The Hoffman Agency’s Isabelle Demaude joins Arun Sudhaman to explore why credibility has emerged as a crucial factor in the AI era. Drawing on her PRAXIS Asia-Pacific panel, Demaude discusses how generative AI challenges authorship and trust, why earned media may be regaining influence, and how cultural intelligence is becoming essential for communicators navigating complex, multi-market realities. The conversation also tackles the tension between corporate conviction and caution in an era of polarization, and what humans still do better than machines: listening, reading the room, and earning belief through empathy and context.

Lars Voedisch, founder and CEO of Singapore-based Precious Communications, explains how a startup mindset, regional expansion and a business-first approach to communications built his agency to 100 people across eight markets. We discuss the practical playbook for scaling in Southeast Asia, why global networks are ceding the mid-market, how AI is reshaping the execution/strategy split, and where Precious is betting next. Voedisch gives tactical advice for new agency founders — land, prove execution, then expand — and argues the future winners will be those who move from campaign work to business advisory.

In this episode Arun Sudhaman speaks with Rochelle Ford, CEO of Page, about the challenges and opportunities facing chief communications officers today. Rochelle explains the Page Navigator — a benchmark and functional framework created by CCOs for CCOs — designed to provide the specific data that leaders need to make stronger cases for resources and structure.

They discuss a central tension: remits for communications are expanding (brand, culture, ESG, data and AI), yet functions are sometimes being restructured or dispersed — sometimes into legal or other teams — risking fragmentation of narrative and influence.

The conversation also tackles measurement — why teams default to easy-to-count outputs like media coverage, how that can change, and what it takes to speak the language of the CFO and CEO. Finally, they discuss geopolitics, the role of communications in risk management and innovation, and why proving action (not performative language) restores confidence in business.