By 2026, regulators will require disclosure of AI-generated content in commercial use. Most creative teams aren't ready.
The EU AI Act is coming, and it's going to change how agencies handle AI-generated assets.
The Compliance Problem
Right now, most teams have no way to track which assets used AI. Files get passed around, metadata gets stripped, and by the time something ships, nobody knows its origin.
This is a problem because:
- Clients increasingly ask for AI disclosure
- Regulatory penalties are coming
- Your reputation is at stake
What Leading Teams Are Doing
Forward-thinking agencies are implementing asset tracking now:
- Capturing AI metadata at creation
- Maintaining chain of custody
- Exporting with compliance-ready metadata
The Numonic Approach
Numonic automatically captures the complete provenance of every AI-generated asset the moment it enters your system. No manual tagging. No hoping someone remembers where a file came from.
Automatic Metadata Extraction
When you import assets from ComfyUI, Numonic extracts the full workflow JSON, prompt data, model names and hashes, seeds, sampler settings, and every node configuration. For Midjourney users, we parse EXIF data to capture prompts, version information, job IDs, and generation parameters across all versions from V3 to V7.
The result: every asset carries its complete creative DNA, preserved automatically.
Chain of Custody Tracking
Beyond capture, Numonic maintains an immutable custody chain for every asset. Each time a file is exported, shared, or modified, we record the action, software agent, timestamp, and parameters. This isn't just metadata; it's a complete audit trail that proves how your content traveled through your organization.
Privacy-Aware Export with Compliance Built In
Here's where it gets interesting. When you share assets externally, you often need to protect proprietary workflows while still meeting disclosure requirements. Numonic solves this with export presets:
- Share (Social): Strips workflow details and model information while preserving technical specs for proper display
- Portfolio: Keeps attribution while removing proprietary techniques
- Client Delivery: Professional handoff with compliance metadata intact
- Archive: Full metadata preservation for internal records
Each export automatically injects the new IPTC 2025.1 AI disclosure fields that regulators expect, including AISystemUsed, DigitalSourceType, and custody chain history. Your clients receive files that are clean, compliant, and ready for use.
Built for the Regulations Coming in 2026
The EU AI Act Article 50 takes effect in August 2026. California's SB 942 arrives even earlier, in January. Both require machine-readable disclosure of AI-generated content. The penalties under SB 942 are $5,000 per violation, per day.
Numonic's infrastructure was designed from the ground up to meet these requirements. When you export an asset, we inject the proper IPTC AI fields and can preserve or re-sign C2PA Content Credentials to maintain cryptographic provenance. Your team exports with confidence; the compliance happens automatically.
Key Takeaways
- 1.Metadata capture happens automatically: No manual tagging or hoping someone documents the origin
- 2.Custody chain is immutable: Every export, share, and modification is recorded
- 3.Export presets balance privacy and compliance: Protect your workflow secrets while meeting disclosure requirements
- 4.Regulatory readiness is built in: IPTC 2025.1 and C2PA support prepare you for EU AI Act and California SB 942