Yorkshire PR and AI expert to speak at Davos Communications Summit

Stuart Bruce, co-CEO of Leeds-based consultancy Purposeful Relations and a recognised authority on AI and communications strategy, will address the Davos Communications Summit on 23–24 April to make the case that businesses must stop treating artificial intelligence as a tool and start managing it as a stakeholder.
Bruce will join an international expert panel examining whether trust can be measured in a world increasingly shaped by AI. The session “Can you measure trust in an AI world?” will explore how trust now directly affects revenue, risk and long-term growth, and what chief executives can realistically measure to guide decisions on brand investment and reputation strategy.

“Most organisations still think of AI as something they deploy. That misses the point entirely,” said Stuart Bruce, co-CEO of Purposeful Relations. “AI now influences what your customers read, what journalists write and what investors believe about your company. It isn’t a tool sitting in your IT department. It’s a stakeholder that shapes your reputation whether you engage with it or not. The companies treating generative engine optimisation (GEO) as simply the new SEO are making a dangerous oversimplification. Managing AI as a stakeholder means understanding how it mediates every relationship you have.

The panel is moderated by Catherine Blades, former chief communications officer for Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and other major US corporations. The other expert panellists are Iryna Zolotarevych, special advisor to the Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine and former special sdvisor to the Prime Minister of Ukraine; Andre Williams, strategic communication advisor at Answer Key PR (USA); and Stephen Hahn-Griffiths, chief reputation and strategy officer at The RepTrak Company (USA).

Bruce is the elected Regional President for Europe of the World Communications Forum Association (WCFA) in Davos, which hosts the summit. Purposeful Relations was recently appointed as the first-ever AI partner of the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), providing AI adoption strategy and training, AI as a stakeholder and generative engine optimisation (GEO) strategy, and social licence for AI advisory to win stakeholder trust for AI.

On 21 April Bruce is speaking about AI as a stakeholder on another expert panel with Professor Anne Gregory, Professor Emeritus of Corporate Communication at the University of Huddersfield.

At the 2025 Davos Communications Summit, Bruce moderated an expert panel on the impact of AI on public relations, drawing speakers from across Europe, Africa and Asia.