Developing
Opinion column: many claims are unsourced and the author's rules are personal practices, not industry standards.
In 60 seconds
- AI is advancing faster than governance, the author says; email's shared code of conduct took about two decades to develop.
- He proposes three principles for ethical AI use: attribution, accuracy and authenticity.
- Practices: ask AI to cite sources, verify output, review AI-assisted messages and disclose AI's role.
- Teams should write an AI ethics policy and keep humans in control.
Impact Layer
- What changed
- A practitioner draws parallels between email's maturing norms and the governance of AI in marketing.
- Why it matters
- Marketing automation increasingly includes AI writing and decisioning, and teams need working rules now.
- Who is affected
- Email, lifecycle and marketing operations leaders.
- Martech stack area
- Marketing Automation, Content
- Stack impact
- Write a short AI use policy for your email programme: what is disclosed, who reviews and what sources AI must cite.
- Business impact
- Low A contributed opinion column on MarTech (owned by Semrush). No original study or survey; evidence is the author's experience, and claims such as authenticity being "an emotion rooted in the human brain" are uncited.
- Related technologies
- What to watch
- Industry guidance on AI disclosure in email.
Ryan Phelan, an email and lifecycle marketing leader, argues in a MarTech column published October 16, 2026 that email marketing’s history can guide AI governance. The views are his own.
The argument
- AI is advancing faster than governance can keep up.
- Email’s shared code of conduct took about two decades to develop, after rapid growth roughly 25 years ago; the column cites the CAN-SPAM Act and EU email rules among its references.
- Ethical AI use rests on three principles: attribution, accuracy and authenticity.
- Users should ask AI to cite sources, verify its output, review AI-assisted messages and disclose AI’s role.
- Teams should write an AI ethics policy and keep humans in control.
Caveats
- It is an opinion column based on the author’s experience, including building an agentic AI model; there is no original study or survey.
- Many claims are unsourced, and the author’s rules, such as “Don’t put in anything that the facts don’t support”, are personal practices, not established standards.
- The suggestion that plagiarism needs redefining is speculative.
Our read
The three principles are a workable starting point for an internal policy. Treat them as one person’s checklist.
Sources
- MarTech: Email marketing's history can guide AI governance (opens in a new tab)
Source for the column's argument, principles and caveats.