Recently I got told that Free AI headshot solutions would take over,
So I ran a test;
⬅️ On the left you have a free option from Canva (also got a free wig)
➡️ On the right you have our brand new model
But even before running the test, I knew that we won't get taken over any time soon
So why's that?
First of all nothing (or almost) is "Free".. So this statement always needs to be challenged when it comes your way
And when it comes to AI generated pictures, every new order get a model to work and compute images which requires server cost.
So even when they see "free", it's only for the end user. So the business is at loss
That being said the free tool is a good strategy to get traffic with SEO if you target keywords that are picking up in volume.
BUT
With everything that is free and is a quick win,
there isn't much more to it.
You won't have a full time team of dev trying to nail down every aspect of the picture, that is;
- the clothes texture
- the face proportions
- the eyes shape and reflection
- the hairstyle and even..the colour
- the background reality, or even the reflection in a a mirror
- ...
And you also won't have a full time team investing in improving the product on a daily basis from customer's feedback. Because let's be honest, paying customers' feedback is usually a lot more harsh - but also the best to get real/honest feedback
All that put together makes me believe that free options won't beat paid ones in the long term, because it would mean that it's a whole new business for them. And even then, they won't have the training of 10's of thousands of orders we will already have.
How about you? Do you have experience with free tools casting a wig shade on your product?
👇🏻Share your thought if you think differently - Open for challenging thoughts
PS: thanks Artturi Jalli for the post inspiration 🫶🏻