As a proactive regulator, we have invested significantly in developing our world-leading Active Ad Monitoring system. This AI-powered technology helps us monitor online advertising at scale, giving us a better understanding of the ads people see and helping us identify potential issues more quickly.
Developed in-house, the Active Ad Monitoring system captures large volumes of advertising content from a range of online sources. This includes paid-for ads on social media platforms, search engines and websites, as well as influencer marketing content.
The system uses AI models to identify ads that are relevant to particular topics and flag content that may potentially breach the advertising rules. ASA experts then review and assess the ads identified by the system and decide whether any action is needed.
In 2025, the system processed more than 60 million ads and supported over 30 regulatory projects. These included our work on environmental claims, gambling, alcohol advertising, prescription-only weight-loss medicines and cosmetic surgery services based outside the UK. We continue to develop the system to support work across a growing range of areas.
How Active Ad Monitoring supports our work
The Active Ad Monitoring system helps us regulate advertising in several ways:
Better intelligence
By providing a clearer picture of what is happening across online advertising, the system helps us identify emerging issues and target our resources where they can have the greatest impact.
Enforcing the rules
The system helps us identify specific ads that may breach the advertising rules, enabling us to investigate concerns and take action where appropriate.
Monitoring compliance
By measuring how advertisers respond to regulatory interventions, the system helps us assess levels of compliance and understand where further action may, or may not, be required.
Human expertise and AI
We use AI to support the work of ASA experts, not to replace them.
AI systems can help us process and analyse large volumes of advertising content, but they cannot make the careful judgements required to regulate advertising effectively. Equally, it would not be possible for people alone to review the vast quantity of online advertising that appears every day.
We believe combining AI with human expertise allows us to regulate online advertising more effectively and efficiently, while ensuring that important decisions remain in the hands of experienced specialists.
We also carefully consider the ethical implications of our use of AI, including issues such as bias, transparency, regulatory quality and environmental impact.