I?used AI as my headshot photographer. Here's what happened...

We all have a first-row ticket to the AI revolution – and it’s pretty cool.

Conversations used to start with; “someday, AI will…..”?

That “someday” is today.?

To that point, it was just a couple of weeks ago, when I attended the MSP SuperSummit, held by Superops.ai - a company that has AI in their name. At the event, Superops.ai CEO, Arvind Parthiban, shared his mission of constantly innovating its AI solution in their PSA and RMM software.

As the CEO of Tech Pro Marketing and Ulistic – two of the longest-running MSP marketing firms in the industry – this inspired me to deep dive into the part of my job where I am also tasked with innovating how AI can be used in my field - the field of MSP marketing - as well.?

So, when I recently saw an ad for an AI headshot generator, I was naturally intrigued. If you haven’t used an AI headshot generator before, you probably have friends who have – and posted the pictures on social media.

The early AI headshot generators were great at making artistic or creative headshots. You may have seen a picture of your friend in an astronaut's costume or painted in Van Gogh’s pointillism style.?

While these artistic AI portraits are very impressive, I wanted to know if AI was ready to take the headshot one step further.?

My question was: Could an AI headshot generator create a LinkedIn profile picture that was on par or even better than a professional portrait photographer???

I reviewed the websites of several different AI generators and decided to run my trial using a tool called ProPhotos.ai. This is an honest review of my experience.

What value do AI headshots provide?

When we onboard a new MSP into our marketing program, one of the first things we ask for is new headshots of their team.

Professional headshots and team photos are some of the most important foundational pieces to any MSP marketing campaign. We all know the saying that people buy from people that they “know, like, and trust.” Having a great set of photos of you and your team smiling and doing great work, goes a long way in accomplishing that task.

Now, organizing a photoshoot may sound simple, but after working with over 200 MSPs, it’s consistently been one of the biggest hurdles in our process.?

Getting headshots taken requires the customer to get their whole team together, organize a photographer, dress up, x, y, and z. Professional photographers are expensive and headshots take a lot of time – especially if they have a big team.

I was thinking, maybe this could help us get those photos that we need – and save our customers a lot of time and money in the process.?

The choices

On ProPhotos.ai, there were four different packages to choose from basic, premium, professional, and custom.?

The basic ($25)? had 40 headshots, but the only outfit option I had was a suit.? I’m a big advocate of looking sharp, but I’ve never been much of a suit guy.?

The premium package ($55) got me 80 headshots and provided six different outfit styles. The professional ($155) provided 160 headshots, 12 background styles, and eight outfits. Custom had unlimited options.?

I wanted to try AI headshots but wasn’t looking to dip into my life savings. I decided to go with the middle-tier premium package.?

Generating the headshots

Once I hit “buy” on the premium package, I was met with a video on “best practices” for getting a good headshot. The video told me to upload at least eight photos from different shoots and different angles. This is to help the AI learn my face.?

To get my headshots, ProPhotos.ai asked for the following:?

• Provide 7-10 different photos?
• Use photos from different days, backgrounds, and lighting,
• Add both close-up and medium-distance photos
• Make sure other people are cropped out?
• Don’t use photos of you wearing sunglasses
• Include photos from different angles?

Once I provided all this, I needed to fill out a quick form specifying my sex and eye color – and enable/disable photo retouching. Now, the tool would start generating my 80 headshots!?

I stepped out for some lunch while the AI photos were being generated.?

45 minutes later… the results!

Once my photos were ready, I was met with a disclaimer saying: “Many will be distorted or not look exactly like you. Please look through all the photos to find & and save the most accurate ones. Typically 1-5 photos are a perfect match.”

Honestly, this was an unpleasant surprise.?

The sales page told me I would get 80 AI-generated headshots. When I got the photos, only a handful of them looked like me.?

Going through the entire catalog, I found about two that I felt could be used in my marketing.?

Don’t get me wrong, all the photos look great – but most of them only have a slight resemblance to me.?

My final take – can this add value to my customers?

Overall, this was a fun experiment – and I’m happy with the usable AI-generated photos and that I get to share them with you.?

My biggest knock on the tool is the sales page promising me 80 pictures. This was a little misleading, but it’s still a cool piece of software!?

But would I use an AI headshot generator to help my customers?

Not yet.?

The AI technology – at least with ProPhotos.ai – is not quite there, but it showed some promising results. I will check on these tools periodically. Someday, this could be a game-changer for my customers.?

In the meantime, I’m going to use my favorite AI-generated headshot as my LinkedIn picture and see what people say. To see the results, check out my profile – and if you need help generating leads for your MSP, my agency can help you. Although for now, we’ll still need headshots taken the old-fashioned way.?