AI in Communications: The Main Focus of the Second Most Important Forum in Davos

In a world where communication is evolving at an unprecedented pace, the role of trust, technology, and rapid response is becoming increasingly crucial for business. Artificial intelligence, new digital channels, and the global exchange of ideas are reshaping the way companies communicate and build their image. These processes were at the core of the Communications Forum in Davos, which brought together leading experts from around the world.

Host: We now continue with a conversation in the studio. We will talk about communications, specifically the Communications Forum in Davos. With me in the studio is Maxim Behar, founder and CEO of M3 Communications Group, as well as President of the World Communication Forum in Davos. Hello, thank you for being with us.

Maxim: Good afternoon.

Host: Let’s begin like this   the forum took place last week. What was the main point? What was the theme that could summarize the entire forum?

Maxim: I believe that what we did in Davos last week, the latest summit   we rebranded a few years ago from a forum to a summit to emphasize the exclusivity of this meeting   was the most successful event we have organized since 2010. This shows the ever-growing interest in modern communication. At the same time, it shows the desire for CEOs to communicate with other CEOs, and for colleagues from our company to communicate with colleagues from other companies. Of course, we focused most on artificial intelligence. Right now, if we step out of this wonderful Bloomberg studio onto the street and ask even a kitten on the street what the most important thing in modern communication business is, it will meow something like “AI.” That was the main theme. We had several… First, we had excellent keynote speakers   outstanding people who opened the forum. One of them is Lord Evans of Sealand. Lord Evans was, until recently, the General Secretary of the British Labour Party, which is currently in power. After a major setback in 2019 and the revival when the party won the elections in 2024, the entire recovery is attributed to Lord Evans, who, as General Secretary, was responsible for the communication policy and for nothing else within the party. He delivered a remarkably interesting presentation on how modern images must be built but also maintained. Because many of our clients, including local and international ones, often say: “Oh, I have 350,000 likes on Facebook or Instagram, that’s enough.” And then we, as experts in this field, often reply: “Well, everyone knows Coca-Cola, but it still continues its marketing campaigns.” And Lord Evans emphasized exactly this. The other important speaker at the beginning of the event was Johnna Burke, who is the CEO of AMEC, the Global Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication and PR activities. This is extremely important for us, because all of us know that clients   including in my company and many others worldwide   come and say: “We want your service, but how will it be measured?” Today we have much greater opportunities to measure because we have social media. Statistics can now provide a picture of the results of our work that has never been possible in history. No newspaper could say how many people read your small article on page 9, bottom left. No television station could say how many people watched your appearance or your event at a specific time, whereas now we have exact data. In this sense, AMEC is a profoundly serious institution that is continuously applying new methodologies, increasingly using artificial intelligence, to show with high precision what the results of communication professionals’ work are in PR, advertising, or digital media. And this was our very beginning. Everyone was waiting for the “cherry on top” Paul Holmes, founder of The Holmes Report, rebranded a few years ago. Paul Holmes himself is an institution, and for maybe 25 years he has been a welcome guest at every major international event, and usually it takes months or years to convince him to attend an event. Since 2010, Paul Holmes has always been our guest in Davos. It was remarkably interesting because he had two main theses, which are truly relevant to 2026. The first is that the advertising business is gradually starting to separate itself from the PR business, mainly referring to the announced moves by WPP, the world’s largest communications company. According to Paul Holmes, the acquisition of large advertising conglomerates buying PR businesses has led to the stagnation of PR itself, because it has been placed within certain boundaries. And PR is an infinitely creative business. His second message was: be careful with artificial intelligence. Put it on the back seat, if possible. You drive the car yourself. And he cited an Edelman to study at a large communications company, and I know Richard Edelman very well; he has been a guest at our forum. This study shows that in a moment of crisis, nine out of 10 PR professionals would trust their own natural intelligence, experience, and reaction rather than a few sentences generated by any artificial intelligence platform. In addition, we had participants. I was extremely surprised, really. For the first time we had participants from Singapore, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbado. Traveling from Barbados to Davos, or from Australia to Davos, is an exceptionally long journey. The colleague from Singapore, who had traveled   there was a flight issue   traveled for four days to reach Switzerland. This shows the enormous value of the event. All colleagues from the Congress Center, whom we have known for years, were unanimous that, after the World Economic Forum, our Communication Summit is the most significant event held in Davos. I am especially proud that this was done with my Bulgarian team, with colleagues who were with us. The Executive Director Jessica Krasteva is Bulgarian, from our communication association. And this adds another big plus for Bulgaria on the global business stage. As you know, my big personal mission is for Bulgaria to be presented as well as possible. This brought great benefits to a communication community which I, at the opening of the summit, called a family. Because this is not a group of people, not professionals, not just an association that meets from time to time   we are truly one big family. The so-called takeaways, or conclusions, or what everyone takes home with them, will become available over the next few months. We conducted more than forty interviews with participants, asking what they had learned. I often tell a story: at one of these forums, your colleagues from the American business TV CNBC interviewed me, and a genuinely nice American journalist asked me a standard question: “What do you expect from the Davos forum?” I looked her straight in the eyes and said one sentence. “One sentence.” And she asked: “Which sentence?” I said: “I don’t know.” For me, it is important just to be here. Bulgaria is close to Davos, but many other countries are not. We had more than 20 Americans this year, which is also a challenge   traveling from America to Switzerland, changing two trains from Zurich to reach Davos. This has always been our goal: for each participant to leave with one sentence or one word. Sometimes it can change your entire life. It can give your business direction. Sometimes you can think: “Wow, what did Paul Holmes say?” or Johnna Burke, or Katherine Bates. Katherine is on my executive committee as President for America. She was the Chief PR Manager of Lockheed Martin, a global company well known in Bulgaria, especially through the Graf Ignatievo base. We have known each other for more than 20 years. Mary Beth West, an excellent professional from Tennessee, also spoke about ethics. She is President of PR Ethics. Ethics, transparency, professionalism, speed of response, education, development   all of this is what we already know. Because, as someone who has been in this business for many years, I love it increasingly, because it moves at the speed of light and evolves at the speed of light. Everything that was relevant on December 15, 2025, is almost not relevant today, April 29, 2026. We have new AI platforms, new ways of reaching clients, and even more diverse ways of reaching their clients. And all of this was discussed in Davos, and I am extremely happy and proud that we delivered a wonderful event, to which I am already inviting a representative from Bloomberg Bulgaria next year, and I will personally ensure a special invitation is sent.

