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AI has to be the word (acronym!) of the year. With rapid developments in generative AI, the technology is being harnessed by businesses for everything from recruitment to marketing. When we look at AI implications for marketing, there are many, and marketers are optimistic about them: 69% of marketers report being ‘excited’ about AI technology and the impact on their jobs.

It’s a big topic, with much more to say than we can explore here. So in this blog, we’ll focus on AI and marketing compliance, which is a particularly compelling area to explore.

The role of AI in marketing compliance

When it comes to marketing compliance, AI can deliver benefits but also create challenges. How can AI be used in compliance? The answer to this takes in several themes: AI’s role in creating content, its potential to streamline compliance processes, and the possibility that it could introduce compliance risks.

What do we mean by marketing compliance? It’s the need for marketing content, assets and materials to comply with regulatory and legislative requirements. These might be requirements set by industry-specific regulators like the Financial Conduct Authority, industry-agnostic regulators like the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority. They might be regional regulations like the GDPR.

How does AI affect compliance?

The impact of AI on marketing compliance takes a number of forms:

AI in content creation

As many marketers have discovered to their delight, AI can be used to draft content. In today’s content-hungry world, this can be a huge boon – satisfying the dizzying demand for articles, blog posts, social media content and longer-form pieces like white papers, playbooks and reports.

This has pros and cons, though. While AI can doubtless be a huge support to time-pressed content creators, it can’t be relied on to be 100% accurate.  Depending on the questions you ask, AI can provide you – with remarkable conviction – with incorrect information. It needs careful checking and corroboration, with diligent human review.

Whoever first said that marketers are unlikely to lose their jobs to AI, but might well lose them to other marketers who know how to work with AI, was spot-on. It might help to think of AI as a junior copywriter; invaluable in providing you with a first draft, but needing a more senior marketer to review, polish and finalise. And, importantly in the context of what we’re talking about here, to ensure what you’re publishing is compliant.

AI as regulatory intelligence

Keeping track of marketing compliance requirements can feel like a full-time job. Ever-changing and increasing regulation keeps marketing teams on their toes, and compliant marketing demands that you’re on top of current obligations.

AI can help by scanning news and regulatory bodies’ information to help you keep pace with marketing compliance regulations. But as with content creation, it should be used with caution, and not as your sole source of intelligence. Beware incomplete, incorrect or misleading information that could lead you to inadvertently publish non-compliant content, or create marketing content in non-compliant ways.

AI for data management and audience segmentation

AI also has a role in data management and targeting. As regulations like the Consumer Duty make audience segmentation and appropriate messaging imperative, this aspect of AI can be particularly appealing to marketing teams.

How can AI be used in data management? It can analyse your customer data to identify segments for whom specific solutions or products are most relevant, and as a result, make your marketing more targeted, less wasteful and more effective, delivering higher ROI for no more effort.

As with content creation, though, proceed with a healthy degree of caution. AI operates based on patterns and historical data. If these patterns are out of date or incomplete, it runs the risk of misinterpretation or generalisation, lumping together data segments that would be better kept separate.

If you end up targeting the wrong audience as a result, at best your activity will be ineffective. At worst, you may breach regulations, particularly those like the Consumer Duty that aim to prevent consumers being targeted with content designed for more financially-literate professionals.

AI in compliance approvals

Can AI replace compliance? This is a question often on the lips of companies looking to streamline marketing compliance approval processes, make economies of scale and speed compliant content to market.

The short answer – no. At least at the current time, AI is not a suitable replacement for manual compliance processes. As we’ve mentioned, AI is subject to bias, knowledge gaps and misinformation – and as a result may approve content that isn’t compliant. As with so many other areas, AI may be a good start point – for an initial scan of content for potential compliance breaches, for instance. But it’s no substitute for review by a person who knows the regulations specific to your industry or country.

How can AI be used in compliance?

So, what is AI’s role in marketing compliance? How can you use it, and how can you swerve the risks?

• Use AI to save time when creating content – this will free up marketing team time not just to focus on more strategic and value-adding projects, but also to spend more time on getting compliance right. Less time drafting means more time to devote to reviews and approvals.

• And if this doesn’t fill you with excitement; if compliance reviews aren’t your favourite way to spend your time – the good news is, without going wholesale down the AI route, there are still ways to optimise technology for better reviews and approvals. You can make use of an online workflow approval platform to make your approvals process more efficient and robust.

• Keep a keen eye on any content AI helps you to write. Make sure it’s accurate – not just in terms of what it says, but in the way it represents your brand. Is the tone of voice right? If it’s helping with design, has it captured the correct logo or imagery? As with workflow approvals, there are ways of harnessing technology without compromising on control – for example, by using an online brand platform – an invaluable way of streamlining content and asset creation while protecting your brand.

• Make use of AI as the ‘office junior’ but don’t make it the team leader. When it comes to marketing compliance, AI can be invaluable for an initial review of content – one that gives you a steer on whether it’s broadly likely to be compliant. But review it thoroughly yourself, and make sure your review and approval processes themselves are compliant. An online workflow approval platform will evidence your review and approval processes, creating a compliant audit trail and ensuring your process meets the demands of your regulators, in a way that AI platforms may not.

There’s much more to say here – generative AI is still in its infancy, and its potential is huge. Look out for more blogs in this series on AI and marketing – and discover how to capitalise on AI’s potential while avoiding its risks.

If you want to find out more about how you can optimise the use of technology in marketing compliance, using AI where appropriate and other technologies where AI isn’t the answer, you can find out more about Perivan’s online workflow approval platform here and BrandEnable, our online brand management platform here.