AI clauses in an agency agreement for AI-generated content

An agency delivering generated copy, images or video to a client needs its agreement to say what is generated and what is not, what rights the agency can pass on in each, how the advertising rules apply to a claim a tool wrote, whose face or voice may appear, which content must be labelled, and who carries the risk when a generated claim or image is challenged. The agency's existing agreement assumes human authorship throughout. Drafting or reviewing the AI provisions for the agreement is £595 fixed, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Marketing, advertising, content, social media and creative agencies in England and Wales delivering generated or AI-assisted content to clients under an agency agreement or statement of work.

What matters in an agency agreement for generated content

What is generated, what is made and the schedule that says which

The agreement should classify the deliverables: made by the agency's people (full assignment, full warranties), AI-assisted with substantial human work (assignment of the agency's contribution and of the rights it holds in the generated base, warranties limited accordingly), and generated at the production tier (a licence of whatever rights the agency has, disclosed as generated, warranties limited to the checks applied), with each statement of work stating which class each deliverable falls in; the classification is what the client is buying and pricing, and an agency that leaves it implicit has sold originality it may not be able to deliver.

Rights in generated content and the assignment that cannot be unconditional

the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (section 9(3)) makes the person who made the arrangements the author of a computer-generated work, which is untested on modern tools, and protects only original works, so the assignment clause should assign the agency's own work, assign or license the rights the agency holds in generated elements under the tool's output terms (which differ between tools and tiers, and which the agency should have read), exclude the tool provider's retained rights, and state that generated elements may be unprotected and may be reproduced by others using the same tools, which the client should know before it builds a brand on them; the agency's pre-existing materials and its prompts and methods are carved out as its own.

The advertising rules, claims and the generated statement

Advertising must comply with the codes the Advertising Standards Authority administers, claims must be substantiated, comparative claims must comply with the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008, and consumer-facing content must not mislead under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (which treats fake reviews and endorsements as unfair practices), and a generated claim is as actionable as a written one; the agreement places responsibility for substantiating claims on the party that holds the evidence (the client), requires the agency to check generated claims against the client's substantiation before publication, prohibits generated reviews and testimonials, and allocates the consequences of a ruling or a complaint to the party whose failure caused it.

Moral rights, credits and the people in the content

Generated imagery may depict real people (a lookalike of a celebrity, a real person from the training data, a client's staff member whose photograph was uploaded) and generated voices may imitate real ones, and the agreement prohibits generating identifiable real people without their written consent, prohibits named-artist and named-brand prompts, requires model and talent releases for anyone whose likeness or voice is used as a source, and addresses credits (no generated work credited to a named creative who did not make it, the agency's moral rights under the 1988 Act waived or asserted as the agreement provides for human work, and no false attribution of generated work); a client asked by a performer's agent why their likeness is in an advert needs the agreement to show who was responsible.

Labelling, platforms and the content the law says must be marked

Some platforms require generated or altered media to be labelled, some jurisdictions the client advertises in require disclosure of synthetic content in particular contexts (political advertising, deepfakes, certain consumer communications), and the advertising codes treat undisclosed digital alteration as potentially misleading where it affects a claim; the agreement allocates responsibility for labelling (the agency identifies generated content in the deliverable, the client applies the labels the platform and the market require), keeps a record of the tools and prompts for each deliverable so that a label can be justified, and provides for the position to change as the rules do.

Approval, indemnity and the client's sign-off

The client's approval process applies to generated content without exception, the agency's indemnity for infringement is limited to its own work and the generated elements it has checked and disclosed, the client indemnifies the agency for claims arising from the client's substantiation, the client's supplied materials and the client's labelling, liability sits within the agreement's cap, and the agreement provides for takedown (the agency removes or replaces content on request within a stated period where a claim arises); trade secrets, confidential information and clients' data stay out of any tool whose provider may train on or retain the input, a line the Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc.) Regulations 2018 (which protect only secrets kept by reasonable steps) and the business's confidentiality obligations both require, and the agreement permits the client's assets in tools that meet stated conditions and nothing else.

What it costs

AI provisions in a contract, £595. Review or draft AI-specific terms in a supply or customer agreement. Five working days.

AI use policy, £995. Internal policy plus the accompanying contract provisions. Five working days.

Email me at geoffrey@caesar.co.uk with what you need and any documents, and I will confirm the scope and the fee in writing, usually the same working day.

What you get

• An internal AI use policy your staff will follow, rather than a document that bans everything and is quietly ignored
• Contract provisions covering output ownership, training data, confidentiality and liability
• A defensible position to give customers who ask what your AI governance looks like
• Review of your AI suppliers' terms, including what they reserve the right to change
• Practical guidance on what to permit, what to restrict and what to prohibit outright
• One round of amendments

What is not included

• Technical AI assurance, model testing or bias auditing
• Sector-specific regulatory approval
• Advice on non-UK regulatory regimes beyond flagging where they apply
• Ongoing regulatory monitoring

Questions I am often asked

Can we assign copyright in generated images to the client?

Only the rights the agency holds under the tool's output terms, which differ by tool and tier, and the client should be told that generated elements may be unprotected and reproducible by others. The agreement classifies each deliverable so that the client knows what it is buying.

Who is responsible if a generated claim is challenged?

The party whose failure caused it: the client for substantiation it holds, the agency for a claim it published without checking against it. The agreement allocates it and prohibits generated reviews and testimonials.

Does generated content have to be labelled?

On some platforms and in some markets and contexts, yes. The agreement makes the agency identify generated content and the client apply the labels the platform and market require, with the tools and prompts recorded.

Related guidance and services

• AI contracts and AI use policies, £595, the service this page describes
• SaaS and technology contracts, £995
• Data protection agreements and privacy terms, £795
• AI use policy for a marketing agency
• AI-generated images and copyright in client work

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: October 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.