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AI for UK marketing and agencies

AI training for Marketing Directors, Heads of Content, Creative Directors, and agency MDs, with ASA, CAP Code, and copyright built into every session

Sector-specific training and briefings for marketing, creative, and communications teams at mid-market UK firms with 20 to 500 employees. Built around the two primary buying triggers: ASA and CAP Code substantiation risk when AI tools draft client-facing claims, and the copyright and client-indemnity exposure that sits under the master services agreement. Delivered by UK-based, vendor-neutral facilitators through The AI Consultancy (London) Ltd.

AI Readiness Assessment for marketing teamsMarketing AI Lab workshop
  • For agencies and in-house marketing teams with 20 to 500 employees
  • Vendor-neutral, no reseller commissions
  • A trading style of The AI Consultancy (London) Ltd

Why AI competence is a live question for every UK marketing function

Marketing and agencies are the first function in most firms where AI sits directly in client-facing deliverables: the ASA and CAP Code, copyright of generated creative, and PECR on electronic marketing all land on the marketing team's desk. Every figure below carries its source and year.

97%
of UK firms report an AI skills gap inside their own workforce, including the marketing, creative, and client-service functions where AI tooling is already in daily use.

Source: IBM Institute for Business Value, 2024.

61%
of professional services firms have abandoned at least one AI project, with skills gaps at leadership level cited as a primary cause; agencies running client-facing AI without governance are at particular risk.

Source: Skills England / DSIT workforce research, 2025.

55%
of C-suite leaders in professional services rate themselves as the least prepared group in their firm for AI adoption, including on client-facing creative and media decisions.

Source: Skills England / DSIT workforce research, 2025.

The marketing and agency touchpoints a firm has to consider before AI ships

Five regulatory and professional-standards areas every UK marketing team, creative agency, and communications consultancy should have a position on before AI tools touch client-facing work. We do not claim alignment or endorsement from the ASA, CAP, IPA, CIM, or any other body. This is the working map we use in the briefing and the workshop.

  1. UK GDPR, consent, and PECR on marketing data

    Is the lawful basis for processing marketing data, and the consent record behind electronic marketing, documented before an AI tool sees it?

    Marketing databases are personal data under UK GDPR, and most outbound electronic marketing (email, SMS, some direct messaging) is governed by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations as well. AI tools that segment audiences, write outreach copy, or personalise send times are processing personal data, often on the agency's behalf rather than the client's. The firm needs a documented position on lawful basis (usually legitimate interests for B2B outreach, consent for most B2C), on the PECR soft opt-in, and on which AI tools are covered by the firm's existing data processing agreements.

  2. ASA and the CAP Code on AI-assisted advertising claims

    Can every performance claim, testimonial, endorsement, and sector-specific statement in AI-assisted creative be substantiated by the advertiser?

    The Advertising Standards Authority enforces the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (the CAP Code) and the equivalent BCAP Code for broadcast. The rules on substantiation, truthfulness, and social responsibility apply in full to AI-assisted creative. A generative model that drafts a product claim, invents a testimonial, hallucinates a statistic, or synthesises an endorsement has produced copy the advertiser cannot defend. The agency and the advertiser are jointly responsible for substantiation; the AI vendor is not a defence.

  3. IPA Code of Conduct and CIM Professional Conduct expectations

    Does the agency meet the professional-competence and client-interest expectations set by the IPA and CIM when AI tools influence client-facing work?

    The IPA Code of Conduct expects member agencies to act with integrity, to hold commercial conflicts at bay, and to safeguard client confidentiality. The CIM Code of Professional Conduct places comparable obligations on individual marketers. AI tools raise the confidentiality bar (client briefs routinely contain pricing, roadmap, and M&A context that must not leave controlled tenancies) and the conflict bar (consumer AI tools may learn from inputs across clients). Agencies need a working position on which tools handle which categories of client information and a matching line in the master services agreement.

  4. Copyright, IP ownership, and AI-generated creative

    Who owns the AI-generated deliverable, what was the training data, and does the client indemnity in the master services agreement still hold?

    The current UK position on copyright in purely AI-generated output is unresolved at protectable-work level, and the question of whether training a generative model on copyrighted material constitutes infringement is live in the UK courts. Most agency master services agreements contain an IP assignment and an IP indemnity that pre-date generative AI. A model-generated image, piece of copy, or video asset may not carry the protections the MSA assumes, and the agency may be indemnifying the client against infringements it cannot evaluate. The position needs to be surfaced with the client, not buried.

