How to present AI concepts to a client
Show two or three routes, label every AI frame as a concept or a final, and say what was made with AI and what was photographed. Settle ownership, usage, likeness and disclosure before the first presentation. Turn the client’s notes into changes a model can act on, such as light, framing or palette, and treat a request to change a face as a casting decision that goes back to the approved character sheet.
Settle these before the first presentation
In the UK, the IPA and ISBA principles for generative AI in advertising (2023) say agencies and advertisers should be open with each other about their use of AI, and that neither should put AI-generated content in materials for the other without agreement. Answer these questions in the contract or the kickoff notes, before the client sees a single frame.
- Whether the client allows AI, for which work, and whether it has its own AI policy you must follow.
- Who owns the finals and what the client may do with them. The US Copyright Office says AI output is protected only where a person determined enough of its expressive elements. See who owns AI-generated images.
- Which tools you will use, and whether their terms allow commercial use. See can you use AI images commercially.
- Usage: channels, markets and how long, and whether AI frames may run in paid media.
- Likeness: no real person’s face without consent and a release, and whether the client accepts synthetic people at all.
- Confidentiality: whether unreleased product photos may be uploaded to outside AI services, and under which terms.
- Disclosure: what the client wants said to consumers, and what each platform requires. The IAB’s framework (January 2026) asks for disclosure when AI materially affects authenticity, identity or representation in ways that could mislead. See telling clients and customers you used AI.
- Records: which prompts, models, references and approvals you keep for each final, and for how long.
Routes: how many, and what each one shows
Show two or three routes. With AI it is easy to bring forty frames, and forty frames hand the creative director’s job to the client. Make the routes differ in idea as well as in color, and show the same product and the same kinds of shot in each, so the client compares ideas instead of lucky renders. Three to five frames per route is enough to show the light, casting and setting.
Label every frame: concept or final
An AI frame can look finished on day one. If the client reads a concept as a final, every change after that looks like a step back. Put a label on each frame and say what it promises.
| Label | What it promises | What will still change |
|---|---|---|
| Sketch | The idea and the composition | Almost everything: product, casting, light |
| Concept frame | The look: light, palette, setting, casting direction | Product accuracy, faces, text, retouching |
| Final, AI | Checked against the product references and passed QA | Only fixes agreed in writing |
| Final, photographed or composite | A real photo, or a real packshot placed into an AI scene | Only fixes agreed in writing |
A presentation structure
- The brief back, in one or two sentences, so the client agrees on what you solved.
- The idea behind all the routes, if there is one.
- Route A, B and C: each with a name, one line on what it says, and three to five frames that show the light, casting and setting.
- What is AI and what is not in each route, and what changes between concept and final.
- What you need from the client: a route, and answers on usage, markets and dates.
- Next steps: the round-two date, what round two will show, and who approves it.
Turning notes into round two
Clients give notes as feelings. Before anything renders, turn each note into one change you can make and check, and write down who asked for it.
| The client says | Ask or change |
|---|---|
| "Make it warmer" | Ask whether they mean the light or the color. Then change one: a warm tungsten key, or a warmer grade on the highlights. |
| "The product needs to be bigger" | Recompose so the product fills a set share of the frame, such as 60% of its height, and render again. Cropping in softens it. |
| "Can it feel more premium?" | Ask which ad or photo feels premium to them, then translate it into ground, light and palette. See how to art direct AI images. |
| "Love the light in A, the setting in B" | Carry route A’s light sentence word for word into route B’s prompt, and change nothing else. |
| "Can we see it in our store?" | That is a new setting. It needs real photos of the store as references, or the model invents one. |
| "Different model, please" | That is recasting. Make and approve a new character sheet before any scene is redone. |
Change one thing per round where you can, so both sides can see what each note did. How to review AI images as a team covers verdicts and recording decisions.
"Can we just tweak the face?"
An image model redraws a face every time it renders one. A small change to the face makes a new person, and the set was built on the old one. Answer the request by what it is.
- A flaw, such as a tooth, a stray hair or an odd catchlight: fix it locally, with the approved character sheet attached as the reference.
- A different look: that is recasting. Make and approve a new character sheet, then remake every frame the person appears in. See how to keep the same model in every AI photo.
- "Make her look like" a named person: stop. Using a real person’s likeness needs their consent. See AI images of real people.
Questions people also ask
- Should we show AI frames in a pitch if the final will be a shoot?
- Yes, if you label them as pre-visualization and the shoot can deliver what they show. A frame that promises light, a location or talent the budget cannot buy sets up the wrong expectation.
- Can the client use concept frames as finals?
- Only after they pass the same checks as any final: product accuracy, rights and disclosure. See the QA checklist for AI images.
Where Overs fits
Overs can export a client review file, one HTML file you send to the client, and their decisions come back into Overs. The export also records the prompt, model and reference pictures behind each photo, which answers "how was this made" in a review.
Free for 40 photos a month. The AI that makes the photos is billed separately, on your own key, with no markup from Overs.