Companies are facing a wave of AI smear campaigns

Friday, August 15th, 2025 at 2:37pm

As AI makes spreading misinformation faster, easier and cheaper, businesses are facing an increase in smear campaigns, and law firms are warning that campaigns will increase even more.

Data from Schillings, a multidisciplinary reputation and privacy consultant shared with City AM, shows that smear campaigns targeting successful businesses and individuals have increased by 150% over the past three years.

Juliet Young, partner at Schillings, explained: “Today, the tactics and tools needed to run the Smear Campaign will be accessible to a very wide range of people around the world.

“We’ve seen how you can start with just £50, an internet connection, a little technical expertise and motivation. Despite its low cost and relatively easy incitement, it can have a significant and rapid impact on the reputation, operations and finances of a business,” she added.

Various groups of disgruntled employees, competitors and activists often incite smear campaigns against the business.

The company also found that smear campaigns have been used to encourage parties to resolve during legal proceedings, in the face of a sustained reputational damage outlook.

Schillings explained that the Smear campaign is a sophisticated, multi-channel issue, leveraging paid “junk news” sites, bot accounts on social media, and even AI-generated deepfakes.

Campaigns can have an immediate impact on Google results. This can remain pristine and lead to business losses, lower stock prices, or trading compliance risks.

AI has been refined

Young highlighted that many of the campaigns that companies deal with on behalf of their clients are currently involved in disinformation generated by AI models.

“This includes images of the depth of false newspaper headlines to attract grassroots attention. On a more refined level, the content includes the term “red flag” designed to be featured by banks and compliance databases,” she explained.

The wave of AI has made it easier and cheaper for people to paint their businesses.

Young said: “Coupled with the ability to seed these campaigns anonymously and the size of some of these campaigns, it means that dealing with them is complicated.”

Because smear could have a significant impact on businesses, Young advised that efficient responses include using synchronized working investigators, lawyers and communications experts to dismantle and evict campaigns, using legal tools to remove and challenge the distribution, and modify the narrative.

She added, “It is possible to use a combination of research and legal tools to identify digital fingerprints in some cases and take actions to address them.”