In 2024, Psychology Today published our perspective about what we called "the AI paradox”: As expanded use of AI makes technical competence more commoditized, the value of personal trust would be elevated. (2024).

New data show that American companies underperform European companies on trustworthiness. Perceived trustworthiness is reflected in employee reviews of the work environment, leadership turnover, and product innovation.

The BCG Trust Index

Marcos Aguiar and his colleagues at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have designed an outside-in measure of a company’s perceived trustworthiness. As described in their May 2022 report, “What AI Reveals About Trust in the World’s Largest Companies.” the BCG Trust Index uses AI and natural language processing (NLP) to analyze massive multi-year online data sets. Their instruments scrape from the internet and comb through thousands of articles and posts on each company using a research-validated list of more than 200 trust-related keywords.

Measuring Trust in Private Companies:

The BCG Trust Index is based on large public companies. Our consulting work primarily focuses on small to mid-sized private companies. We use two prompt requests with at least two different AI systems to help our clients measure perceived institutional trust.

Prompt 1: “Client Company: Provide me with a balanced perspective........

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