Observatory news.

Maria Luisa De Petris, founder of Aurelian Lab, has published on Medium the article “Companies invisible when customers look for them” (in Italian), with the first findings of the Aurelian Watch 2026 Observatory on 50 Italian mid-sized companies. Ask an AI assistant what one of these companies is, and the answer is almost always correct. Ask it which are the best companies in its sector, and that same company often does not appear: being known does not mean being chosen.

Corporate communication is changing. Today it requires knowledge and expertise in how LLMs work and how they describe companies, public bodies and institutions, and the ability to read, in what AI returns, the areas where action can improve corporate reputation. The point is not only whether you appear or not: the magnifying lens of AI brings out any fractures in reputation, invaluable insight for anyone working in internal and external communication and public relations.

At Aurelian Lab, we believe that artificial intelligence and sustainability are no longer separate conversations. They are becoming two of the most strategic forces shaping the future of business. Our Founder, Maria Luisa De Petris, is Head of the Sustainability Leaders Mentoring Programme, an initiative created within the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership Alumni community to connect sustainability professionals, strengthen their networks and generate new opportunities for growth, collaboration and professional development.

Decarbonisation targets fail when organisations treat climate transition as a reporting exercise. On 30 November, the University of Florence convenes international leaders for “Pathways to Net Zero: Governing the Transition”.

The London Marathon is officially sport's first certified platinum sustainability benchmark. World Athletics has awarded the race its inaugural Platinum status for environmental and social impact.

Only 0.3% of the sources cited by artificial intelligence come from paywalled content. That is what the Muck Rack report reveals: the generative ecosystem feeds almost exclusively on open sources.

Being found is no longer enough. For years the question was: when someone searches for our company, do they find us? That is the territory of SEO: making content and websites accessible, relevant and authoritative for search engines.

Sustainability does not become credible because we communicate it better. It becomes credible when what a company says matches what people see, experience and recognise. A systematic literature review on the authenticity of corporate social responsibility analysed 46 peer-reviewed studies. Among the factors contributing to perceived authenticity are consistency between values and actions, credible motivations and continuity in stakeholder engagement.

Visibility is not the same as sustainability: it is only the starting point. At the recent FIBA Women in Basketball Forum in Berlin, the discussion between investors, broadcasters and institutions highlighted the critical step for women's sport: the move from a moment of media attention to a mature sector requires stable contractual structures and advanced distribution models. Attendance records and one-off sponsorships are not enough unless they sit within a strategic architecture able to deliver lasting returns for athletes, investors and communities.

Social credibility is the new, demanding test of corporate governance. After years of attention focused on environmental parameters to curb greenwashing, the scrutiny of markets and regulators is moving decisively to the “S” dimension of ESG criteria. Socialwashing, flaunting principles of inclusion, workers' rights and supply-chain ethics without operational evidence, exposes organisations to a reputational and legal risk even greater than the climate one.

Maria Luisa De Petris, founder of Aurelian Lab, has published on Medium the article “AI Reputation and Public Relations: why artificial intelligence is putting corporate communication back at the centre of strategy” (in Italian). ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity build an organisation's image from what the information ecosystem says about it. That is why the classic work of public relations (media relations, executive visibility, thought leadership, stakeholder relationships, a consistent narrative) now directly shapes how models describe a company.

Maria Luisa De Petris, founder of Aurelian Lab, has published on Medium the article “Your company already exists in artificial intelligence. The problem is that you don't know what it is saying” (in Italian). Every company already has a representation inside generative AI systems, and this is what we call AI Reputation: investors, journalists, candidates and clients often read it before visiting the website or speaking to anyone.