AI Policy

An Artificial Intelligence Policy for Creative Humans

v.3 | last updated October 2026

At Banner Day, we see artificial intelligence (AI) as a human-powered tool with real potential and real limitations. As with any tool, when, how, and why we use it—and DON’T use it—matters.

Our AI policies reflect our values (Meaning, Verve, Heart) and our Golden Rules (Take Care, Give Credit, Share Joy) centering and celebrating human creativity and empathy while upholding our collective responsibility to do right by our clients, our collaborators, our communities, and ourselves. Our goal is to help ensure that, if and when we use AI, we do so intentionally, ethically, and securely in ways that serve our creative vision, strengthen our collaborative relationships, deliver meaningful value to clients and collaborators alike, and minimize inherent risks and negative impacts as best we can.

Here's how we do it.

(psst… Looking for our AI Gut-Check Guide? It’s here.)

NOTE to our Clients and Collaborators: We acknowledge that this technology changes faster than any policy could keep up with. So, if using AI for a specific action or task feels somehow “wrong,” trust that your human judgment is probably onto something. If that happens, and we can help, please reach out to us at hello@bannerday.co. TLDR: When in doubt, let’s talk it out. Now, on to the official stuff…

Our Philosophy

Make it meaningful. Make it mindful. Make it measurable.

Meaningful
We’re committed to “making it matter” by bringing greater meaning—intentionality, clarity, nuance, and balance—to our work. This requires us to use AI with clear purpose, understanding the risks and rewards involved, applying our human judgement at every turn, and delivering to our highest standards of creativity and integrity. No matter what.

Mindful
We thoughtfully consider AI’s ethical implications, including those concerning data privacy, bias prevention, proper attribution, and sustainability. We’re continually learning and improving, not afraid to pause and reassess, and always open to changing our approach for the better.

Measurable
We evaluate how AI influences our day-to-day operations, creative processes, client outcomes, and collaborator experiences. Using human-led tools like retrospectives and surveys, we revise and refine our policies based on real results, not just gut feelings.

Our Approach

Serving People First
First and foremost, we care about how our use of AI affects YOU—our clients, collaborators, partners, and the communities we share.

Honoring Our Humanity
AI can’t replace or substitute for human thinking, creating, and connecting. Our independent collaborators bring irreplaceable, individual ingenuity, strategy, empathy, and perspective to every project.

Grounding Decisions in Purpose
Everything we do with AI starts with why. If we choose an AI-supported approach, it’s because we’ve considered the impacts, weighed the pros and cons, and believe it’s, ultimately, a wise way to go.

Staying Transparent
We communicate clearly about when and how AI tools support our process. Have a question, suggestion, or concern about AI (or any tools we use)? Please share it with us.

Our Core Practices

We believe great work—whether it’s a headline, a logo, a strategic framework, a project plan, a report—requires a qualified, creative, caring, human point of view. AI tools have proven to be useful across a wide range of technical, professional, and even artistic applications . But they don't change who is responsible for the work. Or how much we care about doing it well.

QUALITY & INTEGRITY

Human Creative Direction:
Any and all AI-supported content flows from human creative direction and is never used internally or shared externally without direct oversight by at least one qualified Banner Day team member. At every stage of a creative project (ideation, drafting, iteration, production) our people set the creative direction, apply their judgment, and own the results. This is true for strategy, messaging AND design. The medium doesn't change the principle.

Always-Human Review Process:
Every AI-supported output, just like every human-generated one, undergoes a comprehensive review by one or more qualified Banner Day team members before being put to use or shared with our clients.

Skills Amplification:
As a studio, we may use AI in ways that allow our collaborators to focus their time, energy, and talents on higher-value creative work. (Think: less effort spent gathering and organizing strategic inputs; more spent on turning them into breakthrough ideas.)

Collaborator Autonomy:
Our collaborators are independent creative professionals who bring their own expertise, processes, and tools to every engagement. We don’t prescribe how they work. We do hold ourselves, and each other, to shared standards. AI use in Banner Day’s client work should always be transparent, human-directed, and delivered with great care, intention, and integrity.

ETHICAL USE & TRANSPARENCY

AI Disclosure:
From the first hello to the final high-five, we’ll communicate clearly about how and why any AI tools we use contribute to a project’s delivery and success. We invite and appreciate questions and feedback about AI use—or any aspect of our work—at any point in the process.

Attribution:
One of our Golden Rules is to “Give credit.” That includes acknowledging AI tools’ contributions to our work alongside our human ones. Our AI Gut-Check Guide (created as a quick reference for our collaborators, but helpful context for anyone working with Banner Day) shares some common, real-world examples of how we may use AI, how we won’t, and when we encourage collaborators to ask first. Beyond that baseline guidance, we're happy to share more detail—on which tools were used, how, to what extent, and why—with active clients during the course of a project, whenever it's helpful or specifically requested.