  5. Transparency and regulated-sector marketing

    Where the client is in a regulated sector (financial promotions, healthcare, children's marketing, age-restricted products), has the agency mapped AI use against the sector-specific rules?

    Financial promotions are governed by FCA rules in addition to the CAP Code. Healthcare and medicinal claims engage the MHRA, the CAP Code sections 12 and 15, and professional-body codes. Marketing to children engages the CAP Code section 5 and the ICO's Children's Code on data. Age-restricted products (alcohol, gambling, HFSS food) carry their own rules. AI-assisted creative in any of these categories carries elevated substantiation and record-keeping risk, and transparency obligations around AI-generated content (synthetic endorsements, voice clones, image manipulation) are tightening. Agencies working in these sectors need a sector-specific AI position, not a generic one.

This summary is descriptive, not legal or advertising advice. Firms should confirm their own position with their Managing Director, General Counsel, or external media lawyer before adopting any AI tool in a client-facing workflow. Learn AI is a trading style of The AI Consultancy (London) Ltd and does not provide legal services.

Three ways to start on the Marketing & Agencies track

A dedicated marketing workshop, a leadership-level briefing, and a 90-day enablement programme. Each is scoped separately and priced transparently. Agencies often start with the Marketing AI Lab (because the ASA and copyright exposure sits primarily at the tool-use level) and add the briefing once a firm-wide position on AI in client work is needed.

  • Marketing AI Lab

    Half-day workshop for up to 20 marketing, creative, and account staff, in-person or virtual. Built around the six places AI touches UK agency work today (copy, creative, audience, media, measurement, client reporting) and vendor-neutral by design.

    Outcome

    The team leaves with a written position on where AI may and may not enter client deliverables, an ASA and CAP Code substantiation checklist for AI-assisted claims, a copyright and IP note covering the client indemnity in the master services agreement, and a named owner for the ongoing governance of each AI tool in the agency's stack.

    Price

    £950 + VAT

    Per session. Travel charged separately if delivered in person outside London.

    Workshop details and agenda

  • Executive AI Briefing

    Half-day briefing for 6 to 12 agency Managing Directors, Marketing Directors, Heads of Content, and Creative Directors. Sector-specific deck, pre-briefing call, written summary.

    Outcome

    The leadership team leaves with a defensible position on AI across the agency, a ranked shortlist of use cases (copy, creative, audience segmentation, media planning, performance reporting), a governance gap analysis against the firm's current data protection and CAP Code posture, and named owners for the next step.

    Price

    £2,500

    Per session.

    Executive AI Briefing details

  • 90-Day Enablement

    Kickoff workshop, bi-weekly office hours for 90 days, a curated prompt library tuned to the agency's stack (brief-to-concept, copy drafting, creative ideation, audience segmentation, performance reporting), and an impact assessment at day 90.

    Outcome

    Adoption moves from individual experimenters to a supported agency practice. At day 90 the firm has a documented record of where AI touched client deliverables, measurable indicators (hours saved per campaign, first-draft-to-signoff cycle time, revisions per asset), and a CAP Code substantiation audit against any campaign that shipped in the window.

    Price

    £8,000

    For a team of 10 to 25 users over 90 days. Scoped in a pre-engagement call.

    90-Day Enablement details

Questions a Marketing Director asks before booking

Eight questions we hear most often from Marketing Directors, Heads of Content, agency Managing Directors, and Creative Directors. Straight answers, no regulatory claim we cannot defend.

What does the Marketing AI Lab workshop actually cover?

A half-day working session for up to 20 marketing, creative, and account staff. It covers the generative AI use case landscape (copy drafting, creative ideation, image generation, audience segmentation, media planning, performance reporting), an ASA and CAP Code substantiation review on the claims AI tools are being asked to produce, a copyright and IP note for AI-generated creative, a brand-safety review on AI slop in client-facing output, and a named owner for the ongoing governance of each AI tool in the agency's stack. The output is a short written guidance note the firm can circulate internally.

How do you handle the ASA and CAP Code expectations in the training?

The CAP Code applies in full to AI-assisted advertising. A generative model that drafts a product claim, invents a testimonial, hallucinates a statistic, or synthesises an endorsement has produced copy the advertiser cannot defend. The workshop treats substantiation as a procedural control: every AI-drafted claim is routed through a named human reviewer, every supporting source is recorded, and the agency retains the evidence it would need if the ASA or a complainant challenged the campaign. We describe the CAP Code expectations; we do not certify any individual campaign on the advertiser's behalf.

What is the position on copyright for AI-generated creative?

