Companies are stretching the truth about their artificial intelligence capabilities to an extraordinary degree, public relations professionals have warned, as businesses scramble to attach the AI label to products and services that often bear little relation to the technology.
Communications executives tasked with securing media coverage say they are increasingly being asked to pitch fundamentally low-tech or automation-based businesses as AI specialists. One publicist in south London, who represents a portfolio of tech and design firms, described the reaction from journalists: “You can almost hear the eyes roll when you mention the word AI to a reporter. I’ve watched a steady stream of companies try to bolt the label AI on to whatever they do, no matter how tenuous the link.”
Imran Ariff, a media strategist at the London-based agency Fight or Flight, said brands can “drink their own Kool-Aid” when they become too proud of their work and go too far in promoting AI capabilities. A PR working for a global agency with offices in New York and London described the phenomenon as “Bikram yoga-level stretches by brands in service of trying to manufacture reasons to talk about AI”. The same executive added that they often have to counsel against the practice, noting: “No journalist is going to include our comment about the government’s sovereign AI fund just because we released a chatbot.”
The pressure is so intense that some PRs feel compelled to send out stories they do not believe in. An account director at a central London firm explained that roughly half the pitches he sends are ones he would rather not. “Everyone’s kind of become a bit numb to the AI-powered, AI-driven language,” he said.
From basketball hoops to property scanners: the tenuous links
The examples of forced AI branding range from the absurd to the mundane. Last month, the US shoe company AllBirds “pivoted” to acquiring AI graphics processing units. Genetics companies have hyped AI-powered blood tests. In recent weeks, journalists have received press releases about AI-powered basketball hoops and AI-powered lasers that – according to the claims – protect women from predators on crowded underground platforms.
One account director described a property company that tried to market a tool for scanning a building and generating its floor plan as AI. “It’s just a handheld scanner. There’s probably elements of AI in it that sort of speed the process up … but it’s actually just automation,” he said. “It’s not the kind of AI that many of us assume it to be.” The same executive noted that companies are “littering marketing with how AI is making a difference” and trying to insert “AI” into product names, even when the underlying technology is merely improved automation.
This practice has been labelled “AI washing” – the exaggerated or misleading representation of AI capabilities for marketing purposes, analogous to greenwashing. Industry experts say the trend is driven by several factors, including the terminological ambiguity of “AI”, which allows basic automation to be rebranded as advanced intelligence. Startups described as “AI-based” can attract significantly more funding than traditional counterparts, and companies face competitive pressure to appear innovative or risk losing market confidence.
Broader corporate image and the cost of AI hype
Beyond marketing, some companies have used AI washing to justify mass layoffs, claiming AI-driven productivity gains necessitate workforce reductions. Firms such as Block, Cloudflare and Coinbase have been cited in this context. The financial sector has also seen cases of overstatement: the US Securities and Exchange Commission charged investment advisors Delphia and Global Predictions for making false and misleading statements about their use of AI in managing portfolios.
The issue has not escaped the attention of senior executives. Last week, the chief executive of Standard Chartered apologised after describing workers poised to lose their jobs to AI as “lower-value human capital”. Meanwhile, large companies around the world are assessing how closely they want to align their image with AI as they implement the technology and cut thousands of jobs. Despite these concerns, stock market investors have largely shrugged off recent jitters over the AI boom, as well as rising inflation and the war in Iran.
Regulators begin to close in
Regulators in the UK and internationally are taking action. The UK Advertising Standards Authority has published guidance on AI terminology in advertising, warning against misleading claims and actively monitoring for non-compliant content. The Competition and Markets Authority has been granted new powers to enforce consumer protection laws, with fines of up to 10% of global turnover for misleading consumers through AI washing. The Financial Conduct Authority, while not having an express “AI-washing” rule, requires firms to communicate information fairly and clearly, and has launched the Mills Review to examine how firms market their AI capabilities.
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission has pursued cases against companies making deceptive AI claims. The European Union’s AI Act, due to impose extensive transparency requirements from August 2026, will include significant fines for violations.
The consequences of AI washing are serious. It can lead to customer deception, market distortion and a general erosion of trust in genuine AI technologies, making it harder for stakeholders to distinguish between real innovation and marketing hype. Businesses genuinely investing in AI may struggle to compete with those making unsubstantiated claims, while directors and officers face potential personal liability. Transparency, technical documentation and concrete evidence are increasingly seen as the only way to separate authentic AI from the hype.
