Beyond the Hype: The Visual Revolution of AI

Machines won’t take over the work of photographers, CTO & Co-Founder Ramzi Rizk argues, they will simply open up more time to focus on what matters: creation.

Even though there’s a hype around Artificial Intelligence, many people underestimate it. The next decade will bring nothing short of a visual revolution — and the content space will be entirely upended by AI in just a few years. Advanced hardware and the resulting mobile photography boom have led the way for disruption. But once they’re coupled with smart algorithms, both creators and brands will need to rethink how they work.

“The content space will be entirely upended by AI in just a few years.”

When AI Meets Photography

Artificial Intelligence has especially impacted the creative space in recent years. Algorithms are now guiding content creators in real-time to capture the best moment, and automating processes like editing to mimic professionals ormatch a specific style. AI isremoving watermarks,editing photosand even helping photographers decide which photos they should share.

Today, our creators can use EyeEm Selects, a feature that uses AI to analyze the photos on your camera roll andsuggests the best to upload — all privately, cheaply and quickly done on your mobile device (meaning the photos aren’t sent to a server). This also encourages users to share photos they might have never shared otherwise.

EyeEm Selects

Sort by Relevance, forReal

In classic image search, results have been sorted by placing the best sellers first or by “relevance.” But what does relevance actually mean? What’s relevant for one person or brand may not be relevant for another. AI has helped evolve search to make results more relevant depending on your needs.

“We’ve taught machines to become smart enough to understand what a brand wants.”

At EyeEm, we’re applying AI tofind the best imagesthat truly match a brand’s aesthetic or style. We’ve taught machines to look at photos, extract relevant information from those photos and become smart enough to understand what a brand wants.

The Real ROI ofAI

The hype of AI is real, but so is the ROI. Visual services and API’sare projected tobe a $33 billion industry by 2019. Computer Vision technology is being leveraged to deeply understand the impact of visuals on things like conversion, retention and customer acquisition. AI is perfectly poised to deeply impact marketing, from sourcing and editing, to predicting the performance of campaigns and visuals.

“Creators have more time to focus on what matters: creation.”

It might seem like these technologies are replacing human creators and consumers, but we believe they’re empowering us by offering creative freedom. Machines won’t take over the work of photographers, they will simply make it quicker and easier. The boring stuff goes out the window and creators have more time to focus on what matters: creation.

Header image by MubarizKhan.