Extension of PhotoShelter’s AI suite delivers massive leap forward in search capabilities and maximizes content ROI by removing the need for manual metadata tagging of image contents

Today, PhotoShelter, a leading AI-powered digital asset management (DAM) solution for seamless content distribution experiences, is expanding its AI product suite with a groundbreaking capability to improve content searchability. PhotoShelter’s AI Visual Search is a service that allows users to search their brand’s entire library for assets based on visual descriptions recognized by AI, making it easier and faster to find the right image for a specific application. A key benefit of AI Visual Search being metadata-less is the removal of any manual tagging requirements of image contents, an extremely time-consuming and human error-prone task.

At any given moment, DAM platforms hold hundreds of thousands of visual assets for an organization. When it’s time to locate and publish a specific piece of content, it can take hours to manually search for the right photo. Even the most advanced content organizations struggle to set up and maintain a comprehensive metadata strategy. This means stakeholders are not only wasting time searching for the right image, but also missing out on the best quality content because they simply can’t locate it. It would take an estimated 200 days to manually tag every image uploaded to PhotoShelter each month, and metadata-less search eliminates this incredible time-consuming challenge.

AI Visual Search uses language and image recognition to intelligently match search terms to visual qualities, removing the need for asset tagging and expediting go-to-market time. For example, AI Visual Search empowers users to locate images based on search terms like “fans giving a high five” or “students throwing graduation caps.” Since it does not require metadata, this function is optimal for scenarios where creatives have a general idea of what they want an image to look like, can sift through all relevant images, and choose which to use in projects or distribute.

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“Organizations aren’t getting the maximum ROI out of their content because they have poor hygiene with tagging and keywording their images. This severely limits content discovery for teams, and with content production accelerating, this problem will only worsen,” said Andrew Fingerman, CEO of PhotoShelter. “We found that 40 percent of assets in PhotoShelter were not tagged, so we created one of the first market solutions that does the heavy lifting for our customers and streamlines their search. What was once a manual, difficult and time-consuming task is now a prime use case for leveraging AI to maximize efficiencies and bring better content to market. And the results are breathtaking – it’s like every conceivable keyword and caption has been applied automatically to our customers’ images.”

Artificial intelligence has the ability to streamline workflows across every industry, but only when it’s implemented correctly and thoughtfully. Technology innovators have a responsibility to ensure their tech is created for social good and is being used ethically. Thus, PhotoShelter is committed to aligning with content creators and ensuring they maintain control of their copyright, as well as guaranteeing it is shared ethically. In mid-2023, PhotoShelter launched a formal Ethics Board to routinely consider the ethics of its AI usage. Throughout the year, it will evolve to help inform decision-making on product innovation, improving training models and removing unconscious bias. The company will also be aligning closely with the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) to track source images and determine if AI has been used in their creation to monitor and get ahead of disinformation and authorship issues.

“Our customers tell us it takes a dedicated full-time employee to fully and accurately tag all of their proprietary images,” said Chris Owyoung, Director of Product at PhotoShelter. “And for the past 30 years, the difference between organizational success and failure to find the perfect image has depended on whether or not it was tagged with the exact words you searched for. Now, we have removed this barrier. PhotoShelter’s AI Visual Search is not only an early market entrant, but also a game-changer for how content is discovered.”

AI Visual Search is just one of many PhotoShelter AI tagging capabilities. ObjectID automatically creates metadata tags for images based on the objects in them, for example “football” or “X-ray.” The company’s AI Tagging capability is perfect for advanced tagging where users need specific people or objects to be identified. BrandID, PeopleID, and RosterID tag people, player rosters and brands like “Boston Red Sox,” “Andrew Fingerman” or “Purdue University,” proving highly beneficial for sports, education, hospitality and more.

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