Your Client Said What?
When AI puts words in your client's mouth (+ Fancy Food Show pitches wanted)
Part of the Ethical AI series.
Two quick notes: The Hot Sheet now lands on Wednesdays, and there's a call for sources at the bottom — scroll down if you're heading to the Fancy Food Show.
Dear Media Friends (and random internet strangers),
Early this week, a Talkwalker Alert told me I’d been quoted in a beauty feature. My Google Alert stayed silent. I love being quoted. I love it slightly less when I never said the thing, and even I’m flummoxed about the origins of the alleged quote.
There it was: a tidy observation about consumers wanting “emotional connection and authenticity” and “brands that feel human rather than corporate,” attributed to me, in an outlet I’d never written for, pitched, or even heard of, introduced as something I “recently explained in industry commentary,” on a topic I avoid being quoted on at the best of times.
Recently? No. In industry commentary? Where? There was no interview, no email, no panel, no record of any kind. Just my name, my reputation, my credibility, working to make a generic sentence sound legitimate.
I’ve been misquoted before. Quotes lifted out of context, dropped in at random, surfaced in alerts in Cyrillic and Korean and languages I couldn’t begin to name. This was something else. It was someone else’s AI hallucination, pretending to quote me. Creepy and sobering in equal measure.
It’s time to retire the notion that all press is good press.
Here’s why it matters beyond my bruised ego and utter confusion. A reader who doesn’t know the quote was invented assumes I said it. They don’t see a fabrication. They see me sounding generic and corporate, as if I’d handed a prompt to a bot and pasted the result. The quote borrows my name to sound credible, and in return it makes me sound unimaginative. I’ve spent a career being hired for insight that only I can provide, because I think differently, react differently, and offer different levels of analysis. So my quote should, I don’t know, maybe sound like me? A fake quote trades that for something anyone else could have said. In this case, it wasn’t sharp or insightful, and to be honest, it wasn’t particularly helpful either. It just was. Someone with decades of experience as a savvy marketing strategist doesn’t often offer something with that little value or zip.
So the warning runs two ways.
for journalists reading this
A quote generated during your initial research using an AI tool may never have actually been said by anyone. Treat every unsourced or AI-suggested quote as unverified until you reach the human behind it, or at least until you track down the original source. Dropping a plausible half-truth into a story to fill an "expert says" slot is fabrication. And fabrication is an ethics violation, not a style choice.
for pr peeps
This would be an excellent time to start tightening how you monitor client quotes. Run more than one alert tool, since mine caught what Google missed. Verify a placement before you amplify it. Warn clients this can happen, because ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude can all invent convincing quotes from people who never said a word.
Most importantly, it’s time to retire the notion that all press is good press. A fabricated quote can make your sharpest client sound dull and instantly forgettable. Journalists researching sources for their own stories may see the AI-generated dreck and simply cross your client off their list as a viable source.
Reputation management used to mean shaping what your client said. Now it also means verifying what they supposedly said. The machines have already added the second job. Add it to your list too.
Incidentally, the outlet that quoted me via that one creepy AI-invented quote never responded to my very polite request to take that sucker down.
Pitches needed:
I’m heading to the Fancy Food Show and would love to specifically hear about:
The biggest food trends for the rest of 2026
Chocolate: New launches, anticipated pricing, best in show
Vegan everything, especially snacks
Kosher: what’s new in kosher foods? I’ve seen some hideous and ignorant takes on the OU on social media (and have met their lovely reps at previous shows). How is kosher food being marketed right now and what should we be on the lookout for?
Healthier options in every dang thing
New condiments, spices, sauces. Tell me what’s new
Cheese: Are we moving toward universally rennet-free cheesemaking? Why or why not? What are some rennet-free options?
What’s the next hummus?
Please let me know if you/your client will be at the show and your product, price point, and availability. Send pitches to rcwprpitches@gmail.com
I overthink so you don’t have to!
Rachel
About THS: The Hot Sheet is a weekly dispatch on communications and culture — with the occasional call for sources when something’s brewing (though you can always pitch a great product or interesting angle).
By Rachel Weingarten — culture journalist, strategic communications consultant, and professional noticer of brand disasters in the making.
Have you ever encountered a similar situation? Let’s dish in the comments
Wow - I never thought about AI generating fake client quotes!! That's crazy the pub didn't take it down!!