The current UK position on copyright in purely AI-generated output is unresolved at protectable-work level, and the question of whether training a generative model on copyrighted material constitutes infringement is live in the UK courts. Agencies and clients need a working position on three things: whether the AI-generated asset is protectable as a work of authorship at all, whether the training data behind the model exposes the client to third-party infringement risk, and whether the master services agreement's IP assignment and indemnity still hold when AI contributed to the deliverable. The workshop surfaces each of the three in the firm's actual MSA language and produces a short note for the firm's General Counsel or external media lawyer to sign off.

Are AI tools affected by PECR when we send marketing on a client's behalf?

Yes, in combination with UK GDPR. The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations govern most electronic direct marketing (email, SMS, some direct messaging) to consumers, and the PECR soft opt-in applies in tightly defined circumstances. AI tools that segment audiences, personalise send times, or write outreach copy are processing personal data, often on the agency's behalf rather than the client's. The workshop walks through how the firm's current AI stack interacts with PECR and with the client's existing consent records, and where the agency needs a separate data processing agreement.

How do you handle AI-generated content in regulated sectors?

Regulated-sector marketing carries elevated substantiation and record-keeping risk. Financial promotions engage FCA rules in addition to the CAP Code. Healthcare and medicinal claims engage the MHRA and CAP Code sections 12 and 15. Marketing to children engages the CAP Code and the ICO's Children's Code. Age-restricted products (alcohol, gambling, HFSS food) have their own rules. For agencies with regulated-sector accounts, the workshop produces a per-sector AI position rather than a generic one, and flags where vendor-side tools are not yet configured to meet the sector's evidentiary requirements.

Which AI tools does the training cover, and are you tied to any vendor?

Learn AI takes no reseller commissions and carries no platform lock-in. The delivery bench is trained across Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini Workspace, Anthropic Claude, and OpenAI ChatGPT, as well as the main marketing and creative AI tools (Midjourney, Runway, Adobe Firefly, ElevenLabs, Jasper, HubSpot AI, marketing-analytics copilots, and the AI features embedded in the major ad platforms). Sessions focus on the tools your firm already runs rather than promoting a single vendor. We are happy to put the commercial position in writing before booking.

What regulatory claim does the workshop make, and what does it not claim?

We describe the CAP Code and ASA expectations on substantiation, truthfulness, and social responsibility, the BCAP Code where broadcast is in scope, the PECR position on electronic marketing, the UK GDPR position on marketing data, the IPA Code of Conduct and CIM Professional Conduct framing, the current UK position on copyright and IP ownership of AI-generated creative, and the sector-specific rules in regulated categories. We do not claim accreditation, endorsement, or CPD-compatibility from the ASA, CAP, IPA, CIM, or any other body unless that body has confirmed alignment to us in writing. Any copy that would bind the firm should be reviewed by the firm's Managing Director, General Counsel, or external media lawyer.

What does follow-up look like after the workshop?

The session concludes with a written summary and a template guidance note, typically sent within five working days. A thirty-minute follow-up call is offered at no additional cost. Further work (Executive AI Briefing for the leadership team, 90-Day Enablement for the marketing function, bespoke programmes) is priced separately and scoped only if the firm asks for it.

What marketing leaders tell us after a workshop

Attributions anonymised at role and firm-type level until named clients sign a usage permission. Full case studies will follow in Phase 2.

  • “The substantiation block was the turning point. We pulled three AI-drafted performance claims from a campaign the same week because we could not defend them under the CAP Code.”

    Marketing Director, UK consumer brand (50 to 100 staff)

  • “For the first time our copywriters, designers, and account team left a training session with the same view on what may and may not go through a generative tool. We circulated the one-pager internally the next day.”

    Creative Director, UK independent agency (20 to 50 staff)

  • “Straight answers on the copyright and client-indemnity position, without hand-waving. Our Managing Director asked for the session to be repeated for our new-business team.”

    Managing Director, UK integrated agency (100 to 250 staff)

Built for UK regulated teams

Three commitments we carry into every engagement. Professional-body alignments are pursued once we have case studies to substantiate them.

  • GDPR-compliant by design

    Assessment data is stored in the UK, minimised by default, and retained only for the term stated in our privacy notice.

  • UK-based and UK-regulated

    A trading style of The AI Consultancy (London) Ltd, registered in England and Wales. Trainers and associates are UK-based.

  • Vendor-neutral

    No reseller commissions, no platform lock-in. Training covers the tools your firm uses, not the tools we are paid to promote.

Start where you are

Pick the first step that matches where your firm is now. Each links through to a dedicated page.