Artificial intelligence has become deeply integrated into modern commercial photography, transforming nearly every stage of the process. In my own workflow, AI-powered tools in Adobe Photoshop such as Remove, Generative Expand, and Neural Filters have streamlined time-consuming retouching tasks that once required extensive time and skill. In my view, these new tools represent the latest stage in a long history of technological advancement within the industry. Photographers have always altered and refined images through lighting, darkroom techniques, retouching, and digital editing, and AI simply extends that tradition into a faster and more automated era.

Despite these fairly simple post-production advantages, the broader impact of AI capabilities presents serious challenges to photography as both a profession and a trusted medium of documentation. AI-generated imagery now allows brands to create convincing visuals without traditional photo shoots, threatening portions of the commercial industry that rely on routine production work. More significantly, synthetic imagery has blurred the distinction between reality and fabrication, weakening public trust in photographs as evidence. Technologies such as the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) attempt to verify image history through cryptographic credentials, but these systems cannot fully guarantee truthfulness or prevent manipulation, especially when metadata is stripped by social platforms or is unsupported by consumer devices. As a result, even authentic photographs may increasingly be questioned or dismissed as artificial.

My work often involves taking pictures of real people in real places, and I have for the past several years thought of my photography as essentially disconnected from the wider AI discussion and direction within the industry. Then I saw Google Analytics data from my web site that showed, in all likelihood, my images were being used to train AI models all over the world. I was getting significant traffic from places unlikely to hire me for their next project. Instead, the companies behind these IP addresses were learning from the work I was freely presenting, thus improving their AI models’ output. Of course my pictures aren’t unique in this regard; wherever there are publicly available images to scrape, absorb, and train, AI bots will exploit them.

Ultimately, the future of commercial photography will depend on how photographers adapt to these changes while maintaining a distinct creative and human perspective. AI can accelerate workflows and expand artistic possibilities, but I’m hopeful that it cannot replace the emotional intelligence, collaboration, and storytelling that define the best photography. The role of the photographer is shifting from purely technical image maker to creative strategist and visual director. And although photography may no longer function as unquestioned proof of reality, it still retains immense value as an art form, a craft, and a means of personal and cultural expression. I hope to be among the photographers who thrive in the coming years by embracing technological innovation while preserving authenticity, judgment, and human creativity at the center of their work.