One telling example of that mismatch comes from the recent study, which found that nearly 60% of employees with learning disabilities feel their employers still don’t know how to support them. It’s a small case, yet it reflects a broader reality: companies develop quickly, but their communication strategies lag.

Fintech is right in that same gap. Reputation now forms through search results, leadership presence requires tighter control, and AI shapes how narratives spread and are interpreted. In this article, I want to take a closer look at these trends, how they shaped fintech communications in 2025, and why they are set to carry over into 2026.

PR and SEO converged into a single discipline

One of the most notable shifts in 2025 was the realisation that fintech reputations were no longer shaped solely by media narratives. They were also affected by search results. That meant any public mention – a review, a post, an expert comment – entered search results almost immediately and stayed there far longer than traditional news. This is exactly what forced companies to reconsider how communication functions work together.

PR teams quickly saw that polished messaging meant little if search results showed an outdated picture of the brand. In turn, SEO teams recognised that visibility couldn’t hold without consistent, credible storytelling behind it. As a result, the two, once separate, began working as a single system.

In practice, fintechs started to:

• Monitor how crises develop in real time across both media and search
• Reduce the visibility of outdated or misleading content
• Strengthen the presence of verified narratives
• Build long-term buffers so local incidents don’t dominate future search results

The key objective became making sure that whatever a company communicated publicly was reinforced, not contradicted, by what users encountered in search. That way, this PR-SEO convergence turned into one of the defining communication developments of the year and set a new standard for how fintechs think about visibility and credibility.

Executive visibility became selective

A second visible trend in 2025 was a shift in how fintech leaders managed their public presence. For years, the sector relied on highly visible founders who acted as the central voice of their companies. That model worked in stability, and it still does, yet it proved fragile as markets got more volatile and communication risks increased.

So companies discovered that constant executive involvement created unnecessary vulnerability. A single wrong comment could flip sentiment, complicate ongoing negotiations, or stir up speculation at moments when organisations needed a controlled narrative. Moreover, leaders themselves faced pressure. They were expected to comment on every issue, which left little room for measured positioning and strategic communication.

Naturally, fintechs began to adopt a more deliberate model. Public commentary became more curated, and spokesperson roles were assigned more precisely. That way, founders could step back from reactive engagement and focus on those moments where their impact carried maximum weight.

In the end, communication practices became far more stable. Executives spoke less often, but with greater clarity and relevance, and teams learned to manage narratives without relying on one individual voice.

AI turned communications into a risk early-warning system

The third trend that stood out in 2025 was that communications began to function less as a support tool and more as an integral part of risk oversight. Everyone knows that fintech companies work in conditions where information spreads quickly, interpretations vary across markets, and even small inconsistencies could influence user behaviour. This pushed communication teams to think more about early-stage risk detection and scenario planning.

AI played a central role in this change. More clients started to use generative systems to check how their brand appeared in summaries, rankings, or competitor comparisons. The idea was prudent, but the results? They often varied, as incomplete datasets or loosely formulated prompts made misleading conclusions about reputation and visibility.

This is where structured processes became essential. In our agency, for example, we created a set of prompt templates that allow clients to run AI-based audits safely. They included checking narrative consistency to analyse share-of-voice and identifying gaps in their public presence. In practice, these tools helped to avoid misinterpretation and give teams a reliable baseline for decision-making.

Beyond that, AI proved useful for scenario work. This means modelling how a message might be received, preparing for panels, or testing communication angles before they reach the public domain. Without a doubt, it didn’t replace human expertise. Yet it strengthened it, making communication more analytical, more prepared, and more aligned with the risk contours fintechs faced throughout 2025.

Final thoughts

As fintech approaches 2026, communication has turned into infrastructure that determines whether companies can maintain trust, adapt to pressure, and work effectively in the space where narratives form faster than strategies. The convergence of PR and SEO, the recalibration of executive visibility, and the integration of AI into risk-sensitive workflows all point in the same direction.

So, fintech firms that treat communication as a strategic asset will move with greater stability and clarity. Those who neglect will end up reacting to challenges they could’ve anticipated.

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