Exclaimer launches Signature Converter, its first AI-assisted feature, to turn email signature screenshots into editable templates. Exclaimer launched Signature Converter, an AI-assisted feature that rebuilds a screenshot of an email signature as an editable template. It is available now to organizations in the United States using Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. Email signatures usually fall to IT, while according to Exclaimer's State of Business Email report, 35% of global IT teams rank email signature management among their most time-consuming email tasks, and 80% still rely on manual methods or user self-service. Moving an existing signature into a managed platform adds to that load, at least initially, because someone has to recreate it element by element, matching layout and spacing. Library templates help, but they don't always match the design a company already uses. With Signature Converter, an admin uploads a PNG or JPG file of up to 5 MB, either a screenshot of your current signature, a design you have received, or even a mockup you create in another design tool. Templates can then be tweaked and refined further within the Signature Designer. Recognized personal fields, such as name, job title and contact details, are automatically built as dynamic fields, pulling from each employee's directory profile. Anything else, such as a company website or legal disclaimer, carries over as editable text. A review mode then previews the converted template and flags what to check, including images, hyperlinks, fonts and colors. Once saved, the template works like any other Exclaimer signature. Signature Rules decide who receives it, and deployment runs as it does today. "Most organizations come to us with a signature design they already like. The slow part has been an IT admin rebuilding it by hand first, and most IT teams don't have that time to spare," said Paul Hammond, chief product and technology officer at Exclaimer. "Signature Converter takes that step away. Because it's our first AI feature, we built it the way we think AI belongs in an admin tool. IT switches it on deliberately, and nothing it produces reaches a user until someone has checked it." Admin control and data handling The Signature Converter functionality is turned off by default, and must be enabled by your Exclaimer Admin within Feature Settings. Signature Converter can be turned on or off for your organization within feature settings at any time. Within the Signature Designer, use is limited to the Administrator, Editor and Designer roles. Exclaimer does not retain uploaded screenshots after conversion. Its AI subprocessor processes uploads under a zero data retention agreement. Uploaded images, brand assets and generated templates are not used to train Exclaimer's AI models or any third-party model. Customers whose contracts include a no-AI clause can have AI features disabled for their account entirely by contacting their Exclaimer representative. David Marshall is the founder of VMblog.com, one of the industry's longest-running independent publications covering modern data center technologies. What began as a focus on virtualization and cloud computing has expanded to cover the full spectrum of enterprise IT, including AI, security, and DevOps, making VMblog a trusted destination for vendor news, technology analysis, and industry commentary.Beyond publishing, David has spent his career at the intersection of technology and business, inventing, marketing, and launching a number of successful software companies and products, and building a reputation as a skilled marketing executive in the enterprise IT space.David is also a published author, having written two well-regarded books on virtualization and served as technical editor for two "For Dummies" titles covering virtualization and cloud computing. He co-founded CloudCow.com, a publication focused on cloud computing, and has been named a VMware vExpert every year since 2009, one of the longest continuous honoree streaks in the program's history.Connect with David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmarshall/

What AI adoption tells Cloud Awards about governance. By Karl Bagci, Head of Information Security at Exclaimer. Exclaimer were winners of the 'Best Place to Work in the Cloud,' and ' Best Software as a Service - outside the USA' awards at the 2025/26 Cloud Awards and shortlisted in five categories at the 2026 SaaS Awards. Most discussions about AI in the workplace focus on productivity. How much faster can employees create content? How many tasks can be automated? How much time can be saved? These are important questions. But they overlook a more fundamental issue. Already, 43% of primary decision-makers list AI-driven email automation among their top strategic priorities, according to Exclaimer's State of Business Email Report. The direction of travel is clear. But the conversation has raced ahead of the infrastructure. Because the greatest risk posed by AI-generated communication is not volume. It is consistency. Organizations have spent years building governance frameworks around business communication. Policies define what can be said, how information should be presented, and what regulatory requirements must be met. Yet even before AI entered the workplace, many organizations struggled to apply those standards consistently across teams, regions, and communication channels. AI has not created a new governance challenge. It has simply exposed an existing one. As AI tools become embedded in cloud productivity suites and business workflows, organizations now must determine how to ensure that faster communication remains compliant, auditable, and trustworthy. AI is accelerating existing governance gaps. The conversation around AI risk often focuses on hallucinations, misinformation, or data privacy concerns. These are important issues, but they can distract from a more immediate operational challenge, which is that most organizations already struggle with communication governance. Brand standards are interpreted differently across departments. Legal disclaimers are applied inconsistently. Communication templates evolve over time without centralized oversight. Teams adapt messaging to local requirements, while individual employees make changes based on personal preference or convenience. These challenges existed long before generative AI. What AI changes, particularly