New Book by Craig McDonogh

Guardrails

How to Embrace AI Without Damaging Your Brand

The practical guide for enterprise marketing leaders who want to move fast with AI - without the legal exposure, ethical landmines, or reputation damage that comes from moving without a plan.

Pre-Order on Barnes & Noble → See What's Inside

Craig McDonoghAuthor

Coming SoonOctober 13, 2026

Enterprise MarketingAudience

Guardrails

How to Embrace AI
Without Damaging
Your Brand

Craig McDonogh

Ethicore Advisors

Cover image coming soon

Why This Book Exists

AI is on every marketing roadmap. The guardrails aren't.

Enterprise marketing teams are deploying AI faster than their governance structures can keep up. AI-generated creative, algorithmic targeting, autonomous campaign management, synthetic personas - all of it is live in production, mostly without a documented policy, a bias test, or a vendor accountability framework.

The result isn't hypothetical. Brands are facing FTC enforcement actions over AI-generated reviews. Campaigns are triggering discrimination complaints from AI audience models. CMOs are being blindsided by vendor practices they never thought to ask about.

Guardrails isn't a warning label. It's a practical operating manual - written by someone who's been inside enterprise marketing for 30 years, not someone who studied it from a distance.

82%

of marketing execs believe consumers are comfortable with AI-generated ads. Only 45% of consumers actually are. (IAB Europe, 2026)

US states now have active AI laws affecting how you can target, personalise, and automate marketing — with more coming in 2026.

of the enterprise marketing teams I've worked with had a documented AI governance policy when we first spoke. Every single one needed one.

Inside the Book

Six areas where AI in marketing goes wrong ... and how to get them right.

Guardrails is structured around the decisions real marketing teams actually face, not abstract ethical principles. Each section ends with a practical framework you can apply immediately.

Part One

The AI Marketing Stack You Already Have

Most teams don't know the full extent of AI in their stack. This section shows you how to build a complete AI inventory, and what to look for once you have one.

Part Two

What Your Vendors Aren't Telling You

AI marketing vendors optimise for what they measure. Learn the questions they don't want you to ask, and how to make vendor accountability a contractual requirement.

Part Three

Bias in the Funnel

Algorithmic targeting doesn't discriminate intentionally - it discriminates statistically. Here's how to identify bias in audience models before a regulator or a journalist does.

Part Four

The Regulatory Map

From the FTC to the EU AI Act to six active US state laws - a plain-English guide to what's already in force, what's coming, and what your legal team actually needs from marketing.

Part Five

Building Your Governance Framework

A step-by-step process for building an AI governance framework that marketing teams will actually use, not a policy document that lives in a shared drive and gets ignored.

Part Six

When Something Goes Wrong

AI incidents happen. This section covers how to respond: what to communicate, what to document, how to remediate, and how to avoid making a bad situation catastrophically worse.

Who It's For

Written for people who make decisions, not people who study them.

📊

CMOs & VPs of Marketing

Who need to understand the board-level risk picture without wading through legal briefs.

🛠️

Marketing Operations Leaders

Who are evaluating, deploying, and renewing AI tools and need a rigorous vendor framework.

⚖️

Legal & Compliance Teams

Who need a marketing-fluent counterpart to work with, and want a shared vocabulary for AI risk.

🏢

Enterprise Brand Teams

Who are deploying AI creative, synthetic personas, or automated personalization at scale.

Free With the Book

Templates and tools ... not just reading material.

Every section of Guardrails comes with a practical worksheet or template you can bring straight into your organization. These will be available free to everyone who pre-orders.

📋

Part One Worksheet

AI Stack Inventory Template Coming with book

A structured template for mapping every AI tool in your marketing stack - including data inputs, decision outputs, and vendor accountability gaps.

Available on publication →

🔍

Part Two Worksheet

AI Vendor Accountability Scorecard Coming with book

30 questions to ask before signing or renewing any AI marketing vendor contract. Covers model transparency, data use, bias testing, and contractual protections.

Available on publication →

🎯

Part Three Worksheet

Bias Audit Checklist for AI Targeting Coming with book

A step-by-step audit process for identifying demographic and proxy bias in AI-driven audience models, lookalike targeting, and lead scoring systems.

Available on publication →

🏗️

Part Five Worksheet

AI Governance Framework Starter Kit Coming with book

A ready-to-adapt governance framework template covering policy structure, decision rights, vendor oversight, regulatory mapping, and incident response.

Available on publication →

Want the tools now? Several are already available free on the resources page →

Early Praise

What readers are saying.

"In the AI era, brand, reputation, and governance are no longer side issues to innovation — they’re central to it. GuardrAIls makes that case persuasively, and with rare practicality. Craig McDonogh gives marketers and business leaders a much-needed framework for embracing AI without losing authenticity, accountability, or stakeholder trust."

Scott Brinker, Analyst, chiefmartec and “Godfather of Martech” - AdAge

Endorsement placeholder — this is where early praise from a legal, compliance, or regulatory expert will appear.

Name, Title Company or Organisation

Endorsement placeholder — this is where early praise from a marketing technology or AI industry voice will appear.

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About the Author

Craig McDonogh

Craig McDonogh has spent 30 years leading enterprise marketing - at companies including ServiceNow, BMC Software, Perspectium, Imgix, and Forma.ai - building marketing programs, evaluating vendors, and making the kind of technology decisions that shape how companies reach customers.

He founded Ethicore Advisors because the AI ethics conversation was happening everywhere except the rooms where marketing decisions were actually being made. Guardrails is the book he wished had existed during his own career.

He is a 2026 Digital Marketing Program Advisor at the University of San Francisco and publishes a daily AI ethics dispatch on Substack.

Full bio → LinkedIn ↗ Daily Substack ↗

Pre-order now. Get the tools when they drop.

The book is available for pre-order on Barnes & Noble. Leave your email below and we'll send you the companion worksheets and tools the moment they're ready.

No spam. One email when the book launches, another when your tools are ready. That's it.