TL;DR
The Advertising Standards Authority has set out how existing rules apply to ads for AI assistants, in the absence of any AI-specific law. The short version for marketers: evidence every objective claim, and keep the content responsible. The longer version covers several traps British firms are already walking into.
What the regulator can and cannot touch
A point worth grasping before the detail: the CAP Code governs advertising, not products. The regulator can rule on how an AI tool is described, never on what the tool actually does. Businesses may advertise a product a customer finds objectionable, provided the advertising itself behaves.
That distinction matters commercially. A firm cannot be sanctioned by this route for a poor model, but it can be for the claims wrapped around one.
The traps
Several categories get singled out. Promises of income with little human effort are treated the same way as unrealistic earnings claims from multi-level marketing schemes and business courses — a well-established line the regulator has ruled on before. Tools marketed as homework help sit close to essay mills, illegal in England since 2022; the test is whether the ad depicts a spellchecker or a ghostwriter.
Health is tighter still. Ads implying a chatbot substitutes for a qualified therapist should be avoided, and claims positioning one for crisis or emergency use are strongly discouraged. Specific weight-loss outcomes in a stated timeframe are already off limits.
The section most firms will underestimate concerns image analysis. A diet assistant claiming to derive nutrition from a photograph of a plate needs evidence of that accuracy, or the ad is misleading. And where the scan is free but the advice sits behind payment, failing to say so omits material information.
Looking forward
This is the second UK professional body in a day to land on the same position — the pharmacists’ defence body published guidance keeping accountability with the practitioner rather than the software. Neither is new law. Both are regulators saying the existing rules already reach AI, and that vendors should stop waiting for a bespoke regime before checking their copy.
For any British business marketing an AI feature, the practical step is unglamorous: go back through your current advertising and ask which objective claims you could actually evidence today.