Quick answer
Never use AI for anything a homeowner will read as proof: job photos, before-and-afters, a customer’s home, your crew, reviews, or licences and badges. Canada’s Competition Act weighs an ad’s general impression as well as its literal meaning, so a realistic picture can mislead with no false word on it. Use AI for marketing and illustration, and keep the proof real.
Estimates by phone: (587) 804-9266 · Good Roofing · Calgary-owned since 2014 · 10-year workmanship warranty.
We make our ads, social posts and new site images with AI, in Overs, the tool our owner built. That makes the line between marketing and proof worth spelling out for any trades owner thinking about doing the same. If a homeowner could read a picture as something that really happened, it has to be real.
01 · Section
The never list
Each of these is proof in a homeowner’s eyes, so each has to be the real thing.
- 01Job photos. A picture of a roof you say you did must be a roof you did, at an address you’d give if asked.
- 02Before-and-afters. Homeowners read them as proof of your work. In a real one the house, the windows and the trees stay put, and only the roof changes.
- 03A customer’s home. Don’t put a real family’s house into an AI scene, and don’t present an AI house as a customer’s.
- 04Your crew and your trucks. AI people in your colours aren’t your team. Use them as illustration, never under “meet our crew”.
- 05Reviews and testimonials. No AI-written reviews and no invented reviewers. Section 74.02 of the Competition Act makes publishing a testimonial reviewable unless the person published it first or approved it and gave permission in writing.
- 06Licences, insurance and badges. A model can draw a seal that looks official. Alberta’s Consumer Protection Act lists as an unfair practice a supplier claiming a status, qualification, affiliation or connection it doesn’t have (section 6(4)(d)).
- 07Storm damage on a specific home. An illustration of what hail does to a shingle is fine when it’s labelled as one. The same damage on a house you present as a customer’s is a fake job photo.
02 · Section
What the rules say in Canada
The Competition Act says “the general impression conveyed by a representation as well as its literal meaning” counts when a court decides whether an ad misleads (section 52(4)). The Competition Bureau’s own examples include an ad where the text is literally true but the accompanying photo or illustration creates a false or misleading impression. For a corporation, the administrative penalty for a first violation can reach the greater of $10 million or three times the benefit it got, according to the Bureau.
Reviews get the same scrutiny. The Bureau has warned businesses that anyone who writes misleading reviews, or lets them be written, could be liable under the Competition Act. In 2015 Bell Canada agreed to pay a $1,250,000 penalty after its employees rated its apps without saying they worked there. The Bureau’s 2025 report on AI and competition recorded consensus that AI can amplify old tricks such as fake reviews, endorsements and impersonations.
Alberta’s Consumer Protection Act adds its own list, starting with a supplier doing or saying “anything that might reasonably deceive or mislead a consumer” (section 6(4)(a)). The industry’s Canadian Code of Advertising Standards also says testimonials must reflect the genuine, reasonably current opinion of the people giving them.
03 · Section
What AI images are good for
Most of what a trades business posts. A seasonal ad, a website hero that sets the scene, a social post about hail season and an illustration of how ice dams form are all marketing, and all fair game when nobody presents them as a real job. Our ads, social posts and new site images are made in Overs, and our owner, Abhi Chawla, credits it with a big part of how fast Good Roofing has grown. Overs is made by our owner, so weigh that recommendation accordingly.
04 · Section
One question before anything goes out
Before an image runs, ask whether a homeowner would think it shows something that really happened. If they would, it has to be a real photo of the real thing, with permission from anyone in it. If not, it’s marketing, and our guide to labelling AI images in Canada covers when to say so on the image. For the homeowner’s side of the same problem, see how to spot an AI-generated roofing photo.