Notes
Observations on expert work, intelligent systems and regulated marketing
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When the prompt omits the rule
The Midnite ruling shows where generative marketing needs controls: creation, review and publication.
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Why questions don't always create curiosity
Across four studies, question-framed titles drew less engagement because readers expected them to be less informative.
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When criticism helps the review but hurts the reviewer
A negative review can feel more useful while its author seems less credible, depending on what the audience expected.
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The option you do not want can still change the decision
A less-preferred option can reduce the appeal of a wider proposition, even when customers are free to ignore it.
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Why voices that sound like ours may earn more trust
New research suggests similarity in vocal timbre can shape competence-based trust and persuasion.
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Advertising on ChatGPT: what should marketers approve?
An advert can pass content review and still be unsuitable for the conversation in which it appears.
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Where marketing’s AI productivity gains go
McKinsey respondents widely report individual AI productivity gains, while far fewer report organisation-level financial impact.
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The age of AEO belongs to interesting brands
AI is changing how content is created and discovered but what comes out still depends on what a brand puts in.
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What should an AI agent remember from expert work?
Useful organisational intelligence depends less on retrieving previous decisions than on preserving the expert criteria, reasoning and contextual limits that made them valid.
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How do you approve an ad when the context is private?
Regulated advertisers need to show that contextual ad controls worked without seeing the private conversation behind each placement.
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Marketing compliance software for financial services: 2026 comparison
Compare nine platforms across rule intelligence, pre-review, approvals, asset management and live monitoring.
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The Consumer Duty boundary is becoming a marketing question
As the FCA redraws the boundary around retail protections, marketing teams will need to pay closer attention to context.
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From AI risk frameworks to accountable decisions
New research reveals where AI risk classification and tooling fall short: accountability, human oversight and wider governance.
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Employee voices need systems, not scripts
Employee-generated content can give regulated brands credible expertise and greater reach, but scaling it depends on guardrails that help people exercise judgement—not copy that removes it.
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FINRA proposes moving beyond the approval queue
FINRA wants to replace the default principal pre-use approval requirement with risk-based supervision. The opportunity is faster communication; the harder task is proving why each asset received the scrutiny it did.
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Article 50 turns AI transparency into a workflow decision
The EU AI Act’s transparency rules begin to apply on 2 August. The difficult work is deciding which obligation applies, who owns it and how the reasoning will be preserved.
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The Exhale Coffee ruling: evidence is not permission
Exhale Coffee supported its marketing with research, laboratory testing and medical expertise. The ASA ruling shows why none of those things, alone or together, creates an authorised health claim.
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The EU AI Act is moving into company workflows
New data from nearly 3,000 companies shows the EU AI Act influencing corporate governance beyond Europe and changing how organisations evidence responsible-AI claims.
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Consumer Duty monitoring has to show what changed
The FCA’s latest review finds that collecting management information is not enough. Firms need a traceable path from customer evidence to decisions, action and a measured result.
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The PM’s AI Taskforce faces the second-use-case test
Lord Vallance has been given direct authority to drive the government’s AI strategy. The harder test is whether evidence and judgement from one deployment make the next easier to govern.
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How US bank marketers are putting AI to work
Data reveals where bank marketers are applying AI, how they access it and why the most valuable applications remain the hardest to implement.
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Marketing is becoming the test of organisational AI
US Census analysis suggests marketing is where many firms begin with AI and where some remain. For regulated teams, that makes the function an early test of how adoption is governed.
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AI adoption is rising faster than organisational capability
ONS data shows AI use spreading quickly across UK business. The more valuable task for marketers is turning isolated use into well-governed organisational capability.
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The missing layer in agentic marketing
BCG's 2026 CMO Survey shows that adopting AI tools is not the same as transforming marketing. In regulated industries, the missing layer is organisational intelligence.
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The creator economy is coming for regulated professions
Expertise is increasingly discovered through content. Regulated professionals have a significant opportunity, but publishing at scale changes the demands on judgement, evidence and review.
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AI governance in financial services needs a human test
The Mills Review exposes a weakness in many AI strategies: putting a person in the loop is not enough. Accountable delegation requires a far more deliberate operating model.
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FCA regulatory strategy: the end of compliance at any speed
The FCA wants firms to make faster, better-evidenced decisions about risk. For marketing and compliance leaders, that demands a better operating model, not lower standards.
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AI in financial services has moved beyond the pilot problem
The UK’s financial services AI plan reveals that the hardest part of adoption is no longer proving the technology. It is turning regulatory principles into repeatable decisions.