PR Firm News: AI risk, live reputation, and inclusive networks take center stage
Three moves worth your attention this week. FGS Global launches an AI Advisory practice and acquires Memetica for AI-driven threat monitoring. The Harris Poll debuts Harris QuestRQ for live reputation tracking. And The Change Agencies adds two member firms, expanding a network built for culturally fluent campaigns.
FGS Global launches AI Advisory and acquires Memetica
FGS Global rolled out an AI Advisory practice within its new AI and Innovation group, led by global head of AI and innovation Aaron Kwittken and powered by FGS Labs. The group builds client-facing and internal tech-including Fergus, the firm's AI-powered agentic platform-to solve specific comms needs.
"Our AI Advisory practice provides both the strategic framework and tactical and technical capabilities clients need to navigate this transformation confidently, persistently and effectively," said Kwittken.
FGS also acquired Memetica, a specialist in AI-driven threat detection across social, "deep," and "dark" web channels. For comms teams, this means earlier signals on narrative spikes, faster triage, and tighter coordination with security and legal before issues spill offline.
If you're evaluating your risk posture, map your listening stack to fringe and dark web sources, define clear escalation triggers, and stress-test response playbooks quarterly. Consider partner alignment now rather than mid-crisis.
The Harris Poll introduces Harris QuestRQ for live reputation
The Harris Poll launched Harris QuestRQ, a system that links live reputation metrics to three decades of proprietary corporate ranking data from its Reputation Quotient framework and the live HarrisQuest brand tracking platform. It provides readouts across society at large, outside category lines, and against your own historical baseline.
"With Harris QuestRQ, we've taken decades of reputation science and rebuilt it for the pace and complexity of today's world. It's leaner, faster and smarter-giving leaders the always-on visibility they need to make reputation a true, real-time decision-making asset," said The Harris Poll managing director of reputation Wendy Salomon.
For practical use, align QuestRQ-style data with your KPI dashboard, assign owners for threshold breaches, and pre-approve response paths tied to score movement. Treat reputation movements like SLOs, not monthly reports.
The Change Agencies expands its inclusive network
The Change Agencies added The Holliday Collaborative Agency (Indianapolis) and Meraki Communications Group (Alexandria, VA). Every agency owner in the network is Black, Asian American, Hispanic, Indigenous, and/or LGBTQ-11 of the 16 are owned and led by women. Member firms serve consumer, travel and tourism, healthcare, housing and aging services, the arts, retail, telecommunications, automotive, technology, financial services, education, government and public affairs.
"This network brings together some of the most trusted, culturally fluent communications firms in the country," said The Holliday Collaborative Agency CEO and founder LaMar Holliday. "It allows us to pair our Indianapolis-rooted expertise with national reach, giving our clients access to deeper insight, broader perspective, and greater impact across every market we serve."
Translation for brand teams: tap partners who can engage communities with credibility, local context, and national coordination. That mix is hard to beat for behavior change and coalition building.
What to do next
- Expand your monitoring footprint to fringe and dark web sources; document triage rules and escalation paths.
- Run joint tabletop exercises across comms, security, legal, and policy to close decision gaps.
- Stand up live reputation readouts; set baselines, trigger thresholds, and pre-approved response options.
- Prioritize culturally fluent partners for campaigns that require trust and participation, not just reach.
- Upskill your team on AI tools for social/intel workflows and content ops. If you need a starting point, explore role-based tracks here: Complete AI Training - Courses by Job.
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