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AI-generated content is now easier to identify than ever.
Will the content you develop come back and bite you? Maybe.
Do you care? Eh…
Does your team/senior management/company care? I’m sure there are multiple answers to this.
Does your client care? All depends.
Can it impact winning and losing business? It might.
There is a difference between using AI for a project vs not using it. AI is growing at a speed that helps all of us improve how we approach tasks, client outreach, understanding the complexities of our clients, pricing analysis – the list goes on. Speed works in AI’s (and your) favor. It can cover more ground quicker and further than you can.
Quantity doesn’t always = quality and authenticity.
But it is the AI’s original work…not your original work.
Was this newsletter forwarded to you?
The AI tools that you are using can now be traced back to an LLM via a watermark.
Claude is currently doing this. Gemini (as long as you toggle the option), ChatGPT, Meta, TikTok, Nvidia, Apple- the list goes on.
All the tools that use an AI wrapper, using OpenAI’s GPT or Anthropic’s Claude via API, are all impacted.
So yes…that AI proposal tool that you are using is part of this.
Your client can tell if you are using AI to generate content for them.
Why this is happening and what you can do about it is critical to understand.
Let’s dance.
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Why
So why did this roll out? As of August 2nd, 2026, companies need to be compliant with the European Union AI Act. If you want to check it out (especially if you are working in the EU), the website gives you a great overview that covers everything related to AI. Anthropic complied with the Act’s Article 50(2) Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-Generated Content, a voluntary framework aimed at making AI-generated material easier to identify.
How did they do this? For Claude (and other models), all generated text will contain a watermark. Here is the description directly from Claude’s website:
We use a method of watermarking that does not have any practical impact on the quality or content of Claude’s outputs;
The difference between watermarked and un-watermarked text will not be distinguishable to readers;
Nothing is added to the text and there are no hidden characters;
Watermarking doesn’t require extra tokens, and will not be more expensive;
Watermarking carries no identifying information and can’t be traced to a specific person, organization, or chat;
Watermarking won’t be specific to Claude. As of August 2, the EU requires AI providers serving its market to mark AI-generated content. Other major model developers have signed the same Code of Practice and will be implementing their own watermarks.
Anthropic on EU AI Act. Source: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-text-watermark?utm_source=www.therundown.ai&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=dario-amodei-logs-on-to-answer-the-critics&_bhlid=4a3ec05186d7829e7f236c0771bebfa5216c9cfe
There are also significant financial penalties for AI companies for not complying with this AI Act.
Here is how the watermark is broken down. Thariq Shihipar, Member of Technical Staff at Anthropic, gives us a breakdown of why this is so important and how they are doing it.
Twitter tweet
Check out some of my past newsletters
The Dollar Signs Were Louder Than the Warning.
You Do Not Have One AI Problem, You Have Two
Impact
Want to check if your content was developed with AI? Here are a few places to check:
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Google SynthID Detector – https://deepmind.google/models/synthid/
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Of which Anthropic’s watermarks are based on
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OpenAI Verify (especially if you used OpenAI) – https://openai.com/research/verify/
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Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) – https://c2pa.org/
There has been a huge swing in the past several weeks of companies now working on how to actually remove the watermarks. I’m sure more detectors will be coming out in the near future as well.
Traditional AI detectors (like GPTZero or Turnitin) judge text based on writing style, predictability, and flow. They do not actually read or verify real model-level watermarks
No Hiding
Details matter. In many government contracts nowadays, there are clauses requiring disclosure of any use of AI to build your proposal. GSA’s draft GSAR deviation already requires contractors to disclose all AI systems used in contract performance, not just those sold to the government, and bars non-US AI systems in performance outright.
Now you can literally see down to the LLM via a watermark on who the original owner is.
This doesn’t have to deal with just government contracts. It can also be with enterprise clients, or those who want to know what systems you are using to build your overall proposals.
They are the ones buying at the end of the day.
While the detection might be invisible to the human eye, the AI-detection technology can pick up on where it originates. Therefore, being upfront about using AI technology is absolutely critical. If not, and instructions are very clear from your client/future client, it could put you in serious jeopardy.
Perspective
Let’s say you have been working on a client opportunity for 10+ months. You have been working on building client relationships, traveling to tradeshows, building partnerships, dinners away from the family, time on the road, airports, updating your CRM, internal calls (one after the other, after the other), getting the senior executive’s blessing to get the go/no go, and finally…get to the writing aspect of it.
You know the customer…and the customer knows (and trusts) you. All you need to do is submit a proposal to cross the finish line. If the proposal calls for AI use to be disclosed, then it needs to be stated. Your team must disclose AI, as it depends largely on the solicitation, contract requirements, and the manner in which AI is being used.
The risk can be severe. If you do not disclose it, think of all the time, energy, and effort the company and the team went into building that reputation with that client.
All to save a few hours on a proposal. Whether it was the writing or the technical aspect as part of the proposal, the AI watermark was not noted to the client.
There is a difference between losing on price, losing on technical performance, and losing on compliance.
Feel free to tell your business development manager that you lost due to using AI on the proposal. I’m sure that they will have very strong feelings about your sales process moving forward after all the work they put into getting the company so close to a client…and falling short.
The AI watermark is a critical item to keep an eye on, especially if you have a client that is using it in their evaluation. The more you know about it and discuss AI with them, the less blindsided they will be when they review your proposal and your offerings.
If your client does not want to have AI in their solution review. Note it. It will be more of a high-touch for you to be able to build the proper response back if your team has already integrated AI across your sales process. Make sure you can still respond regardless of what your client needs.
Some might want AI as part of their response; some might not want it.
The most important aspect is the open communication between all parties.
See you next week.
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