We’re living through a historic epidemic of trust. Everything is being questioned, and the truth feels like an oasis among mirages. Belief in government, the media, banks and public institutions seems to be eroding everywhere, and I can’t even doomscroll Instagram or TikTok anymore without assuming half of what I see is AI-generated or every face is AI-enhanced.
A communication environment full of doubt
That’s the environment leaders and businesses are now communicating into.
It’s not that people have become cynical for sport; it’s that the signals we used to rely on to decide what was real have started to blur. The voice in a commercial might not be a person’s. The face in a video might not belong to anyone. A message that sounds confident and polished might have been generated in two seconds. We’ve crossed into a moment where the possibility that something is synthetic is enough to disrupt trust, and there’s a possibility that everything is synthetic.
Because of that, authenticity is rapidly becoming the most valuable currency in communication. Not performance. Not polish. Not perfection. Authenticity—the sense that a real person is speaking and that their words come from lived experience rather than an algorithm.
What hundreds of interviews revealed
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this, mostly because of what I do for a living. Over the last few years, I’ve interviewed hundreds of people on camera. CEOs, surgeons, community leaders, artists, scientists, elders and students; people who love the camera, people who fear it and people who’ve never been filmed before.
And when you watch that many people try to find their voice, you learn pretty quickly that trust is the deciding factor in whether a piece of comms lands or falls flat. Often the “worst” interviewees make the best videos. The emotional impact of an interview is not about who speaks the most confidently or who has the cleanest soundbites—it’s about who is believable and “real.”
There’s a moment I seek during an interview—it may take a minute to get there, it may take 30. Someone sits down, clearly nervous, rehearsing lines in their head, trying to “perform” the version of themselves they think the world wants. Shoulders tight. Breathing shallow. Words selected carefully.
Then something shifts. It may be after a few questions, or once they think we’re done. It might be a silence I leave open, or a specific question that they feel passionate about. It might be the realization that no one is trying to catch them out. Their posture softens. Their voice becomes more emphatic. Their sentences become less polished and more meaningful. They stop trying to impress and start trying to communicate—and that’s the moment the truth finally shows up.
The story becomes more emotive and more honest. That’s what authenticity actually looks like: the ums and ahs, the fear or joy, the variation in speech patterns. And audiences feel it instantly.
Why authenticity matters
Right now, authenticity matters more than anything, especially in a city like Ottawa. We have so many organizations that rely on credibility—government departments, healthcare institutions, non-profits, tech firms handling sensitive data. Trust is essential to how these sectors function. When trust erodes, everything becomes harder: recruiting, fundraising, brand building, public engagement and partnership development.
The challenge is that AI has made it far too easy to produce polished communication that sounds perfect but creates no feeling. You can immediately tell when something has been dulled by generative AI—the emotion is flat, the edges are smooth and the humanity is gone. It’s just… “fine.”
The businesses that will stand out in the next few years are the ones willing to communicate like humans again—imperfect, insecure but honest. Whether it’s leadership updates, brand storytelling, internal comms or public-facing video, the goal is the same: build a relationship, not a performance.
Staying human in the age of AI
AI will continue to evolve, and it will absolutely become part of how organizations communicate. There’s nothing wrong with using tools to draft or support work; that’s just modern efficiency (I used AI to proofread this article and improve the structure), but the message still has to come from a real person who knows what they want to say.
The world is changing quickly, but our instincts haven’t changed at all. We trust people, not outputs. We respond to sincerity, not perfection. And as the line between what’s real and what’s generated continues to blur, the leaders and businesses who lean into their humanity will be the ones who earn attention and keep it.
In an era where almost anything can be manufactured, authenticity has become the ultimate strategic advantage. Not a soft skill. Not a branding preference. A real advantage.
Rebuilding trust starts with something simple: letting people be their imperfect selves again.
About the author
Ben Hemmings is the Founder and Executive Director of Mainspring Agency, an Ottawa-based video production agency. Ben is an award-winning documentary director with over 10 years experience in impact storytelling, and has received marketing awards across Canada for video campaigns he has developed for his clients.
