Mickey Friedman co-launched Aptitude.ai in 2022, a 12 months after graduating from the College of Chicago. The corporate, which has raised $5 million in seed funding, deploys synthetic intelligence to good product photographs, offering whole digital scenes and setups.
The method, she says, remakes ecommerce images by dramatically decreasing the price of picture shoots whereas enhancing high quality.
In our current dialog, she addressed the rise of visible AI, the need of human intervention, and extra. All the audio is embedded beneath. The transcript is edited for size and readability.
Eric Bandholz: Who the heck are you?
Mickey Friedman: I personal an organization referred to as Aptitude. We launched in 2023. We’re constructing an AI device for product photographs, visualizations, and animations. We’re attempting to streamline the picture shoot course of into an easy-to-use digital studio at a a lot decrease price.
We’re a group of 5. We’ve onboarded over one million customers now.
We begin with retailers’ present product photographs. We carry out coloration corrections, protect the lettering, and supply a whole digital scene. Model and textual content preservation are necessary to us.
I used to be early on within the AI artwork scene. I used to be desirous about advertising and picture shoots, however I used to be extra drawn to the artistic course of, taking part in round with AI fashions to create artwork. The method within the early days was taking a little bit of textual content and producing photographs. There’s nonetheless a spot for that, equivalent to Midjourney. However ecommerce corporations need to protect their manufacturers and property and management the visible association of their scenes.
Bandholz: How are retailers utilizing your device up to now?
Friedman: Photos for touchdown pages and natural social posts are very fashionable. We’re attempting to outline the artistic means of a photograph shoot. Many AI instruments take away people from that course of, however we would like the other, the place our clients execute no matter imaginative and prescient they’ve.
Of us who gravitate to Aptitude are sometimes on the intersection of ecommerce and creativity — an in-house design group or an company. They perceive our platform intuitively.
There’s a whole lot of storyboarding on Aptitude. We’ve had clients with a imaginative and prescient of a dream picture shoot they’ll’t execute due to in depth coordination and price. Utilizing Aptitude, they add the uncooked product photographs to the canvas, discover the props they want, and kind of replicate their picture shoot on the platform.
Bandholz: Aptitude appears poised to scale.
Friedman: It’s a very giant market. We would like each model on the planet to make use of us in some capability. Smaller manufacturers with finances constraints might transition picture shoots, whereas bigger manufacturers that may afford picture shoots want higher instruments.
Regardless, so long as companies require picture shoots, Aptitude will hopefully be concerned of their workflow. That’s our aim.
We’re branching out into verticals. For style manufacturers, we will place a sweater on a digital human mannequin, for instance. For product commercials, we cut back the associated fee.
We would like as a lot traction as potential with smaller manufacturers. However we are going to possible transfer upmarket a bit, though we’ll by no means be too costly — means lower than $500 a month.
Over time, our AI fashions will enhance, thus enhancing picture high quality. Ultimately, we are going to create banner advertisements. Every part can be AI-generated. My solely hope is that people are on the middle of that course of. They direct it as a substitute of a black field algorithm.
Bandholz: The place can folks join Aptitude and observe you?
Friedman: The platform is Aptitude.ai. You’ll be able to add me on LinkedIn or observe me on X, @mickeyxfriedman.