Who do you trust?
New Dimensions of Influence
Today’s leaders are not short of information.
They are short of trusted insight.
Volatility and the assault on truth and trust — the worse that gets, the more people are defaulting to the brands they trust
The Financial Times surveyed more than 500 business leaders globally to find out where they turn for trusted intelligence.
Finola McDonnell
Listen as Finola McDonnell, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer at the Financial Times, explains the way this new information environment is reshaping content consumption.
EVIDENCE
Evidence that withstands scrutiny
Rapid updates may capture attention. But in a volatile business environment, speed comes second to insight that can withstand scrutiny and support informed judgement.
Decision-makers’ desire for substance is reflected in the formats they choose to consume. Our research shows that most prefer in-depth content to rapid expert takes, and the context and nuance of long-form pieces to short-form summaries.
“I find the media most helpful when they do not push specific conclusions, but instead leave it to readers to understand what is clearly known and what is still a hypothesis,” says Hiroshi Toyofuku, Managing Director at Nikkei Europe.
Data should give leaders the evidence they need to make better decisions, but it is also contributing to the noise. An Oracle study of data overload found that a lack of trust in data has stopped nearly three-quarters of business leaders from making a decision.
Today’s leaders may be operating in data-rich environments, but that does not always translate to a wealth of decision-relevant insight. The FT research confirms this. For any source of information to be trusted, it must be clearly evidenced, accurately reported and independently verifiable.
CONTEXT
Perspectives that provide context
In our information-saturated environment, decision-makers want human connection and real-world context.
Half of leaders agree that conversations with their peers are just as valuable as trusted sources when it comes to informing decisions.
Discussions with experts and networks provide vital context that helps leaders to interpret information: how should it affect their decision-making? What are they missing? Where has the insight come from?
Information that comes directly from the primary source also has built-in accountability. And although AI-curated content is becoming more common, leaders tell us they would trust AI to brief them on decision-relevant topics only with the right parameters in place: clear citations, quality standards and a human review option.
“I would love to trust AI completely, but I’ve seen too many hallucinations and I’ve seen too many mistakes,” says Jon Slade, CEO at the Financial Times.
Whether the source is human or machine, leaders want to scrutinise whether information can be trusted, traced and tested before it guides their strategic business decisions.
People like to convene, they like to hear it themselves, they like to talk to the people who are at the heart of an industry or a topic
CHALLENGE
Ideas that challenge assumptions
Faced with echo chambers, misinformation and low-quality intelligence, decision-makers want insight that tests their assumptions and exposes the gaps in their knowledge.
“When I see headlines that challenge my own assumptions, I pause and try to digest why my understanding is different from this. And if needed, to correct my understanding,” says Nikkei Europe’s Toyofuku.
A growing reliance on AI risks undermining this particular path to trust. The FT research reveals that 82 per cent of leaders worry AI will reinforce confirmation bias by optimising for what they already like.
There is also a danger that information is becoming more homogeneous thanks to the increasing prevalence of AI as a content-generation tool. A recent review of AlphaSense’s library of corporate documents by financial and investment news publisher Barron’s found widespread use of the same single-sentence construction, “It’s not just X, it’s Y”, across 73 corporate documents.
New ideas create the conditions for better judgement and better decisions. That is why influence comes from challenge, not conformity.
Ben Wiener
Listen as Ben Wiener, Global Head of Cognizant Moment, explains how the shift from search engines to generative AI search is increasing confirmation bias.
CREDIBILITY
Brands that carry credibility
Asked what feels hardest about staying informed today, business leaders repeatedly point to the same problem: too much information and not enough time.
For time-poor leaders, trusted brands are a reliable mainstay and a way to rapidly filter out noise. Forty-five per cent of leaders tell us their primary route to decision-relevant information is to go directly to a small set of trusted publishers, while just 3 per cent rely on AI tools and 2 per cent on platform feeds.
Audiences are also gravitating towards more direct formats and what former Head of BBC News Deborah Turness has called “an explosion of independent journalists and commentators hosting podcasts, creating their own YouTube channels and writing their own Substack feeds”. The number of Substack posts published per month jumped from 31,071 in January 2025 to 169,340 in December that year, according to the FT’s analysis of online media and social trends.
Like all audiences, decision-makers will gravitate towards the sources they know they can rely on. This reinforces the direct link between trust, attention and influence.
Nick Fallon
Listen as Nick Fallon, Chief Strategy and Development Officer at the Financial Times, explains the role of brands when trust is under threat.
