Archimag : The specialized reference in digital information management
There was a time when online monitoring relied on simple tools such as Google Alerts to collect basic information. Then came RSS aggregators, followed by professional monitoring platforms developed by specialised vendors. Since then, artificial intelligence has reshaped the landscape and is rapidly becoming a core component of the monitoring toolkit - particularly for professionals in charge of tracking the online reputation of organisations or public figures.
"Historically, monitoring has been about capturing, filtering and understanding information. What AI changes above all is scale," explains Fabien Giuliani, lecturer in strategy, foresight and crisis management at the University of Geneva. "We have moved from search engines - which pointed to sources and links - to narrative engines like ChatGPT, used by nearly a billion people, which generate synthetic narratives. This is transforming reputation management: organisations now have to deal with machine-generated narratives."
Identifying harmful content
Faced with this new type of content, AI offers several advantages. One of the most significant is the rapid identification of harmful content, made possible by algorithms capable of analysing information flows in real time across social media, forums and review platforms.
AI also streamlines ontology management, improves the detection of fake reviews, helps anticipate reputational crises and provides deeper insights into public perception.
Sentiment analysis is not new - professional tools have been offering it for more than a decade - but today’s autoregressive language models can capture more subtle nuances such as anger, sarcasm or irony.
Another key contribution is the detection of manipulated content. AI-powered tools can identify altered images or videos (deepfakes) designed to damage the reputation of a brand or individual. However, no system is foolproof: in many cases, it means using one AI to detect another.
From monitoring to anticipation
With these capabilities in place, how can professionals use them in practice?
According to Fabien Giuliani, "the role of the monitoring specialist is now increasingly about asking the right questions to the machine. We are moving from a technical approach (data scraping, collection) to one focused on interpretation and deeper analysis - which is a positive shift."
He also points to more advanced use cases: building anticipation scenarios through crisis simulations (such as wargaming or serious games), modelling the spread of rumours, or generating counter-narratives tailored to different audiences.
"What is still missing, in my view, is a strategic appropriation of these tools. Organisations should move from defensive monitoring to a more proactive approach - and become true early warning systems."
Supporting legal and factual analysis
AI also plays a growing role in the legal dimension of reputation monitoring.
AI-augmented research enables faster and more comprehensive legal or factual investigations. Using advanced natural language processing (NLP), it can analyse large volumes of legal content - legislation, case law, contracts or commentary - to identify relevant sources.
Monitoring professionals can then instruct AI systems to extract, classify and synthesise this information. More advanced tools can identify relationships between legal decisions and even suggest legal reasoning or hypotheses based on the data.
This allows practitioners to quickly access summaries, case references and key insights to support their legal arguments.
Also read: AI and scientific fraud: poison or cure?
AI as an ally - with limits
"Overall, we need to consider artificial intelligence as an ally," says Didier Frochot, legal expert and co-founder of Les Infostratèges, a consultancy supporting both private and public organisations in reputation management.
However, he also highlights the risks associated with generative AI: "It is increasingly used by attackers for destabilisation purposes. The rise of deepfakes - where anyone can be made to say anything - is particularly concerning from a reputational standpoint."
Les Infostratèges have integrated AI into their monitoring activities to detect content that could harm individuals, brands or organisations. The goal is to improve productivity in the information collection phase and focus more on legal analysis.
AI is also used to prepare legal arguments when contacting media outlets, bloggers, social platforms or search engines. Final decisions, however, remain human: generated arguments are reviewed and validated before being used.
The organisation is also exploring the use of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), combining AI with its internal knowledge base and legal expertise to strengthen its analytical capabilities.
Among the tools tested, Perplexity has attracted particular interest. "It often points me to relevant case law or legal texts and helps keep my knowledge up to date," notes Didier Frochot. "And with decades of legal experience, I can quickly assess whether the AI is reliable or not."
A growing market of specialised tools
Organisations can manage their online reputation through specialised agencies or law firms, or by using dedicated platforms.
The market is expanding, with new entrants competing with established players such as Onclusive, SalesGroup.ai, BrandBastion, Hootsuite Insights, Brand24, Awario and Brandwatch. These services are primarily designed for professional use and are typically paid, although many offer trial versions.
Traditional monitoring software providers - such as KB Crawl, Sindup, Digimind or Ixxo — are also integrating AI to address evolving organisational needs.
