Content authenticity: the 2026 checklist starts now (Dec 2025)
Dec 2025
Authenticity became a mainstream requirement in 2025: clients, platforms, and regulators increasingly expect clear disclosure and the ability to answer “how was this made?”
If your workflow produces dozens (or thousands) of AI-assisted assets, you can’t solve authenticity case-by-case. You need **defaults**: a small set of records that are always stored for anything that can be published commercially.
The standards layer: Content Credentials
One of the most concrete efforts in this space is C2PA (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity). C2PA publishes technical specifications for Content Credentials—standardized provenance metadata that can be embedded and verified.
This isn’t just theory: it provides a path to consistent “chain-of-custody” style documentation for creative assets (what was asserted, when, and by whom).
A production checklist that works (and doesn’t slow teams down)
- Store tool/provider + model/version for every publishable asset.
- Store prompt versions and key parameters (or a link to the prompt preset).
- Store the approval note: who approved, what changed, why it is allowed.
- Preserve the edit trail (upscale, retouch, compositing) and final export.
- Add disclosure fields where publishing requires it.
What to avoid
Teams often over-invest in one visible signal (like watermarking) and under-invest in the audit trail. Watermarks can help, but they don’t replace documentation of the full creation/edit process.
The payoff
When someone asks “prove this is legitimate,” you respond with a record—fast, consistent, and defensible.