The problem
Clients ask what fonts and stock were used and whether they can reuse them, and the answer is scattered across invoices and download emails. If a designer hands over 10 projects a month and spends 30 minutes pulling the list together, that's 300 minutes, 5 hours a month.
What the AI does
List the fonts, stock images, icons and plugins used in a project from your own files and download records, then paste the list into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and ask for a tidy table with a column for licence type, where the licence is held and what the client needs to buy. Add the licence terms yourself from each foundry or stock site, because the assistant does not know them and can invent them. The assistant also drafts the short handover note, which you check. It formats and organises; it never decides whether a use is licensed.
A worked example
A freelance packaging designer in Glasgow hands over about 10 projects a month. Each uses 3 to 8 fonts and stock assets bought under her own account or the client's.
Before
10 handovers at 30 minutes to collect and type the licence list and note: 300 minutes, 5 hours a month
After
If the assistant formats the table and note and you check each licence at source in about 20 minutes: 200 minutes, about 3.3 hours a month
What it's worth
About 1.7 hours a month saved (100 minutes), worth about £58 at £35 an hour, if formatting really takes about 10 minutes off each handover (an assumption to test). The bigger value is fewer unlicensed uses reaching a client, which isn't counted. The free plans of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini can do this; a paid plan costs up to about £20 a month for one person if you hit usage limits.
How to set it up
- Keep a running list of fonts, stock and icons for each project as you buy or download them, with the account they were bought on.
- At handover, paste the list into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and ask for a table with columns for licence type, who holds the licence and what the client must buy.
- Fill in the licence terms yourself from each foundry or stock site, including whether web, app or print use is covered.
- Ask the assistant to draft a short handover note from the table, then check it and edit it.
- Send the table and note with the files, and keep a copy with the project.
What goes wrong
- An assistant does not know licence terms and can state them wrongly. Take every term from the licence itself.
- Desktop, web, app and print font licences differ, and seat or page-view limits can apply. A licence in your name does not automatically cover the client.
- Stock images from AI generators carry their own terms. Check what the vendor states about commercial use and never assume AI output is automatically yours to use.
- Keep client names and unreleased work out of consumer AI plans; the list needs only asset names.