Advertising and AI – ASA and CAP publish 2024 report highlighting how they use AI

On 29th April 2025, Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and The Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) published a 2024 Annual Report (here) which amongst other key themes, looks at the impact AI has had on Ad monitoring in the last year. ASA is the UK’s independent, frontline regulator of advertising across all media, whilst CAP writes the UK Advertising Codes and provide authoritative guidance on the rules.

ASA's Chief Executive, Guy Parker, noted that their use of innovative tech, including that of the Active Ad Monitoring system, has been transformative its regulation into adopting a preventative and proactive approach and not being limited to acting only when a public complaint is made. 

Due to improvements made to ASA and CAP's Active Ad Monitoring system, (the use of AI to monitor online advertising) this has allowed for the processing of 28 million ads in the last year, a tenfold increase on the ads processed compared to 2023. Additionally, 94% of the ads which were amended or withdrew in 2024 came from use of the Active Ad Monitoring. 

Active Ad Monitoring has been used in many high-priority areas, including ASA and CAP's climate change and environment project alongside influencer marketing, financial advertising, prescription-only medicines, gambling, e-cigarettes, and cosmetic surgery clinics based outside the UK. The use of AI for monitoring purposes was the source of 41 published formal rulings in 2024, which is almost 15% of ASA and CAP's total output. Additionally, it helped to support more than 30,000 ads being amended or withdrawn.

Looking forward, ASA and CAP are looking to increase the number of topics the Active Ad Monitoring system can cover, helping to address gaps in visibility. 

If you would like to discuss how current or future regulations impact what you do with AI, please contact Tom Whittaker, Brian Wong, Lucy Pegler, Martin Cook, Liz Smith or any other member in our Technology team.  For the latest on AI law and regulation, see our blog and newsletter.

This article was written by Molly Taylor.