Brand Standards
Still in its relative infancy, generative AI (Gen AI) will undoubtedly change how we communicate, work, and develop new solutions both internally and for our clients.
At Bolton & Menk, AI is considered software subscription. It should only be used with supervisor approval and is only intended for business-related purposes. Please see the Employee Handbook on the Garage for full Artificial Intelligence Guidelines.
Large language models (LLM), like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, use Gen AI to analyze nearly any type of data. These models look for patterns and probabilities between data points. To protect company assets, maintain integrity and originality, and safeguard our content, we must be mindful of how we use this technology in a way that is responsible, ethical, and safe. Remember, anything you input into an open-source ChatGPT (or any Gen AI platform) is used to train the LLM. It is crucial to use Gen AI for general ideation only to maintain branding integrity and privacy. There are things we can do as individuals and as a firm to protect our content assets to the best of our ability.
Use Cases
If you have been approved to use Gen AI, there are some best practices to consider to put these platforms to work for you.
Define goals and objectives of using AI. Clearly defined goals and objectives of using AI in content will provide structured data output and direction.
Gen AI content generating tools can be helpful for
- Research
- Topic ideation
- Brainstorming
- Outlining
- Checking grammar and spelling
- Writing short snippets
- Generating headlines
- Identifying holes in content
- Analyzing keywords
- Summarizing long-form content
- Alt text for images
- Social media posts
DO:
- Use Gen AI sparingly—for select portions of a document
- Be transparent to the client/reader—use appropriate citations
- Ask Gen AI to summarize content that does not contain trademarked product or content
- Get specific of what you need AI to generate without making mention of the brand
- Fact-check the output
DO NOT:
- Feed branded narratives/content into an open-sourced Gen AI (ex: content from a sales tool that mentions our name)
- Ask Gen AI to write branded content (ex: Write a paragraph on Bolton & Menk’s ethical community engagement processes)
- Rely on calculations output for complex work
- Claim Gen AI content as your own
Fact Checking
The output from Gen AI is only as good as the input. Whether you are using Gen AI for research, content outlines, or any means of generating factual information, it is imperative to fact-check the content output. Here are a few ways to do that effectively:
- Ask for your AI platform to provide references and sources for the content generated
- Check to make sure the references exist
- Check author bio
- If statistics are given, are the numbers accurate?
- Is the cited source the original source?
- Platforms to use for fact-checking:
CITING GEN AI AS A SOURCE
At Bolton & Menk, we are Real People providing Real Solutions. So how do we convey to our clients that we had help from Gen AI in crafting a document? If Gen AI is a tool, then we should treat it no differently than other tools that help us accomplish our work.
When a water resources professional creates a stormwater model using XPSWMM, they clearly cite the use of the software and demonstrate their proficiency in both the methodology and the results. Whether this means plan sets in AutoCAD, traffic models in Synchro Studio, or maps in ArcGIS, the use of Gen AI in creating published works should be transparent and within the context of a broader, professionally sound narrative.
Documents that contain Gen AI content must display the following text on the cover page or cover letter:
Select portions of this [document] were developed using content generated by AI. This document has been fact checked by subject matter experts for accuracy and approved by [name] for publishing.
Generally, direct outputs from open-sourced Gen AI should not be included in any documentation. Outputs must first be fact checked for accuracy and amended to fit the narrative. When using Gen AI as an ideation tool where the output is scrutinized and revised by subject matter experts, then no additional in-text citation is needed.
Remember, copying content directly from Gen AI is plagiarism and can be detected as such by plagiarism and AI detectors. The same way you wouldn’t copy and paste external content and claim it as our own, the same principles apply to any content produced by Gen AI. If you are unsure whether your content has been altered enough from what was generated by AI, use a trusted tool like Grammarly or Copyscape for guidance.
Education is key. Continuing education around AI content development tools and innovations will ensure we are using these tools safely, efficiently, and most importantly, responsibly. And if you’re unsure whether you are using Gen AI ethically, ask.