in cloud-based business processes, is the speed and scale at which communication is created. A governance issue that might previously have affected a handful of messages can now be replicated across hundreds or thousands of communications in a fraction of the time. AI did not create governance gaps. It removed the time buffer that used to hide them. And the organizations most exposed to AI-related communication risk are often not those adopting AI most aggressively. They are the ones that already lacked consistent governance controls before AI arrived. Why regulated industries face greater risk. For organizations operating in regulated industries, the implications are even more significant. Financial institutions, healthcare providers, insurance companies, and legal firms all operate within strict communication requirements. Disclosures must be accurate. Regulatory language must be applied consistently. Communications may need to be retained for legal discovery or regulatory review. In these environments, communication is more than a business function. It is part of the organization's compliance framework. An employee manually omitting a disclaimer from a single message creates risk. An AI-enabled workflow that generates hundreds of communications without the correct controls creates a very different scale of exposure. The challenge is ensuring that communication standards remain enforceable regardless of how content is created. As AI becomes more deeply embedded in cloud-based business processes, organizations must ensure that compliance requirements remain attached to the communication, not the individual creating it. Trust begins with identity. One of the most overlooked aspects of AI-generated communication is identity. As more content is created automatically, the question is no longer simply what was said. It is who said it, under what authority, and according to which standards. Customers, regulators, and business partners need confidence that communications created and sent through cloud platforms remain authentic, compliant, and accountable. That confidence depends on more than the content itself. It depends on the governance surrounding it. The data makes the stakes clear. According to Exclaimer's report, 92% of IT leaders agree that consistent, well-managed email signatures build trust and professionalism. Yet, 80% still rely on manual methods or leave employees to manage their own. That gap between what organizations value and how they actually operate is precisely where governance breaks down. Approved branding, legal disclaimers, sender identity, and audit trails are not cosmetic additions to AI-enabled communication. They are the mechanisms that make accountability possible. The more automation organizations introduce into communication workflows, the more important these governance mechanisms become. Ultimately, AI can generate content, but it cannot generate trust. Where human oversight still matters. The rise of AI has sparked debate about how much decision-making should be automated. In reality, the most successful organizations are unlikely to choose between humans and automation. They will combine both. AI is well suited to generating content, accelerating workflows, and reducing repetitive tasks. Humans remain responsible for defining policy, managing exceptions, and establishing the standards that govern communication. Organizations often focus on keeping humans involved in content creation while overlooking the importance of keeping humans involved in governance. Yet governance decisions carry significant legal, regulatory, and reputational consequences. Governance can be automated, but accountability should not. The role of technology is to enforce standards consistently. The role of people is to determine what those standards should be. Strategy before tooling. Many organizations are racing to deploy AI capabilities across their operations. The pressure to innovate is real, and the productivity gains can be significant. However, introducing AI without first establishing governance creates unnecessary risk. Before organizations ask how AI can accelerate communication, they should ask: What standards apply to these communications? How will compliance requirements be enforced? What audit trail exists? How will changes be monitored and governed? In SaaS-first environments, where communication tools are provisioned quickly and updated continuously, the gap between deployment speed and governance readiness is especially acute. Communication controls need to be embedded into the cloud infrastructure itself. Compliance requirements, disclaimers, branding and policy enforcement should operate independently of how content is generated. Whether a message is written by a person, assisted by AI, or fully automated, the same governance standards should apply. This approach allows organizations to benefit from automation without compromising consistency, compliance, or trust. Because in an AI-enabled workplace, trust will be determined by how consistently it can be governed. Exclaimer is the global leader in email signature management for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Its cloud platform enables organizations to centrally manage and automate email signatures and video meeting branding, ensuring consistent corporate identity, reducing brand and compliance risk, and meeting regulatory requirements across everyday business communications. Karl Bagci is a strategic security leader with a track record of embedding security into business operations to drive growth, resilience, and trust. As the Head of Information Security at Exclaimer, he spearheads security strategies that unlock enterprise opportunities, streamline compliance, and mitigate risk. With leadership roles at Dubber, Cronofy, and UNiDAYS, Karl has built and scaled security programs, achieved ISO and SOC certifications, and significantly reduced vulnerabilities while improving operational efficiency. His expertise spans cybersecurity, risk management, IT service management, and DevOps, making him a trusted advisor to executives and a catalyst for security-driven innovation. Beyond compliance, Karl is a firm advocate for culture-driven security, ensuring teams are empowered with the right mindset, processes, and automation to maintain resilience. He believes security isn't a roadblock - it's a strategic enabler that should fuel business success.