On AI Watermarking:
Some AI tools embed invisible watermarks into generated text to comply with regulations like the EU AI Act. These watermarks can survive copying-and-pasting and some degree of human editing. The exact threshold at which human editing removes these watermarks isn't clear, even to the tool providers. So, it’s possible watermarks may appear even on content that has been significantly edited by our human collaborators. As such, we don’t rely on the presence or absence of a watermark to indicate how much of a work reflects human vs. AI-supported output. For us, it’s a matter of intention, judgment, and craft. We'll be watching how watermarking and detection standards evolve and update this policy as needed.

Accounting for Bias:
AI outputs can reflect inherent biases against statuses or identities that must be protected against discrimination (including race and skin color; religious beliefs and practices; national origin and ancestry; sex, sexual orientation and gender; age; and disability). We are committed to accounting for and correcting for this limitation by:

Not using AI to filter, influence, or direct any decisions in which such bias may occur (for example, when hiring collaborators or staffing project teams)

Vetting all relevant AI outputs with the goal of identifying and resolving such bias

Intentionally including diverse voices and perspectives in our interactions with AI tools

Tool-Embedded AI:
Nearly every technology platform in use today incorporates some form of AI as part of its standard functionality, from email clients to design platforms to scheduling tools. We can't guarantee that a tool we use doesn't include AI-powered components at the platform level. We will continue to be transparent about our AI use through this policy, communicating in detail when it materially affects an engagement and/or whenever our clients or collaborators request more information.

SECURITY & DATA PRIVACY

We use AI-powered tools in keeping with the terms and conditions of our company Confidentiality and Proprietary Information agreements (which you will review and sign as part of every contract with Banner Day). We prioritize the protection of client, collaborator, and company data following industry-standard recommendations. This includes:

Disabling training options that allow our AI inputs to train future models

Intentionally selecting and monitoring plugins, extensions, and API keys to ensure AI tools access only desired, non-confidential data

Not inputting personally identifiable information or Proprietary Information into AI tools, unless we have documented permission from the information owner; and using generic and anonymized inputs to preserve Confidentiality in cases that require it

Protecting accounts with strong passwords, for example, by using a password-manager (to ensure passwords are unique, long, randomized blends of letters, numbers, and symbols) and multi-factor authorizations (MFAs, which require you to authenticate in two or more ways each time you log in)

(Collaborators: If you have questions on how to do any of the above within a particular platform or tool, please ask us at hello@bannerday.co)

COPYRIGHT & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

All content produced by our collaborators on behalf of Banner Day or our clients must respect applicable copyright and intellectual property laws. This is straightforward in principle. In practice, AI technologies continue to outpace the legal frameworks designed to govern them. So, we stick to our commitments and adapt as proactively as we can. When in doubt, we pause and reassess. (“Move-fast-and-break-things” might work for some. Around here, “Take time and take care” is the rule, not the exception.) Our commitments:

We work with legal counsel, including through our INVINCIBLE INC. partnership, to stay current on relevant developments in AI-related copyright and IP law

We review our practices and update our guidance on an annual basis (at minimum), and sooner if the legal or ethical landscape shifts in ways that affect our clients or our work

We communicate proactively. For any deliverable where AI use raises a meaningful IP consideration, we'll raise it directly with our clients before proceeding.

SUSTAINABILITY

Today, the environmental costs of AI—energy, water, computing infrastructure (data center impacts)—are very real. It will take time, regulation, and continued collective effort by AI providers, customers, and governments if there is ever to be a fully (or even highly) sustainable way to use AI. We think it's important to acknowledge these limitations first. Then, to do what we can to find and maintain a responsible balance that works for our clients, our collaborators, and our company values. In practice, this looks like:

Factoring environmental impact into how we evaluate and use AI tools, considering aspects like water and energy usage, and continuing to refine our approach as the landscape, and our understanding of it, evolves. For example, by using tools like Offset AI to better monitor AI usage and ways to mitigate its water and carbon footprints.

Sharing knowledge and guidance around more sustainable AI use through our policies, our resources, and in direct conversation with our collaborators, clients, vendors, and partners.

Encouraging intentionally using vs. overusing AI tools. Simply pausing to ask two key questions: “What does AI ADD here? What does it SUBTRACT?” and considering the answers, goes a long way toward supporting responsible, sustainable AI use. (See our AI Gut-Check Guide for more.)

