Businesses Tried to Look Expensive, and Wound Up Looking Worse.

So, should you use AI to create photos for your business?

It seems like this question has already been answered by the majority of small businesses and startups, and the answer appears to be yes.

Unfortunately, this is (sort of ) the wrong answer.

Of course, you can use AI in certain scenarios, and I’ve done this myself many times. But this is where the problem starts. AI slop is something that has taken over the internet and is invading every part of our lives. I can’t speak for everyone, but for the most part, people hate it. Once it’s detected, it leaves a foul taste in your mouth. It creates a feeling of shame and disgust that’s hard to articulate.

So... How long does it take you to notice this image is fake? And if you saw this on a contractor's website, would you trust them?

One of the cornerstones of a business’s ability to be profitable is trust.

I would argue that using AI to represent products, people, or your brand identity is one of the fastest ways to destroy that trust. You’re creating something completely fake—computer generated—and presenting it as if it represents what you actually are.

If you use AI to represent people in your business, those aren’t real people. That’s off-putting. It feels like lying. If you do the same thing for products, food, or anything else, you immediately risk looking dishonest the moment someone lands on your website.

Now, if you position these assets carefully, there are limited cases where AI can be used to fill gaps. But the moment it’s detected by even a small percentage of your audience is the moment you lose them.

I may be biased because I work in this industry and my job is to create assets that help businesses represent themselves authentically. But that bias is the point. Why did businesses ever invest in professional photo shoots in the first place? It wasn’t for fun. It was to present themselves honestly and intentionally to their audience. AI can do this only in very minimal and limited ways.

So should you use AI for your business?

Yes, of course you should—and I do it myself all the time.

I use chatbots daily to find information and bounce ideas around, and I find it incredibly helpful. I also use AI image generation almost every day. But those images are for internal use. They’ll never see the light of day. They exist for workflow purposes or to show conceptual ideas to clients about what we can realistically accomplish.

If you need a simple product photo on a white background and your product is straightforward—without complex angles, packaging, text, or textures—you can probably get away with using AI. But you need to be careful.

I’ve come across contractor websites in the Toronto area—plumbers, renovators, home service providers—using absolutely horrendous AI slop as hero banners. I’m talking about freakish video content that is so clearly fake that maybe only five percent of the population would mistake it for something real.

I’m not saying these people are stupid. I understand that this technology allows them to build websites themselves and save thousands of dollars. But when I click through these websites, I get a sick feeling in my stomach. If someone doesn’t have the foresight to invest in their own representation, why would I trust them with my kitchen?

You’re trying to portray yourself as someone people can trust to renovate their home, yet you won’t take the time or effort to show your real work and your real face—and make it look good.

A proper photo shoot for a contractor in Toronto, with assets that will last for years, can easily cost $1,500 to $2,500 or more. I understand that this is a significant expense, and I’m not trying to sell anyone on it. But customers don’t care how much it costs you to look good online. It never crosses their mind. They’re just shopping for a service. If you impress them and build trust, they’ll hire you. That’s it.

No one is going to be forgiving or understanding because you couldn’t afford a real photo shoot and filled your website with terrible AI imagery instead.

I work with restaurants as well, and the problem is just as pervasive. Imagine scrolling through Uber Eats looking for a burger and realizing the menu is full of AI images. Now you have no idea what the food actually looks like, and you immediately assume the images aren’t accurate.

Does this look like AI? No... because it's CLEARLY not.

Even a bad photo represents the product in some truthful way. AI doesn’t. People don’t trust it to show what they’re actually ordering, and in most cases it turns them off completely. It certainly does for me, and I know many others feel the same.

Sure, you might fool 50 percent of people into believing the images are real, but then you’re just lying. And what happens when the food shows up and doesn’t look like the image? At what point do people feel scammed?

We’ve all talked about how McDonald’s burgers don’t look like the ones on billboards. Everyone knows that. But we also understand that those images are at least representative of the product in an ideal form. AI doesn’t idealize—it invents. It creates something out of thin air, and people won’t trust that.

Business owners are now haphazardly implementing AI as if it solves a problem that never existed. They think they’re upgrading their brand, but they’re actually downgrading it in the cheapest possible way.

The moment someone recognizes an image as AI, they assume the business doesn’t take itself seriously. They assume it can’t be trusted to produce even the most basic thing—an image of a burger they sell.

This wouldn’t be an issue if 90 percent of people couldn’t tell the difference. But everyone knows AI exists. Everyone knows what it looks like. There are telltale signs, and the more pervasive AI becomes, the easier it is to spot.

For photographers like me, this has separated the wheat from the chaff. The businesses unwilling to invest in real, authentic representation are the same ones that cheaped out before AI existed. The people who suffer the most are amateur photographers and those doing the cheapest work.

For all the businesses in Toronto using AI to represent themselves, we’ll see how it plays out. But I suspect there will continue to be strong public distaste for AI-generated content, especially where trust is involved. We’re already seeing cultural backlash, particularly among younger generations who are openly disgusted by its use in certain scenarios.

We’ll see where the next few years take us. For now, I’m fairly confident that my job isn’t completely destroyed.