{"id":18772,"date":"2026-05-24T14:49:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T14:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/24\/ai-washing-firms-are-scrambling-to-rebrand-themselves-as-tech-focused-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T14:49:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T14:49:44","slug":"ai-washing-firms-are-scrambling-to-rebrand-themselves-as-tech-focused-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/24\/ai-washing-firms-are-scrambling-to-rebrand-themselves-as-tech-focused-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018AI washing\u2019: firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

PR executives say UK companies are forcing them to present ordinary automation as artificial intelligence
UK companies are performing \u201cyoga-level\u201d stretches to describe themselves as AI specialists in an attempt to capitalise on the buzz around the technology, public relations firms have said.
Weary communications executives tasked with securing media coverage for brands have complained that bosses in low-tech industries or running businesses that use automation but not generative AI, are increasingly demanding they are pitched to journalists as artificial intelligence companies.
\u201cYou can almost hear the eyes roll when you mention the word AI to a reporter,\u201d said a publicist in south London who represents a portfolio of tech and design firms. \u201cI\u2019ve watched a steady stream of companies try to bolt the label AI on to whatever they do, no matter how tenuous the link.\u201d
Imran Ariff, a media strategist for Fight or Flight, a London-based communications agency, said: \u201cIt can be easy for brands to \u2018drink their own Kool-Aid\u2019 when they\u2019re so proud of what they\u2019re doing and consequently, go too far in their efforts to promote their AI capabilities.\u201d
Last month, the US shoe company AllBirds \u201cpivoted\u201d to to acquiring AI graphics processing units<\/a>, while genetics companies have hyped AI-powered blood tests. In inboxes this month, there have been press releases about AI-powered basketball hoops, and AI-powered lasers that \u2013 somehow \u2013 protect women from predators on crowded underground platforms.
Some companies have been accused of \u201cAI washing\u201d, trying to rebrand familiar, often years-old, technologies as \u201cAI\u201d.
Technology PRs \u2013 whose job it is to send tens, or hundreds, of pitches to journalists each week, the vast majority of which get ignored \u2013 have complained about being forced to send out AI-related press releases under duress despite their industries\u2019 image for unscrupulously hyping up products.
\u201cA lot of companies are trying to name every single product with \u2018AI\u2019 first, or trying to get \u2018AI\u2019 into an actual product name,\u201d said an account director at another firm, based in central London.
\u201cPeople are littering marketing with how AI is making a difference. It\u2019s an \u2018AI-driven\u2019 or \u2018AI-powered\u2019 product when in reality, it\u2019s just better automation than we\u2019ve seen before.\u201d
As an example, he described a property company trying to market a tool that would scan a building and generate its floor plan as AI.
\u201cIt\u2019s just a handheld scanner. There\u2019s probably elements of AI in it that sort of speed the process up \u2026 but it\u2019s actually just automation,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the kind of AI that many of us assume it to be.\u201d
He added: \u201cEveryone\u2019s kind of become a bit numb to the AI-powered, AI-driven language. It depends company by company, but I would say about 50% of the stories I send out, I don\u2019t want to send out.\u201d
Communications workers also said that bosses were asked to be presented as commentators on the technology to appear relevant.
\u201cI have seen some Bikram yoga-level stretches by brands in service of trying to manufacture reasons to talk about AI,\u201d said a PR working for a global agency with offices in New York and London.
\u201cIt\u2019s something we often have to counsel against, like \u2018no journalist is going to include our comment about the government\u2019s sovereign AI fund just because we released a chatbot.\u2019\u201d
Large companies around the world are assessing how closely they want to align their image with AI as they make thousands of job cuts and implement the technology. Last week, the chief executive of Standard Chartered apologised<\/a> after describing workers poised to lose their jobs to AI as \u201clower-value human capital\u201d<\/a>.
Stock market investors have largely shrugged off recent jitters over the AI boom<\/a>, as well as rising inflation and the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PR executives say UK companies are forcing them to present ordinary automation as artificial intelligence UK companies are performing \u201cyoga-level\u201d stretches to describe themselves as AI specialists in an attempt to capitalise on the buzz around the technology, public relations firms have said.Weary communications executives tasked with securing media coverage for brands have complained that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}