RED-FLAGGING AI TOOLS

Some AI tools are objectively unsafe to use. Before adopting any tool, we look for signs of real risk to us, our collaborators, or our clients. Any of the following are reason enough to immediately pause work and carefully (re)assess. If the risk is real OR it can’t be confidently assessed or countered, the safest option is to walk away. “Red flags” include:

Foreign state ownership or control: Particularly by governments with limited data privacy protections or a history of surveillance

Unclear data handling: No clear statement of where data is stored, how long it's kept, and who can access it—usually found on a provider's website or in their Terms of Use.

No independent security validation (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR compliance)

Unresolved security vulnerabilities, like weak encryption or documented data leaks

Default data training with no opt-out

Built around deception: Likeness, voice, or impersonation tools without meaningful safeguards

Government bans or restrictions on security grounds

OVERSIGHT & COMMUNICATION

AI Requirements for Our Clients:
Creative collaboration is a two-way street. The Banner Day team commits to using AI responsibly, in ways that uphold human creativity, judgment, and the relationships we build alongside every engagement. We ask the same of our valued clients. So, please:

Be transparent if your review and feedback process, as an individual or a team, involves inputting our work (strategic, creative, otherwise) into an AI tool. That way, we can help ensure confidentiality, support creativity and originality, and clearly understand how AI can be used to benefit the feedback/review process vs. where it might fall short (or even detract).

Be accountable, individually and as a team, for the accuracy, security, and quality of all resources, insights, feedback, and other inputs provided during the course of your project. Our collaborators are ultimately responsible for every decision and deliverable, regardless of what tools they do or don’t use along the way. We expect the same level of accountability from our client partners.

Be curious, open minded, and willing to try. We believe the best collaborations thrive when we ALL allow ourselves to explore, discover, learn, test, tweak, and repeat—together. Especially when tools are new and times are changing, openness, flexibility, and mutual respect for the creative process AND for each other go a loooooong way toward supporting engagements and partnerships that are not only ultimately successful, but a whole lot more rewarding along the way.

AI Governance:
As the naming and branding company created for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs, our AI governance is overseen directly by Banner Day’s founder and creative director with input from key collaborators. This includes:

Evaluating and approving new AI tools for studio use

Addressing ethical concerns about AI implementation

Reviewing and updating this policy at least annually, and as technologies and legal standards evolve

Answering AI implementation questions

Balancing our commitment to upholding company-wide AI standards and policies with our commitment to supporting the autonomy of our team of independent contractors

Maintaining and modeling open communication about AI and AI policies and providing opportunities for information-sharing, feedback, and conversation

Requirements & Requests:
If you have specific requirements or requests around AI use in connection with our work together, please share them with us in writing (via hello@bannerday.co) before signing your contract or statement-of-work. We’ll discuss how this may affect our engagement/s and, if and where there are meaningful trade-offs, work to resolve and document them so that we can collaborate with confidence and clear commitments.

Resources:
All Banner Day clients will have access to our current AI policy, which is also publicly available at www.bannerday.co/ai-policy, as well as timely updates regarding any policy changes. We may also share or offer additional AI resources with clients via our marketing, social, media, or other communications channels, or directly as part of (or in support of) a specific engagement.

All collaborators (contracted team members and vendors) working with Banner Day will have access to our current AI Policy and any supporting internal documents/resources, timely updates regarding any policy changes, clear protocols for communicating concerns about AI use and/or outputs, as well as AI-focused learning and training opportunities hand-selected and/or customized for Banner Day.

Policy Feedback & Reporting:
For Our Collaborators: If something about an AI tool or output doesn't sit right, here's what to do:

Pause. Stop using the AI tool for that specific task or deliverable until the concern is resolved.

Capture it. Note what happened—the tool involved, what you asked it to do, and what concerned you. A screenshot or copy of the output helps.

Tell us about it. Email hello@bannerday.co with what you noticed. We'll follow up, work through it together, and factor it into how we evaluate that tool or update this policy moving forward.

No concern is too small to raise, and you'll never be penalized for pausing to ask a question. That’s exactly what this process is for.

For Everyone: If you have questions or feedback about this policy, AI at Banner Day, or anything else you'd like to share, please email us at hello@bannerday.co.

GRATITUDE
Thank you for supporting us as we continually work to uphold our values, serve our clients, support our collaborators, and–together—create brands worth celebrating.

AI Gut-Check Guide

We trust and train our collaborators to use AI in ways that uphold our team values and policies. We also want following these policies to be as simple and straightforward as possible. This quick-reference guide can help.

TWO ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS TO ASK…

Before beginning any AI-supported work:
Sure, we could use AI to support almost any task we can think of these days. To understand whether we should use AI—that is, whether it meaningfully contributes to the process, and whether those benefits outweigh the risks—we can ask ourselves two essential questions:

1. What does AI ADD here?

As in, what would using this tool bring to the work/the world?

