Every Leader Should Be a Student of Propaganda
An old playbook, newly industrialised
It is tempting to treat AI-driven disinformation as a brand-new problem. Gartner’s Dave Aron, co-author of World Without Truth, gently corrects that. Propaganda is ancient: the book “even has an example from the Roman era of disinformation.” The techniques for bending belief, repetition, emotional leverage, the trusted-source illusion, have been refined over centuries.
What is new is not the method. It is the machinery: the speed, scale and personalisation that generative AI and global platforms now add to a very old craft. Which is why Aron’s advice is to look backward in order to see forward.
The resolution: study propaganda
In Gartner’s CIO New Year’s resolutions, Aron writes, “we recommended that every CIO, every leader, becomes a student of propaganda”, to “look back on how propaganda has been used in history and think about how digitalised propaganda could change your business.” It is a striking thing to put on an executive reading list, and a serious one. You cannot defend against a discipline you have never studied.
The leverage is as old as power. Aron quotes Voltaire: “When you can make people believe absurdities, you can make them commit atrocities.” The line is centuries old and reads like a warning written for this exact moment.
What studying it actually teaches
Studying propaganda is not an academic exercise. It builds pattern recognition, the same instinct a security professional develops for an attack. Learn the classic moves, manufacturing a false consensus, laundering a claim through a seemingly independent source, repeating a frame until it feels like common sense, and you start to notice them in your own feed, aimed at your own company.
It also reframes the defensive problem. If propaganda has always worked by shaping what people believe rather than just what they read, then defending against it cannot only mean checking facts. It means watching for the orchestration that manufactures belief at scale, which is exactly what modern, coordinated campaigns do, and why disinformation is now an enterprise security problem.
From history to detection
This is where the old craft meets the new defence. The historical techniques tell you what to look for; behavioural detection is how you find it at the speed and scale it now runs. AI Uniti reads the coordination behind a campaign, the synchronised timing and connected accounts that betray a manufactured consensus rather than an organic one, and surfaces it early enough to respond. The playbook is ancient. The detection has to be modern. Becoming a student of the first is how leaders learn to value the second.
The playbook is ancient. The detection has to be modern. See how Signal spots manufactured consensus as it forms, or book a 15-minute demo.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why should business leaders study propaganda?
Because the techniques used in modern disinformation are old and well-documented. Gartner's Dave Aron recommends leaders study how propaganda has worked through history to recognise how digitalised versions could affect their business today.
Is AI disinformation really just old propaganda?
The techniques are largely the same; what is new is the speed, scale and personalisation that generative AI and global platforms add. The method is ancient; the delivery is industrialised.
What does studying propaganda teach you in practice?
Pattern recognition: the ability to spot manufactured consensus, laundered claims and repeated frames when they are aimed at you, and to understand why fact-checking alone is not enough.
How does this connect to detection?
History tells you what to look for; behavioural detection finds it at modern speed and scale, by reading the coordination behind a campaign rather than judging each piece of content.