AI for Ad Review: A Compliance Professional’s Checklist

Overview

Summary

This document from Red Oak offers a comprehensive checklist for compliance professionals to evaluate AI tools for advertising review. It highlights the importance of distinguishing true AI from basic keyword scanners and emphasizes that a suitable solution must be tailorable to specific company policies and seamlessly integrate into existing workflows. The guide also stresses the need for explainable and auditable AI decisions, efficient reduction of revision cycles, and enterprise-grade security. Furthermore, it advocates for model-agnostic solutions that avoid vendor lock-in and do not require extensive, constant retraining. Ultimately, the source asserts that the right AI can significantly enhance compliance efficiency, reduce risk, and improve regulatory readiness.

Critical Questions Powered by Red Oak

Many vendors market their systems as “AI,” but in reality, they’re often just running keyword scans or static lexicons. True AI in compliance uses large language models (LLMs) and prompt engineering to dynamically evaluate nuanced language and adapt over time. This ensures the system can keep up with regulatory shifts and the complexity of advertising review.

In compliance, black-box AI creates risk. Regulators and auditors expect firms to demonstrate how a decision was made and why something was flagged. A compliant AI solution should provide transparent logs, explainable prompts, and a full audit trail so teams can easily justify actions during regulatory inquiries.

Traditional bespoke models often require costly retraining and still break down on new data. Agentic AI takes a different approach by using LLMs as the reasoning engine and layering task-specific agents around them. This reduces revision cycles, improves first-time submission quality, and lowers manual oversight — all while staying aligned with firm policies and workflows.

Transcript (for the Robots)

Speaker 1

Welcome to the deep dive, where we try to cut through the noise and get right to the core of what you need to know.

Today, we're tackling, well, a really big question for compliance professionals—how do you actually choose the right AI tool for advertising review? Especially with all the hype out there.

Speaker 2

It's definitely true. Yeah. So many tools flash that AI label, but not all of them really deliver on the promise. Our mission today, based on your sources, is to equip you with a practical checklist. Think of it as a strategic framework, really, to separate the genuinely effective solutions from those that, well, just overpromise. Regulators expect reasonably designed systems, and marketing deadlines—they're tighter than ever. So getting this choice right is absolutely crucial for efficiency and managing risk.

Speaker 1

Okay, so the challenge is definitely real. How do you cut through all that marketing noise to find tools that actually work? We've pulled out eight critical points from the sources. As we go through them, hopefully you'll see a clearer path emerge. So let's start right at the most basic point: does it actually use AI, or is it just, you know, a fancy keyword search? And what do we mean by true AI?

Speaker 2

That's such a crucial distinction. You really need to look beyond just basic lists of words—these lexicons and static rules. A true AI solution uses large language models, LLMs. Those are the sophisticated AI systems that understand language and prompt engineering. That's essentially how you guide the AI, giving it instructions to evaluate content dynamically. This lets it adapt to subtle language differences, not just match words on some static list. I mean, I've actually heard stories about systems flagging pineapple pizza because “Apple” was on a banned list somewhere. That's the kind of thing real AI avoids.

Speaker 1

Yeah, that's a great example. It's amazing how often that simple keyword search gets mistaken for AI. That point alone is huge. And, you know, speaking of understanding how it works, that leads right into the second critical point: explainability and auditability. Nobody wants a black box, right? Especially not in compliance.

Speaker 2

Oh, absolutely. What's fascinating here is that for compliance, you need transparency—no question. You have to be able to show how a decision was made, why the AI flagged something. But it's more than just meeting regulatory demands, like, say, 17a-4 compliance for record keeping. True explainability also builds trust within your own team. It lets human reviewers actually learn from the AI, understand its logic, not just blindly accept results. That refines everyone's performance, human and AI.

Speaker 1

Okay, so it's not just what it does, but how it proves it—how that proof stands up. Got it. But beyond the tech specs, an AI tool has to be practical, right? It needs to fit your specific business. So how do we ensure that? That's our third point: customization.

Speaker 2

That raises a really important question. Can you tailor it? Can it adapt to your policies and procedures? An effective AI solution lets you customize prompts, tweak rules based on your firm's specific compliance needs, not just some generic template. It should also help reduce those back-and-forth revision cycles, improve the quality of first-time submissions, and importantly, integrate smoothly with your existing ad review platform.

Speaker 1

Including things like audit trails and reviewer workflows.

Speaker 2

Exactly. Seamless integration.

Speaker 1

So you want a system that works with you, not just alongside you—or worse, creating more work. And ideally not one that takes months to set up.

Speaker 2

Which brings us to points four and five: ease of configuration and minimal training. Look for solutions you can configure pretty much out of the box using that prompt engineering we mentioned. You want to avoid needing tons of data prep or constant retraining every time a policy shifts. And crucially, this is our sixth point: think about how fast AI is changing. Make sure the solution is model-agnostic. This isn't just about being ready for the future. It's about keeping your options open, avoiding being locked into one vendor. It gives you the flexibility to use the best AI models as they come out, keeping your compliance tech sharp without huge replacement costs.