Host: With pleasure, we will attend such a forum. Let me ask you in more detail about artificial intelligence   how companies are positioning themselves around it. You said that in crisis situations experts always rely on natural intelligence. But we see AI everywhere. It has inevitably entered the PR sector as well. To what extent is it used, and are there concerns among experts about its involvement?

Maxim: There can be concerns about everything that is online and in real time, of course. We are all witnesses to hate speech and fake news, and to the use of artificial intelligence in a highly intelligent and realistic way, which can mislead both clients and especially the consumers of those clients’ products or services. But in the end, that is why we are professionals. Ethics is also an especially important part of this. We are the people who have access to millions, often billions of other people. We know how to manage communication so that they believe us. And if we are not ethical, honest, transparent, and professional in our mindset and approach, we will very soon be out of this business. Yes, we use it very often. I do not know a communications company in the world that does not increasingly use artificial intelligence platforms. But ultimately, our business is an extraordinarily complex chemistry of our own intelligence and the technologies we use. Because I believe that artificial intelligence will not take jobs away from my colleagues. But the people who know how to use artificial intelligence well will take those jobs. And nowadays, someone who cannot properly work with AI   especially in the communications business   someone who uses AI only as a support tool, as a crutch, or just as a search machine or for analysis, would fail immediately. Artificial intelligence must be our partner. We sit on the same level as it. If we use it only as a source of information, that is meaningless. Information is already everywhere. But if we know how to properly discuss it   and obviously, we must use good prompts   this is the number one task of communication experts. We discussed this a lot in Davos during those three days. Many presentations were often interrupted; we have an incredibly open format of the summit, where everyone can interrupt, everyone can give ideas, and we discussed how to use prompts and how to guide AI platforms, so they become our partner, not just a source of information. This requires an extremely elevated level of professionalism, and this is part of what we and our colleagues around the world do. Another trend we observed in Davos is that boundaries are increasingly disappearing. What is done in crisis management in Zimbabwe, Mexico, Canada, or Bulgaria is becoming increasingly similar, because we use the same tools. Yes, there are cultural differences, emotional differences, and differences in reaction speed. In Latin America they may say “mañana.” In Bulgaria there is no “mañana.” In Turkey they may say “slowly, slowly,” but for us that doesn’t exist   we must react immediately on the spot. However, the tools are remarkably similar, and the approaches to solving crises are remarkably similar. I participated in a panel on crisis management and strongly emphasized that only 10 years ago we had 8–10 hours to resolve a crisis. Today we do not even have 8 minutes   sometimes not even one minute. We must react immediately. To do this, we must be extremely well prepared, highly educated, and top-level professionals, no matter if we are in Bulgaria, Paris, London, or New York   where America remains the birthplace of our industry. The exchange of opinions, sentences, and words we take from Davos   these takeaways   will bring excellent value to our business.

Host: And finally, perhaps just a few sentences   since we have about two minutes left. You have interacted with all these global experts at the forum. Where do you think Bulgaria and the Bulgarian PR and advertising community stand in this context?

Maxim: We believe it is in a particularly good and competitive position. In our local Bulgarian PR organization, BAPRA, the jury consists entirely of international experts. When I was President of BAPRA in 2010, 2011, and 2012, my only condition when creating the awards was that the jury must consist only of foreigners. Because we are a small country   everyone knows everyone, likes or dislikes each other   it is a very Balkan situation. These international experts evaluating Bulgarian projects say, and I am convinced of this, that Bulgarian campaigns, products, and the approach to this business are at a particularly good European level. In addition, my role as President of ICO, the global PR organization, as well as my role in Davos, has helped brand Bulgaria very well internationally. I know thousands of people in the global business world, and they know me. When they hear “Bulgaria,” they associate it with what we do in international projects and positions. This is a small contribution of mine toward making Bulgaria more recognizable in global business   not only in PR. And I am sure your television, Bloomberg, which I enjoy watching immensely, is also part of this mission   to present Bulgaria better and make it more recognizable, not by discussing whether it is good or bad, whether there are broken roads or corruption, but by showing what mountains and seas it has. Bulgaria simply needs to be more recognizable. Let me add something   we recently attended a space training program at a NASA base with my wife. It was fantastic, and we received certificates that we can continue our space preparation. On the first day, there were 13 Americans and two Bulgarians. This group happens only once a year. During the first day, an engineer asked us where we were from. We said Bulgaria. He was expecting to explain where Bulgaria is   near Turkey, Greece, and so on, formerly part of the USSR, etc. But he immediately said: “Bulgaria   you have amazing engineers. You win mathematics Olympiads. You are geniuses. I am extremely glad you are here.” This is how image is built. This is how Bulgaria becomes recognizable.

Host: Thank you very much for this comment, and I am glad we ended on such a positive note.

Maxim: Thank you.

You can watch the whole interview here: https://www.maximbehar.com/bg/video/438/ai-v-komunikaciite-osnovniyat-akcent-ot-vtoriya-po-vajnost-forum-v-davos