Do you have to tell someone they are talking to an AI?
The short answer differs on each side of the Channel. In the UK, no rule found in PECR or in ICO telephone marketing guidance requires you to say the caller is an AI — but several other things must be said. In the EU, the AI Act contains an express information duty. Every quote below was read on its official source on 28 August 2026.
This is not legal advice
This page quotes primary sources and says plainly where a source is silent. It is not legal advice, and it does not tell you whether your own campaign is lawful. Where the answer depends on how your calling system actually works, we say so rather than guessing on your behalf.
The United Kingdom: no AI-disclosure rule found, but four things you must do
We read the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (regulations 19 and 21) on legislation.gov.uk, and the ICO’s telephone marketing guidance. Neither requires a caller to state that it is an AI. What they do require is identification.
ICO guidance on live marketing calls states:
“You must always say who is calling, allow your number (or an alternative contact number) to be displayed to the person receiving the call, and provide a contact address or freephone number if asked.”
And on automated calls, the same guidance states:
“You must not make an automated marketing call – that is, a call made by an automated dialling system that plays a recorded message – unless the person has specifically consented to receive this type of call from you. General consent for marketing, or even consent for live calls, is not enough – it must specifically cover automated calls.”
Read on the ICO website on 28 August 2026: ICO guide to PECR — telephone marketing.
Is an AI call an “automated call” under regulation 19?
This is the question that actually matters commercially, and the honest answer is that it depends on the system. Regulation 19(4) of PECR 2003 defines the term:
“For the purposes of this regulation, an automated calling system is a system which is capable of—(a) automatically initiating a sequence of calls to more than one destination in accordance with instructions stored in that system; and (b) transmitting sounds which are not live speech for reception by persons at some or all of the destinations so called.”
Regulation 19(1) then prohibits transmitting “communications comprising recorded matter for direct marketing purposes by means of an automated calling system” except where the subscriber has consented.
Whether a conversational AI caller sits inside that definition is a legal question about your specific setup, your consent position and your data source. Take advice on it — and note that regulation 21 separately prohibits unsolicited marketing calls to a subscriber who has told you not to call, or whose number is listed on the register kept under regulation 26, subject to the 28-day rule in regulation 21(3).
Source texts read on 28 August 2026: PECR regulation 19 and regulation 21.
The European Union: Article 50 of the AI Act says it directly
If you call people in the EU, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 — the AI Act — contains an express duty. Article 50(1) reads:
“Providers shall ensure that AI systems intended to interact directly with natural persons are designed and developed in such a way that the natural persons concerned are informed that they are interacting with an AI system, unless this is obvious from the point of view of a natural person who is reasonably well-informed, observant and circumspect, taking into account the circumstances and the context of use.”
Article 50(2) adds a separate obligation on providers of systems generating synthetic audio, image, video or text content: those outputs must be “marked in a machine-readable format and detectable as artificially generated or manipulated”.
On timing, Article 113 states: “It shall apply from 2 August 2026”, with listed exceptions — Chapters I and II from 2 February 2025; Chapter III Section 4, Chapter V, Chapter VII, Chapter XII and Article 78 from 2 August 2025 (excluding Article 101); and Article 6(1) with its corresponding obligations from 2 August 2027.
Text read on 28 August 2026 from the Official Journal edition of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 published by the EU Publications Office. The UK is not bound by the AI Act; it matters to you if you are calling into the EU or placing an AI system on the EU market.
What we do on FoxEra Calls, and why
Our calls open by saying who is calling and why. Being upfront costs nothing in a first-touch call and removes the worst outcome in this category — a prospect who finds out afterwards and tells other people. If you would rather your agent state explicitly that it is an AI assistant, that wording is yours to write: the opening line is editable and you approve it before anything dials.
Every call is logged word for word, so what was said is recoverable rather than a matter of recollection. See how the record works in the outbound calling CRM.
A practical checklist for UK outbound AI calls
- Say who is calling, every time.
- Allow your number, or an alternative contact number, to be displayed.
- Be ready to give a contact address or freephone number on request.
- Screen against the register kept under PECR regulation 26 and against your own do-not-call list.
- Establish whether your setup engages regulation 19, and hold the specific consent it requires if it does.
- Keep a record of what was said on each call.
- Take your own legal advice before scaling a campaign.
Frequently asked questions
Does UK law require you to say a caller is an AI?
No such requirement was found in PECR 2003 regulations 19 and 21 or in the ICO telephone marketing guidance, read on 28 August 2026. You must still say who is calling, allow your number to be displayed, and give a contact address or freephone number if asked.
Does the EU AI Act require AI disclosure?
Article 50(1) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 requires providers to design AI systems intended to interact directly with people so that those people are informed they are interacting with an AI system, unless that is obvious in the circumstances. Article 113 states the Regulation applies from 2 August 2026, with listed exceptions.
Are AI calls the same as automated calls under PECR?
Regulation 19(4) defines an automated calling system as one capable of automatically initiating a sequence of calls and transmitting sounds which are not live speech. Whether your setup falls inside it depends on how it operates — a question for your own legal advice.
What must you always say on a UK marketing call?
Per ICO guidance: who is calling, with your number or an alternative contact number displayed, and a contact address or freephone number available on request.