For example, guiding Claude to review anonymized stakeholder interview transcripts should add speed and depth to my insights, helping see and interpret patterns much faster as we build our brand strategy (PRO). Also, the more prompts I use to get to the result I want, the more carbon I’m adding into the atmosphere (CON).

2. What does it SUBTRACT?

As in, what would using this tool take away from the work/the world?

For example, the above use case should subtract billable time from a more automatable area of the project and allow me to apply it to a more strategic activity (PRO). It could also subtract from my ability to see something I’m not yet looking and prompting for, but would probably catch if I reread each transcript line by line (CON). And, the more prompts I use, the more water I use/subtract from a shared water supply for server cooling (CON).

Thoughtfully answering those questions, and making a habit of pausing to ask them before opening any AI tool, are some of the first and greatest steps we can take toward ensuring we’re using AI intentionally and responsibly.

MAY/ASK/DON’T Models

Here are some common use cases illustrating when we MAY (not must) choose to use AI, when we should definitely pause and ASK before using it, and when we just plain DON’T approve of or use AI tools.

We MAY use AI tools to:

Organize, summarize, or prepare materials for human review
e.g., transcribing and organizing notes from a discovery call, summarizing a long-form article or whitepaper for research purposes, compiling competitor research into a comparison chart format

Assist with scheduling, file management, and administrative workflows
e.g., finding meeting times across people’s calendars, organizing project files by category or criteria, drafting agenda outlines for internal check-ins

Research and compile background information; analyze data and identify patterns
e.g., pulling current industry trends for a naming project's brandscape audit, summarizing publicly available trademark and common law search results for human review, identifying patterns across client survey responses

Automate repeatable operational tasks that don't involve client-facing decisions
e.g., generating first-pass file naming conventions, batch-formatting a deliverables checklist, drafting internal project status templates

Generate creative drafts, variations, or starting points—always under human direction
e.g., brainstorming word lists according to a creative brief for a naming strategist to shape further, generating variations on a given headline for a copywriter to refine, creating rough visual sketches or mood board options for reference for a designer to develop

We ASK BEFORE using AI tools to:

Work with any client- or project-specific information, even in anonymized form
e.g., checking whether a client's contract or SOW includes AI-specific requirements or restrictions before inputting anonymized project details into an AI tool

Introduce a new AI tool, plugin, or extension into a client project
e.g., proposing an AI-powered design plugin or research tool that hasn't yet been vetted or approved for studio use

Use AI in ways that could raise a meaningful copyright or IP consideration
e.g., using AI to generate visual assets that may closely reference existing brand elements, using AI-assisted naming candidates that may carry trademark risk

Apply AI to a deliverable in a new or non-standard way
e.g., using AI to help evaluate which of several naming directions is strongest before a strategist presents them, using an AI tool to generate voiceover or audio

Check with your project lead or Banner Day's creative director if you're unsure whether something falls into this category. When in doubt, ask first.

We DON'T use AI tools to:

Send communications on behalf of Banner Day or our clients without direct human review and approval
e.g., an AI tool auto-replying to a client email, an AI agent posting to our social channels 

Make creative, strategic, or business decisions
e.g., selecting a final name or logo direction, deciding a client's messaging strategy, choosing which candidate to hire or staff on a project

Access, handle, or share confidential client information without explicit human oversight
e.g., uploading a client's unreleased financials or data into a public AI tool, connecting an AI plugin to a shared drive containing NDA-protected materials

Take any action that creates a commitment, obligation, or public representation for Banner Day or a client
e.g., an AI tool agreeing to project terms or deadlines, generating and sharing client-facing content without review, representing itself as a Banner Day team member in any interaction

Replace human creative direction, review, or relationship-building
e.g., delivering AI-generated copy or design to a client without human creative direction and review, letting AI stand in for a real conversation with a client or teammate

Create deceptive or misappropriating likenesses
e.g., generating photorealistic AI images of real people or events presented as real, imitating a real person's voice or likeness, closely mimicking a living artist's recognizable style

These are relevant, current examples for reference; not an exhaustive list. As this landscape continues to evolve, so will this policy. And we'll let you know what's changed.

What's New in v.3
Version three updates include: an AI Gut-Check Guide; a shift away from content labeling toward transparency at the studio level, paired with new guidance on AI watermarking; a move from discipline-specific creative guardrails to overarching guidance that applies across all creative work by nature; expanded protections against deceptive or misappropriated likenesses (real people, voices, and living artists' styles); revised data security practices tied directly to our contractor Confidentiality agreements; a revised sustainability approach; new red-flag criteria for identifying AI tools that pose a real risk to use, not just a poor fit; added AI Requirements for Our Clients, and consolidated client preference and reporting protocols under Oversight & Communication; explicit naming of our Golden Rules alongside our core values as essential guidance driving the policy itself; and more neutral (unbiased) language regarding AI tools reflected throughout the policy