CEO Shares 3 Ways Leaders Build Trust in the AI Era

Trust is harder to earn than ever, and the data proves leaders are struggling to deliver it.

The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer found that 75% of people believe CEOs should help bridge trust divides, but only 44% actually do it well. That 31-point gap represents a massive opportunity for leaders willing to change their approach.

Tony Grimminck, CEO of Scribd, has spent years building trust both inside his company and with millions of customers. He's learned that in an age of AI-generated content and information overload, three human-centered strategies make all the difference.

First comes radical transparency. Grimminck's team conducts quarterly employee surveys and shares all the results in company meetings, even when scores drop. "If someone tells me everything is going great and is perfect, I'm not likely to trust them," he explains. Admitting what you don't know and sharing both wins and misses creates the authenticity that people crave.

Second is communication that sounds human, not robotic. While AI can polish your writing, Grimminck reads messages aloud to ensure they still sound like him. He backs up his points with personal examples and cited sources, transforming machine-generated text into fact-based messaging that carries weight.

Third is building diverse teams with strong judgment. As a finance guy, Grimminck knows his lens is limited without creative and technical people viewing problems differently. He prioritizes cultural fit and good judgment over purely technical skills, recognizing that the best leaders succeed because of the people around them.

Why This Inspires

This isn't just corporate advice. It's a roadmap for anyone trying to cut through noise and connect authentically. Grimminck's approach works because it acknowledges a simple truth: AI can generate infinite information, but it can't replicate genuine human understanding.

Scribd recently updated its entire mission to reflect this shift, changing from content access to "advancing human understanding." That pivot captures where real value lives now. Information is everywhere and cheap, but helping people make sense of it all requires the credibility that only transparency, authenticity, and teamwork can build.

The shift is already working. Grimminck's transparency practices led to higher employee engagement, proving that people respond when leaders treat them like adults who can handle the full truth.

As AI makes it easier to sound polished and harder to sound real, the leaders who win will be those who protect what machines can't copy: the messy, imperfect, trustworthy humanity that turns information into understanding.