Summary
The last few months has brought some near future technology into the spotlight, in particular generative AI for image creation, copywriting and more. Over the last year on this podcast we’ve had the opportunity to speak to several companies that provide services that we would call future tech for creative production, and so as we get ready to close out 2022 we’ve put together this clip show, our future tech round up. You’ll hear from Ajay Bam of Vyrill, Mark Milstein of Vaisual, Ben Conway of VNTANA, Mark Duhaime of Orbitvu, Patrik Bluhme of ProFoto. Let’s take a look back over some of 2022’s episodes focusing on the technology supporting the future of e-commerce.
Key Takeaways
- Ajay Bam - Ep 45
- One of the most interesting things for me is that Vyrill has created a tool that allows you to leverage user videos of your products. Customers are already watching these videos, you can help point your customers to the most helpful content for them personally.
- Measuring ROI of creative can already be challenging, but one such measure is almost certainly engagement, and Vyrill also helps you understand engagement on YOUR videos, but other creators videos that feature your product.
- We only touched on sentiment analysis and other insights capabilities that Vyrill offers, but if we think about this in the context of localization, you can really start to see some value in that.
- Ben Conway of VNTANA - Ep 85
- When we talk about 3D I think many people jump to thinking about the end customer, but as Ben pointed out, many VNTANA customers have found a lot of value in B2B situations. Designers working with 3D models to help sell a product before any samples have gone into production. I don’t think it's a big leap to make at all that these 3D design renders become the starting point for fully rendered product imagery. Could we see product imagery creation become a part of the merchandising process, before any sample is ever cut or sewn?
- The second part of that clip illustrates how powerful AR has the potential to be for categories of product that customers have a hard time understanding in e-commerce. In this anecdote we’re talking about handbags and the relative size of handbag has been a perpetually challenging thing to indicate to customers in traditional e-commerce interactions. The numbers are powerful here, very real improvements in return rates.
- Mark Duhaime of Orbitvu - Ep 78
- One of the big concerns about automation is always flexibility, I think many photography professionals are really hyper aware of this. We learned from Photoshop Automations how badly things can go wrong if your automation interprets your instructions in a way you didn’t intend. But what systems like orbitvu are really automating is a bunch of non-value add steps that a photographer has to do manually today, with a lot of smart ways to avoid unintended consequences. The studio is still in control, but with more time to focus on producing and improving imagery.
- While an automated device might ot be right for every production type (today at least) I think almost any studio has space for one. Even the most high touch on figure studio often still has to shoot a box full of accessories that could be dealt with quickly and easily with an automated device.
- Patrik Bluhme of Profoto - Ep 69
- This was pretty big news in the industry, profoto is one of the leading brands of studio lighting and has been present in every studio I’ve ever worked in, and maybe even set foot in. They see the value in supporting workflows for many of their customers, and StyleShoots gives them a product they can bring to a studio and show them how automation can change their workflows.
- I really think automation for a lot of product photography is going to be big, if not in 2023 then beyond, and part of that is because we have a LOT of things creative production professionals need to focus their time on, and product photos on white maybe doesn’t need to be one of them.
- Mark Milstein of Vaisual - Ep 45
- This is obviously a topic that is front and center right now. As various generative AI tools have started becoming publicly available, there have been a lot of questions about how they work, what protections for artists should be in place, and how does this impact the human beings doing these jobs using traditional tools today. I think it will have an impact. But not overnight. We’ve spent 15 years building our ecommerce creative production processes to what they are today and just like any new technology, generative AI will have to be evaluated and adapted into workflows and processes that can keep this all organized. One of the things that Mark said that I found really striking is that he feels that this technology will make traditional art methods MORE valuable in the long run. I think there may be something to that. In the same way that we still value vinyl records after digitization of music, I think the photographer, painter, poet and sculptor will see the public’s value perception of their work go up.
Discount Code
Reminder to use code ECCP to get your first month of PhotoRoom Pro for free! Thanks to the PhotoRoom team for the generous offer.
Credits
Produced by: Creative Force - creativeforce.io
Edited by: Calvin Lanz Sound - clsound.net
Hosted by: Daniel Jester - danieltjester.com