Speaker 1

That flexibility—yeah, that sounds like a huge long-term win. But okay, functionality is one thing. What about protecting sensitive information? That's point seven: security and data privacy.

Speaker 2

Absolutely vital. Non-negotiable, really. The solution must have enterprise-grade security. Look for strong data encryption, strict access controls, the works. And a clear commitment to meeting all the relevant privacy regulations. Your firm's data, its reputation—you can't compromise on that.

Speaker 1

Makes perfect sense. And finally, a tool needs to grow with you and actually make life easier for the team. Right? That's our eighth point: scalability and user experience.

Speaker 2

Exactly. It has to handle increasing volumes of content without slowing down or losing accuracy, especially during busy periods. And from the user side, it needs to be intuitive, require minimal training, be easy to use, and fit right into the daily workflow—making jobs easier, not adding another layer of complexity.

Speaker 1

Wow. Okay. This isn't just a checklist. It really feels more like a strategic framework for buying this stuff. It highlights how much deeper you need to go beyond just the surface features. It's clear AI can be a powerful partner in ad compliance, but only if it's the right AI chosen with all these points in mind.

Speaker 2

And if you connect this to the bigger picture, choosing wisely doesn’t just boost efficiency. It directly impacts your firm's risk profile, its reputation, and your overall readiness for regulators. It can even help shift compliance from being seen as a bottleneck to being a strategic partner for marketing, helping innovation happen safely. So, thinking about all this, what stands out most to you when considering AI for your compliance work?

Speaker 1

It definitely gives you a lot to mull over, that's for sure. We hope this deep dive helps you ask those tough questions and find the AI solution that truly serves your needs, not just what a vendor wants to sell you.

A Compliance Professional’s Checklist for Choosing the Right Solution

Artificial Intelligence is transforming how compliance teams approach advertising review — but not all “AI-powered” solutions are created equal. In an environment where regulators expect “reasonably designed” supervisory systems and where marketing deadlines are only getting tighter, AI can offer a real path to improved efficiency if it’s implemented wisely. That’s a big if. As a compliance professional, you can’t afford to gamble on a flashy tool that overpromises and underdelivers — especially one that wasn’t built with your regulatory responsibilities in mind.

So how do you separate the useful from the hype?

Here’s Your Checklist:

Plenty of tools advertise themselves as “AI,” but under the hood, they’re just running basic keyword scans or static rules engines. Lexicons can be helpful, but they’re not AI — and they certainly won’t improve over time or adapt to nuanced language.

Look for: A system that uses large language models (LLMs) and prompt engineering to evaluate content dynamically — not just match words in a list.

Off-the-shelf AI might flag a violation that isn’t relevant to your business — or worse, miss something critical because it’s designed to work within your existing policies and workflows.

Look for: A solution that allows you to tailor prompts and rules based on your firm’s actual compliance expectations, not a generic industry model.

AI should improve efficiency, not add another layer of reviews. When done right, AI helps submitters catch issues before compliance ever sees the material — improving first-time submission quality and reducing back-and-forth.

Look for: Proven impact on reducing revision cycles and faster time-to-approval.

Some AI tools operate in a silo — separate from your actual compliance workflow. That creates new handoffs, complicates tracking, and ultimately introduces more risk.

Look for: Seamless integration with your advertising review platform, including audit trails and reviewer workflows.

Black-box AI might be fine for writing poetry, but not for compliance. You need to be able to show how a decision was made and why the AI flagged a given issue.

Look for: Transparency in how prompts are configured, full access to AI review logs, and a clear audit trail for regulatory inquiries.

Many AI tools require months of training on thousands of your past submissions — and retraining every time your policies change. That’s not just inefficient, it’s fragile.

Look for: Solutions that use prompt engineering and can be configured out-of-the-box, without the need for custom model training or constant updates.

You’re working with sensitive content and regulated communications. Security and data residency aren’t negotiable.

Look for: Enterprise-grade security, audit compliance (e.g. 17a-4), and support for your firm’s data governance policies.

AI innovation is moving fast. The best solution today might not be the best tomorrow — and your firm may already be investing in its own AI infrastructure. Some compliance tools force you into their preferred model (e.g., OpenAI), limiting flexibility and potentially raising concerns around data governance.

Look for: A model-agnostic solution that can integrate with your firm’s chosen AI provider — whether it’s OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft’s CoPilot, or something else. This ensures futureproofing and alignment with your internal IT and security standards.

Bottom Line

AI can be a powerful partner in advertising compliance — but only if it’s the right AI.

Choose a solution that’s built for compliance professionals, designed to accelerate time-tomarket, and flexible enough to evolve with your policies. When evaluating your next AI tool, keep this checklist close — and ask the hard questions. Because in compliance, the tools you choose don’t just affect efficiency — they affect risk, reputation, and regulatory readiness.

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