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For the trades

Can I use AI
to write my reviews?

It’s tempting. You’ve done thirty good jobs this year and four people left a review. An AI tool will write the other twenty-six in a minute, each one different, each one plausible. Don’t. It has been illegal in the UK since April 2025, the people who police it don’t need a court to fine you, and in a county where everyone knows everyone it’s the kind of thing that gets found out. Here’s what the law actually says, and the way to get real reviews instead.

No. Since 6 April 2025 the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act bans fake reviews in the UK — any review that pretends to be a customer’s genuine experience and isn’t. That includes reviews you write yourself, reviews you generate with AI, reviews from friends who weren’t customers, and reviews where you’ve hidden a discount or payment. The CMA can fine up to 10% of turnover. Ask every real customer, after every job, with no incentive — that’s the whole system.

Mick Stevenson Forty years across trades, construction, property and plant hire before software. RPII-registered Operational Inspector. Builds and secures AI tools for Cornish trades.

Published

On this page

  1. 01 The short answer
  2. 02 What the law says, in plain English
  3. 03 What counts as fake — the examples that catch trades
  4. 04 Where AI comes in
  5. 05 What you can still do
  6. 06 A review system that works without the risk

The short answer

No. A review has to be a real customer’s genuine account of a real job. If you wrote it, generated it, paid for it without saying so, or got it from someone who was never a customer, it’s a fake review, and since 6 April 2025 that’s against the law — not against the platform’s terms, against the law. The regulator is the Competition and Markets Authority, it can rule on a breach itself, and it can fine up to 10% of your turnover.

Using AI doesn’t change any of that. It just makes the fake ones faster to produce and, these days, easier to spot.

What the law says, in plain English

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 added fake reviews to the list of practices that are banned outright — the same list as fake “closing down” sales and pretending to be a private seller. The consumer parts of the Act came into force on 6 April 2025. Schedule 20 bans three things:

  1. 01

    Submitting a fake review, or getting someone else to. A fake review is one that claims to be based on a person’s genuine experience and isn’t. Positive or negative, in any form.

  2. 02

    Hiding an incentive. Paying, discounting or giving something for a review is allowed only if the review says so, clearly. A concealed incentive makes it banned.

  3. 03

    Publishing reviews in a misleading way. Suppressing the bad ones, cherry-picking the good ones, showing out-of-date ones as current. This is the one that catches a business with a “testimonials” page.

There’s no criminal offence and no prison. There is a regulator that no longer has to go to court, a fine calculated on turnover, and — for a one-man band — the much more real problem of a Google profile that disappears and a village that heard why.

What counts as fake — the examples that catch trades

Writing it yourself for a real job

The job happened, the customer was happy, they never got round to it, so you wrote what they would have said. Fake. The review claims to be their experience, and it isn’t.

A mate who’s “basically a customer”

He’s seen your work, he’d recommend you, he’s never actually paid you for a job. His review of a job that didn’t happen is fake, and asking him is commissioning one.

£20 off for five stars, unmentioned

A real customer, a real job, a real review — and a hidden incentive for the rating. Banned. The incentive has to be disclosed in the review, and “for five stars” makes it misleading on its own.

The testimonials page from 2019

Six glowing quotes, no dates, two from a business you no longer run. Publishing reviews in a way that misleads about how current or representative they are is the third limb of the ban.

“Just ask the happy ones”

Not explicitly banned, but the CMA’s guidance says don’t dissuade negative reviews or cherry-pick positive ones, and a system designed to collect only fives is walking straight towards that line.

A one-star for the firm down the road

Fake reviews can be negative. Writing one about a competitor is the same offence, and it’s the kind that ends up in a solicitor’s letter as well.

