AI-generated and AI-enhanced advertising creative is no longer an experiment — it is part of how many Indian brands now produce festive-season campaigns at scale. Before that production ramps up further ahead of Durga Puja and Diwali, advertisers should know that India’s own advertising self-regulatory body has a specific proposal on the table for how this content gets disclosed to consumers.
The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) published draft “Guidelines for Responsible Labelling of AI-Generated Content in Advertising” on May 12, 2026. The guidelines are aligned with India’s Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2026, which were themselves amended on February 10, 2026. ASCI’s public comment window on the draft closed June 13, 2026.
As of this writing, ASCI has not published a finalized version of these guidelines, and no confirmed effective date is publicly available. This article explains exactly what the draft proposes, its current status, and what a reasonably cautious advertiser should do in the meantime — without claiming the rules are already in force.
ASCI’s draft takes what it calls a “risk-based approach, focusing on consumer outcomes rather than regulating the technology itself.” Rather than requiring a label on every piece of content that touched an AI tool, the draft sorts AI use in advertising into three tiers.
Content that stays outside ASCI’s code even if disclosed. The draft names deepfakes, fabricated endorsements, unauthorised use of a real person’s likeness, exaggerated or misleading visual claims, and using AI to generate fictional authority figures with identifiable real-world cues (for example, a fake doctor or expert persona).
Content where AI materially influences a consumer’s decision. The draft specifically calls out virtual influencers, synthetic product demonstrations, realistic AI-generated settings, and AI-driven paid or sponsored product suggestions — the last of which the draft says must carry a “sponsored by” label in addition to any AI disclosure. Suggested label language includes phrases like “Audio/Video created using AI” or “Audio/Video enhanced using AI.”
Minor edits, decorative backgrounds, fantastical or clearly unrealistic elements, and administrative uses of AI that don’t materially affect a consumer’s purchase decision.
This project covered Google’s own AI labeling feature for Google Ads, Display & Video 360, Campaign Manager 360, Merchant Center, and Ads Editor creative in a separate article. That feature is an opt-in disclosure tool inside one advertising platform, and Google itself states it “doesn’t guarantee compliance with specific regulations.”
ASCI’s draft is a different kind of document. It is India’s own advertising self-regulatory body proposing rules that would apply across all media — television, print, out-of-home, and every digital platform, not just Google’s ad products. If finalized, it would function as an industry-wide reference point for what “adequate AI disclosure” means in India, the kind of standard that Google’s own tool explicitly says it cannot guarantee on its own. Brands running AI-assisted creative across multiple channels need to think about both: platform-level tools that help disclose AI use, and the broader industry standard ASCI is trying to set for when disclosure is expected at all.
Since the guidelines remain in draft form, nothing here is a legal requirement yet. That said, three practical steps make sense regardless of the eventual finalization date:
To be transparent about the limits of what’s knowable today: ASCI has not announced a finalization date, and this article does not assume one. Whether the final guidelines will match the draft’s three-tier structure exactly, whether an effective date will fall before or after this year’s festive season, and how enforcement will actually work in practice are all open questions. Treat any specific finalization date you encounter elsewhere with the same caution this article applies to itself, unless it cites ASCI directly.
ASCI has a draft proposal that could change how virtual influencers, AI product demos, and AI-enhanced videos need to be labelled. Here’s what it says, what’s still uncertain, and what to do now.
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