formation, and attitudes toward change.

For a CMO, that could mean exploring customer reactions to a new brand position, campaign, or market-entry strategy.

For a CCO, it could mean exploring how investors, regulators, employees, or the public might respond to a corporate decision or reputational issue.

Synthetic intelligence must be developed transparently and validated against real-world evidence. But it introduces something extremely valuable: the ability to bring stakeholder intelligence into the decision-making process much earlier.

“The real breakthrough isn’t faster research. It’s being able to explore stakeholder reactions before you make the decision.”

You also emphasize AI-LLM signals. Why are they becoming important for both brand and reputation?

Because AI is changing how people discover, evaluate, and form opinions about companies.

A customer asks an AI assistant which brand to choose. An investor asks about corporate governance. A policymaker asks whether a company behaves responsibly.

Increasingly, AI systems interpret information from multiple sources and provide an answer.

We call this the AI-LLM Interpretation Layer.

Companies now need to understand not only what customers and stakeholders think about them, but also how AI systems explain and recommend their brands and businesses.

That means identifying the sources, information, and narratives influencing AI-generated answers and understanding whether those interpretations support or undermine brand preference and corporate trust.

“You can invest millions in building your brand and reputation, only to discover that AI is telling a very different story about your company.”

The opportunity is to connect human stakeholder intelligence with AI-LLM intelligence and use both to guide marketing and communications decisions.

How does Acumion turn that intelligence into action?

This is where our approach becomes fundamentally different from traditional measurement.

We start with many of the same questions: How do customers and stakeholders perceive the brand and company? What drives those perceptions? Where are the opportunities and risks?

But we don’t stop with the analysis.

Our platform connects seven activities: Measure, Analyze, Find Drivers, Report, Create, Activate, and Optimize.

The first four establish the intelligence foundation. We combine stakeholder research, Digital Twins, AI-LLM signals, and analytics to identify what matters and where action is needed.

The next three turn intelligence into brand and reputation management.

We develop communications and content tailored to specific audiences, activate across earned, owned, and paid channels, and continuously track and optimize performance.

“Insights don’t build stronger brands or reputations. What you do with those insights does.”

The objective is to connect what we learn about people directly to the actions that influence their perceptions, preferences, and behavior.

What does this mean for how companies should invest?

I believe it changes where companies should focus their investment.

Traditionally, organizations have invested separately in research, strategy, creative development, media, and communications execution.

Our model brings the intelligence foundation together within the Acumion platform.

Clients then invest in the activities that actively build their brands and strengthen their reputations: creating relevant communications and content, activating across the stakeholder ecosystem, and continuously optimizing performance.

That is a different proposition from buying another measurement report.

“Companies shouldn’t have to choose between understanding their brand and reputation and doing something about it. The two should be part of the same system.”

And the ultimate objective is not a better brand or reputation score for its own sake. It is stronger customer preference, greater stakeholder support, improved market access, and sustainable business advantage.

What is your message to CMOs and CCOs preparing for this change?

Don’t start by asking how AI can make your existing processes more efficient.

Ask what becomes possible when you redesign those processes around AI.

For brand and reputation management, I believe the opportunity is clear.

We can move from periodic measurement to continuous intelligence. From fragmented handoffs to connected activation. And from reporting on what happened to anticipating what might happen next.

That doesn’t eliminate the importance of research, strategy, creativity, or human expertise. It makes them more valuable by connecting them in a system that can learn and improve continuously.

“For decades, companies have invested in measuring their brands and reputations. We believe the real opportunity is to invest in managing them.”

At Acumion, that is exactly what we are building.

Same starting point. A very different outcome.

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About the study: The CMO & CCO Agenda 2026 is an exploratory Acumion study based on 200 AI-generated executive personas across 20 industries. The findings are synthetic research outputs, not interviews with real executives or representative estimates of executive opinion.