AI technologies have shifted the image retouching landscape. eCommerce businesses now have plenty of options and tools at their disposal to gain a competitive edge.

But using AI for image retouching poses questions.

Like, how much should you lean on AI tools alone? And at what points do you need the help of real humans to ensure your digital assets are accurate and cohesive representations of your products?

For many brands, a blend between both approaches offers the biggest benefits.

AI enables lower costs, quicker turn around times, and more streamlined workflows. While selective human oversight ensures quality, minimal redos, and timely delivery.

At LUCI, we aim to provide the best of both worlds by doing AI-driven edits that are managed by a skilled team of visual professionals.

If you’re looking into new tools to help your team process images more efficiently, chances are you’re considering an approach that falls into one of the following three buckets:

1. All AI retouching
2. All human retouching
3. A blend

While each brand has different needs, here’s how we view the benefits and drawbacks of each approach.

All AI retouching

Advantages

• Image turnaround takes minutes, making fluctuating image volume a non-issue.
• Cheapest cost per photo thanks to 100% automated edits.

Disadvantages

• Since fully automated retouching lacks human oversight, you risk running into challenges with image quality and overall cohesiveness. This sometimes leads to ‘re-retouching’ photos, and delays.

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All human retouching

Advantages

• Hiring skilled professionals or freelancers ensures photos are molded to your specific edit requirements.
• For more complex assets, you can have confidence that the nuances of your brand essence, colours, and campaigns will be carried throughout.

Disadvantages

• This is the most expensive approach.
• Hard to scale images on short notice if you require large quantities of photos.

A blend

By starting with AI-driven edits, brands get the benefit of quick image processing, lower costs, and streamlined workflows. Coupling this with a layer of human oversight provides brands with the confidence that edits will be done on time, with quality, and require minimal redos.

Our team is focused on providing image services that combine the best of both worlds, without the cons. This blended approach means we offer efficient, high quality, cost-conscious image edits for eCommerce.

We are excited by everything AI has to offer, and believe that getting the most value from this emergent technology requires guidance by humans for quality and brand consistency.

If you’re exploring new image production partners, we’d love to chat, reach out on our website.

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