A small studio finishes a brand video for a client. The invoice is ready. Then a form arrives from the client's legal team. It asks four things: did you use AI, where, how much, and who checked the result.
Many agencies answer with a paragraph of promises. This guide shows how to answer with records instead.
Why clients send this form now
EU rules on AI transparency started to apply in August 2026, so buyers now ask their suppliers about AI use.
Article 50 of the EU AI Act sets duties for companies that use AI systems. Under Article 50(4), deployers of a system producing a deep fake "shall disclose that the content has been artificially generated or manipulated". Text "published with the purpose of informing the public on matters of public interest" needs the same notice. There are exceptions for text under human review with editorial responsibility. Artistic works get a limited form of disclosure. Article 50 applies from 2 August 2026 (re-checked EUR-Lex 21 October 2026).
Article 50(2) puts a duty on the makers of AI tools as well. Providers of systems "generating synthetic audio, image, video or text content, shall ensure that the outputs of the AI system are marked in a machine-readable format and detectable as artificially generated or manipulated." Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 delays this to 2 December 2026 for tools already on the market before 2 August 2026 (re-checked EUR-Lex 15 October 2026).
Your client knows these rules. Their buying team wants a record they can show if someone asks later. The form is often caution more than law. Either way, you need an answer that holds.
What the form usually asks
Most forms ask whether you used AI, in which files, how much, and who reviewed the work before delivery.
A written answer is a promise. The client has to trust it. A record is something the client can check alone. On Swiss Trust Layer, each file in a folder can carry a content label. The label is written into a certificate of proof at sealing. The client can open that proof without an account. The next three sections take the four questions in turn.
Did you use AI, and where: one label per file
You answer a few questions about each file, and the platform derives one of six labels from your answers.
The labels are declared under the ProLitteris Content Label Terms v1.2. There are six: AI FREE, AI ASSISTED, AI MODIFIED, AI GENERATED, HUMAN AUTHORED and HUMAN APPROVED. You never pick the label directly. You answer questions about the file, and the label follows from the answers.
Two definitions show where the line sits. AI ASSISTED means "Human or machine-generated content where AI makes a defining contribution, for example to wording, selection or arrangement, an image background or figure, or an audio or video track." AI GENERATED means "Text, image, music, voice or video generated by AI from a prompt or chat, including AI drafts or proposals adopted without further defining human input." A brand video with an AI background lands in the first group. A script taken from a chat tool without real editing lands in the second. The form's question "how much" is answered by which label each file gets.
Labels need identity verification. You verify once with a passport or national ID chip scan through the provider DIDIT. You can still seal a folder without labels. But a form answer without labels is back to a promise.
Who reviewed it: approval from a verified person
The HUMAN APPROVED label records that a named, verified person checked the complete content before it went out.
The definition reads: "Complete content reviewed, finalised and approved by an identified person before publication, for example a manuscript, corporate communication, social-media post, image, audio or video." This is the direct answer to "who reviewed it". The approver must be identity-verified as well.
There is one more rule. "Declaring HUMAN AUTHORED binds the label to your verified identity." And "For HUMAN AUTHORED content, HUMAN APPROVED must come from a different, identity-verified person." So the writer cannot approve their own work. A second verified person must do it. That is the kind of control a client's legal team likes to see.
The same declaration asks a question clients may also raise. "Do you reserve or authorise text and data mining (AI training) for this content?" You can choose the opt-out. It records that AI training is not authorised, as a machine-readable reservation of rights.
What the client sees and can check
The certificate lists each file with its label, its human authors and its approver, and anyone can check it without an account.
At sealing, the platform computes a fingerprint of each file. Only the fingerprint goes to Swisscom Trust Services, the qualified trust service provider. The file itself does not. Swisscom signs the fingerprint and adds a timestamp under RFC 3161. Every sealed folder version then gets a certificate of proof, a signed PDF.
The certificate lists, per file, the file name and its fingerprint. It can carry rows named AI Declaration, Human authors and Approved by. It also shows Rights claimed and Other rights holders from the rights step. The certificate names the person or organisation it was sealed for.
The certificate carries a QR code to a public verification page. That page needs no login. Your client scans it and sees the labels you declared, and when. They can also drop the signed PDF into the public validator. It reports who signed, when, and whether the content changed since signing.
Declarations are locked after sealing. If you add labels later, the platform creates a new version. Each version keeps its own seal. So a late change is visible to the client as a new version.
What the labels do not prove
A label is a self-declaration, and a seal proves what you declared and when, nothing more.
The platform says it plainly: "This is a self-declaration and does not affect copyright." A label does not prove the content is good. It does not prove you hold the rights. A seal proves this exact file existed at that moment and has not changed since. It does not prove who created the content, or that it is true. It does not create copyright. Copyright arises with creation. The Berne Convention says "The enjoyment and the exercise of these rights shall not be subject to any formality".
Seal your next client delivery folder on Swiss Trust Layer today and declare the label on each file before you send the invoice.