Where AI comes in

The law doesn’t mention AI, and it doesn’t need to. The test is whether the review is a real person’s genuine experience. AI is just the pen. So:

  • You generating reviews and posting them as customers — fake, however real the jobs were.
  • You generating “suggested” reviews and sending them to customers to post — you’ve commissioned a review that isn’t their own words. Don’t. Ask for the review; let them write it.
  • A real customer using AI to polish their own account of their own job — their genuine experience, their choice of tool. Fine.
  • You using AI to reply to reviews — fine, and worth doing. A reply is your voice, not a review. Just read it before it goes.

One more thing worth knowing: the platforms are now using AI to detect AI. Google, Trustpilot and Checkatrade all run detection on review text and on posting patterns — twenty reviews in a week from accounts with no history is a pattern. Generated reviews don’t just risk the regulator; they risk the profile being wiped, which for most trades is the bigger loss.

What you can still do

  • Ask every customer for a review, after every job, in person or by message
  • Send them the direct link so it takes thirty seconds, not five minutes
  • Remind them once, a week later, if they haven’t
  • Reply to every review, good and bad — a calm reply to a two-star review does more for you than three more fives
  • Show real reviews on your website with the date and the source, and keep them current
  • Offer an incentive if you must — but it has to be for a review, not for a good one, and the review has to say an incentive was offered

A review system that works without the risk

Most trades get few reviews because asking is awkward and nobody does it consistently. Fix the consistency and the numbers follow.

  1. 01

    Ask on the day, in person. “If you’re happy with it, a Google review makes a real difference to a small firm — I’ll text you the link.” Nine out of ten say yes.

  2. 02

    Text the link that evening. One line, the direct review link, nothing else. Save it as a template on your phone.

  3. 03

    One reminder, seven days on. Then leave it. Three in ten will do it on the first text, another one or two on the reminder.

  4. 04

    Reply within a day. Thank the good ones by name. Answer the bad ones with facts and no heat. Prospects read the replies more carefully than the reviews.

  5. 05

    Put the real ones on your site, dated. And take down anything you can’t stand behind — including the undated testimonials from the old van.

Done every job, that’s thirty to forty genuine reviews a year for a one-van firm. Nobody can take those down, nobody can fine you for them, and they read like real people because they are.

Where this comes from

This is plain-English guidance for small businesses, not formal legal advice. Where something genuinely needs a solicitor or a data-protection specialist, I'll tell you straight.

Straight answers

Is it actually illegal to write my own reviews?
Yes. Since 6 April 2025 the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act bans submitting a fake review — one that pretends to be a customer’s genuine experience and isn’t — and bans commissioning anyone else to write one. That covers you, your partner, your mate down the pub and an AI tool. The CMA can decide a breach itself without going to court and fine up to 10% of turnover.
What if the review is true, I just used AI to write it?
Two different things. A real customer using an AI tool to tidy up their own words about their own job is their genuine experience, written badly or well — that’s fine. You generating a review and posting it as if a customer wrote it is a fake review whether the job was real or not, because the review pretends to be their account and it isn’t.
Can I ask friends and family to leave a review?
Only if they were genuinely a customer. A review from your sister about a job you did for her is a real experience. A review from your sister about a job you never did for her is fake, and asking her to write it is commissioning one. The question is always: did this person actually have this experience?
Can I give customers a discount for a review?
You can, but the review has to say so, clearly and prominently — the law calls this a concealed incentivised review if it doesn’t. A hidden “£20 off your next job for a five-star review” is banned. A visible “we were offered a discount for leaving this review” is allowed, and honestly it looks worse than no review at all. Simpler to ask without an incentive.
Can I just ask the happy customers?
Asking everyone is the safe position. The CMA’s guidance says businesses shouldn’t dissuade negative reviews or cherry-pick positive ones, and only inviting the customers you know are pleased is a short step from that. Ask after every job. A couple of fair three-star reviews among the fives make the fives believable.
Who is actually going to check a roofer in Cornwall?
Probably nobody from the CMA, in the first instance. The realistic risks are a competitor reporting you, a customer spotting a review for a job that never happened, and Google or Checkatrade removing reviews or suspending the profile. The reputational cost of being caught with fake reviews in a county this size is worse than any fine.

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