I work on ecommerce content at a fashion retailer, and most of the AI imagery debate I read assumes the job at risk is the campaign photographer, which makes sense, campaigns are what people see. But for us the campaign is a small part of the budget, most of the money goes on product photos, and every item on the site needs new ones each season. The big European players split 3 ways on this, with Zalando saying about 70% of its editorial campaign images in Q4 2024 were AI-generated, H&M going for digital twins of 30 real models who consent and get paid like a normal shoot, and About You saying around 90% of its ecommerce production now goes through AI workflows from Scayle Studios. Only the last one goes after the volume, which matters for the jobs question. A campaign shoot is a few days with a big crew a couple of times a year, while product imagery is the steady weekly work that paid studio photographers and retouchers year round. So if AI takes anything, it takes that first, and from what our own studio team tells me, that’s also the work they enjoyed least compared to the campaign days they used to fight over. For us the long tail is where it changes things. Most of our catalogue outside the bestsellers never got a proper on-model shoot, a product selling a few dozen units a season just can’t carry that cost. So those pages have lived on flat-lays for years and that’s where I’d expect the first real numbers on whether this helps or hurts to show up, given campaigns were never where the money or the jobs were. Are you seeing the same thing in your industry, AI going after the boring high-volume work first? submitted by /u/Practical_Dish2074
Originally posted by u/Practical_Dish2074 on r/ArtificialInteligence