Before you sign: the AI questions
Twelve questions to ask before you agree to work with a brand, a client, a platform or a manager.
Version 2, October 2026.
Download the PDFWhy these questions
A deal may say nothing about AI. It may also use wide wording that leaves the question open. These questions help you find out what the other side plans to do with your content, and with your face and voice.
How to use this list
These questions work for any deal, whether you have a signed contract or a WhatsApp thread. Ask them in writing and keep the answers. If the deal lives in WhatsApp or DMs, ask there and screenshot the replies.
If nothing is written down yet, start by asking: “Can you put what we have agreed in one message?”
If you are short on time, ask the first three.
If you have a written contract, you can search it for words such as “AI”, “training”, “data”, “voice”, “image” and “licence”. These are examples only, and AI wording can sit under many headings.
This list is general information. It does not tell you what your contract means or whether to sign it, and it does not explain the law of any country. The rules differ by country and can change. For legal advice, ask a lawyer qualified in the law that applies to your deal.
Start here
1. What do you want to do with my content, and for how long?
Ask which content the deal covers: the finished posts only, or also raw footage and unused clips. Ask where it will be used. Ask whether they want to own the copyright in anything you make for the deal. Ask when the permission to use it ends, and what happens to their copies after that.
2. Will my content be used to train an AI model?
Ask it directly: “Will my content be used to train, test or improve any AI system, by you or by anyone you work with?”
3. Do you plan to make a synthetic version of me?
Think of a cloned voice, or a digital double that looks like you. Ask whether one is planned, and whether it could ever say or do things you never recorded.
Your content
4. Does this deal cover content I made before it?
Ask whether the deal includes your older posts and videos, or only what you make for this job.
5. Who else will handle my files?
Your files may go to agencies, production companies and software tools. Ask who receives them, and whether those companies are given the same limits you agreed. Ask whether the brand can pass its permission on to another company. Ask whether any tool stores your uploads or uses them to train or improve AI.
6. Will you use AI to make new content from mine?
That could mean new edits, extra ad versions, dubbed or translated versions, or new content generated from your work. Ask which of these are planned. Ask whether you will see them before they go out, and whether you get to approve them.
7. Whose account will my content go up on?
If it goes up on someone else’s account, ask who controls that account’s settings. Ask whether the platform has AI or data-sharing settings, and how they are set.
Your face and voice
8. What happens to recordings of my face and voice?
Ask what is kept, why, who receives it, and when it is deleted.
If you are under 18, also ask how they handle deals with creators under 18, including any use of your face or voice.
Money and credit
9. If AI use is part of the deal, how is it paid?
Ask whether it is included in the fee or priced separately. Ask what the limits are, when that permission ends, and what happens afterwards to anything made with AI.
10. Will my name stay on my work?
Ask whether you are credited when your work is reused. Ask whether AI-altered versions of your work, or of your face and voice, will be labelled as altered.
If something goes wrong
11. What will you do if my content is used outside what we agreed?
Ask how they would tell you and what they would do about it. Ask the same about files that leak.
12. Where would a dispute be handled?
If there is a written contract, ask which country’s law it names and where disputes would be handled. If it points to another country, ask why. If nothing is written about disputes, ask where they would expect a serious disagreement to be dealt with.
What to do with the answers
Keep the written answers with the messages or documents that record the deal. If the written terms and what you are being told seem different, ask for that to be cleared up in writing before you agree.
What this list covers
These questions are about the people and companies in your deal. They do not cover what companies outside the deal do with public posts.
The Creator Addendum
The Creator Addendum is a free set of contract terms based on these questions. To request it, or to ask us a question about it, go to theagencylab.co/creator-addendum.
Checklist for the Creator Addendum, version 2, October 2026. Version 1 of the Addendum dates from February 2026. © 2026 Barbra Okafor, published as The Agency Lab. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. You may copy and share this list for non-commercial purposes with credit to The Agency Lab. The licence does not let you share a changed version, so ask us first if you would like to translate it. This list is general information. It does not interpret any agreement or explain the law of any country, and nothing in it is legal advice.