AI readiness assessment for marketing agencies
Your clients trust you with unreleased campaigns and customer lists. This survey shows which AI tools your creatives and account teams already use.
Ask a copywriter whose draft it is and you will get an interesting answer. A headline starts in a chatbot, gets reworked by hand, passes through an account director and lands in a client deck. A designer extends a background with an image tool. A strategist asks an assistant to summarise a competitor's annual report, then pastes in the client's own research to compare. Each step is sensible. Together they raise questions about confidentiality, originality and who is accountable.
Calibre Forum is an AI readiness assessment for marketing agencies. Every person on the team answers a short survey on their phone, in about eight minutes, about their week, the tools they use and how they feel about change. Principals see results in groups of three or more only. The report scores six areas, lists the tools in use and sets out a plain 30, 60 and 90 day roadmap.
Where AI shows up in marketing and creative agencies
Briefs, decks and unreleased campaigns
Find out whether creative briefs, launch dates, pricing and embargoed work are pasted into outside tools for summarising, ideation or tidying. A confidential product launch in a personal chatbot account is outside what your NDA contemplated. Ask which accounts are used and whether anyone has checked what the provider does with the content. Also check whether freelancers working on the same job use the same accounts or their own.
Image, video and voice generation
Designers, motion artists and producers may use generative tools for concepts, backgrounds, voiceover or social cut-downs. Find out which tools, whether outputs go into client deliverables, and who decides when that is acceptable. Ownership of generated assets and the terms of use vary between providers, and your client contract may promise original work. Also check whether the client has a say in which generative tools may be used.
Reporting, analytics and customer lists
Performance analysts and social managers pull data from ad platforms, email tools and CRMs. Find out whether exports containing customer emails, purchase history or audience lists are uploaded to AI for analysis or segmentation. A client's customer data is that client's responsibility under privacy law, and you are handling it for them. Also check how long those exports stay on someone's laptop afterwards.
Copy, claims and compliance checks
Copywriters and content producers draft ads, product claims, emails and social posts. Find out how AI-assisted drafts are checked for factual accuracy, testimonials, comparative claims and regulated categories such as health, finance or alcohol. Ad standards bodies and consumer law do not make an exception for text that a tool wrote first. Also check whether the client signs off with any knowledge of how a draft started.
What puts marketing and creative agencies at risk
Client confidentiality and contract promises
Master services agreements and statements of work often carry confidentiality, originality and data handling terms. Staff using AI tools on client material may unknowingly step outside them. Clients, especially larger brands, now include AI clauses in agency contracts and procurement reviews. The report shows what your team does so you can sign those clauses honestly.
Intellectual property and originality
Who owns an AI-assisted asset, and whether it resembles someone else's work, are open questions in many jurisdictions. Agencies warrant originality and indemnify clients. You need to know where generated material enters deliverables and what review exists. The assessment surfaces where staff already rely on it, so legal advice can address real practice. Clients and insurers will both want to hear that you have thought about it.
Advertising rules and client customer data
Misleading claims, undisclosed endorsements and spam rules apply to what you produce, and customer data you handle carries privacy duties. Insurers who cover professional indemnity and cyber for agencies ask how work is checked and how data is protected. A tool register and written policy make those questions easier to answer. Those answers matter more when a client audits its suppliers or changes agencies.
What each role's answers show
- Account director or client services leadHow briefs are received and shared, which client terms they carry in mind, and where they have seen AI come up in client conversations or procurement requests.
- Strategist or plannerHow research and insight work is done, what source material goes into tools, and which parts of a strategy deck could use a safer, approved assistant.
- Copywriter or content producerHow drafts start and get refined, which tools they use at home and at work, and how claims are checked before copy goes to a client.
- Designer or art directorWhich image and design tools are used, how assets are sourced and approved, and where repetitive production work such as resizing and versioning takes the time.
- Studio manager or producerHow jobs are scheduled, tracked and invoiced, which project tools hold client files, and where time is lost re-entering the same details across systems. The answers also show which repetitive tracking tasks take the most hours.
Everyone completes the same core survey. The job titles you choose in setup decide how people are grouped and how the results read.
Questions your report answers
- Which AI tools do designers, copywriters and strategists use on client material, and which accounts are personal rather than agency-approved?
- Where does AI-assisted work enter client deliverables, and does our checking process match what our contracts say about originality?
- What would a large client's procurement team or our insurer find when asking for our AI policy, tool register and data handling controls?
- How many hours a week go on repetitive production work like resizing, reporting, versioning and status updates, and which suit an approved tool?
Agencies are bound by the Australian Consumer Law or the NZ Fair Trading Act 1986 on misleading advertising, industry codes administered by Ad Standards in Australia and the Advertising Standards Authority in New Zealand, and privacy law when handling client customer data, including the Spam Act 2003 for electronic marketing. Copyright treatment of AI-generated material is unsettled and client contracts may add terms. Insurers ask how work is checked. The report is not legal or insurance advice.
Questions from marketing and creative agencies
Should a marketing agency have an AI policy?
Most do benefit from one, if only to answer clients who ask. A good policy says which tools are approved, what client material may be entered, when AI-assisted work must be disclosed and who signs it off. The report gives you the facts about current practice and a prioritised list to build the policy from.
What about clients who forbid AI in their contracts?
You need to know which clients do, and whether your team's habits match. The survey shows what tools people use for what, so account directors can compare practice with each contract. It cannot read your contracts for you, so a lawyer should confirm what each clause requires.
Will creatives worry this is about replacing them?
The survey is described to staff as a short survey about how work really gets done. Owners only see groups of three or more, and the promise to staff is that results are not used to decide who is needed in a role. The report is for improving tools, training and process.
Can freelancers and contractors take part?
The survey goes to the email addresses you add in the setup wizard, so you choose who is included. Many agencies add regular freelancers who work on client material, because their tools and accounts matter as much as employees'. The report shows results only for groups of three or more.
How much does it cost?
It costs A$1,990 plus GST once per organisation. People spend about eight minutes each on their phone, you complete a short setup wizard, and the report arrives automatically when the survey closes. Optional membership at A$2,388 plus GST a year invites the same team to retake the survey about every 90 days, with a fresh report emailed to the owner.
See how your business really works.
Ten minutes of setup. Your team answers on their phones. A report arrives when the survey closes.