Pretend Pinstripe: Boom in Professional Headshot Outfits Using AI
Aug. 6 2024, Published 3:00 a.m. ET
For anyone looking for a new job, trying to elevate their career, or to meet the love of their life online, image is everything. A crucial way one's professional image is conveyed today is in online profiles and CVs, social media and networking sites, and more.
A well-shot and designed professional photograph can convey a sense of capability and diligence, as well as a social competence. Posed in the right place, wearing the right outfit, with a good facial expression in the right lighting, a professional picture can be the clincher in one's career or personal life.
However, there can be difficulty in trying to elicit this business-savvy image using a classic photoshoot. From acne days, wrinkled suits, awkward posing, and the costs of a good set-up, sometimes it seems such efforts are way out of reach.
This stress may be contributing to a boom in professional profile photos being generated using AI—AI specifically trained to depict this corporate-chique look. Read on to find out why this niche is finding its way into the mainstream.
The Old Way: Professional Photoshoot
To begin, things to consider when going into a manual photoshoot must be discussed. These set up a framework for why AI may be becoming the dominant option among anyone seeking to improve their employment status.
Much needs to be taken into account when preparing for a professional portrait photoshoot beginning with professional headshot outfits. When choosing the attire, fit, color choices, industry suitability, cleanliness, accessories, and more need a lot of thought.
Other considerations prior to the shoot include the timing of haircuts, sun exposure, cost of clothing, sleep, diet and hormonal impacts on the face, and finding a photographer that’s an expert in shooting with a corporate vision who also works within your price range.
Not Everyone Is a Model
The prime issue with professional headshot photoshoots is that the everyday Joe isn’t a trained model who’s comfortable in front of the camera. Conveying a light, friendly ease while appearing highly competent, mentally strong, and desirable is no small feat. Many people appear nervous or stuck in a disarming grimace when the focus of the lens falls on them.
This posing difficulty, along with all of the other considerations prior to and during the shoot, is where AI may be filling a demand void. AI can generate multiple outfit choices and pose the professional with an easy grace and competent expression, leaving behind any amateurish awkwardness.
The New Way: AI Allows for Smarter Not Harder Work
Another reason that AI profile photo generation may be booming, aside from the desirability of the end product, is the ease of the process.
From the outside, using AI to generate professional images can seem like a lot of work that requires a lot of technical skill and computer knowledge. In the earlier days of AI, that was certainly true.
However, the rise in professional AI-generated profile images hasn’t occurred in a technological vacuum. Companies have begun to streamline and train their AI models to create specific outputs to achieve this goal.
This has reduced the input required from a user to an astoundingly small amount. Some technologies require as little as five pre-existing everyday photos from one’s personal camera roll, shot in various angles and lighting, to generate completely new images in the desired professional style.
Business used to be driven by quantitative work efforts. But with the idea of working “smarter, not harder”, efficiency and cost effectiveness are key drivers that show business value in teams.Generating profile photos using AI may be a natural extension in this drive for precise expenditure of effort, contributing to the uptake in its use.
Data, Privacy, Ownership?
The age of AI has ushered in well-founded concerns about privacy and data. From big corporations collecting data without true informed consent, the storage of sensitive information in opaque structures, and concerns about rights and ownership, many people may be concerned about uploading their faces to an AI headshot generator.
Such uncertainty and fear surrounding these important issues are certainly valid drawbacks when considering using this technology. And yet its usage grows. What gives?
For one, there are AI companies offering various reassurances in the matter. Some promise that photos used to generate a new AI-generated professional headshot are deleted from their servers once the images have been accepted by the customer and are not used for further machine learning. Other companies offer the customer full rights to the generated images.
For some people, such assurances are enough.
There’s also a growing data ambivalence, especially among young people. Giving away data in exchange for helpful and often free services has become a norm. Many people have had their lives (and data) visible online since before they were born and feel that there’s little they can do about it. In this mindset, if companies have all of the data already, one may as well at least get some service in return.
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Online and Economic Pressures
There are also online and economic pressures driving users to look at new ways to gain upper ground in the job market.
As the world becomes more digital and interfacing with prospective employees or professional partners shifts to online communication and application, the digital image has become more important than ever. To compete in a pressure-filled job economy, losing out on internet opportunities can be to lose out completely.
When applying for a job, professional photos help applicants stand out from the crowd. Humans are visual creatures and pairing a lively engaging photo with the abstract, dehumanized words on an application can help bring out an applicant's personality. The right professional photo conveys, as well as a sense of ease and competence, a feeling of authenticity. AI may be a shortcut to having such an image.
In Summary
- Professional profile photos using generative AI technology are on the rise.
- Such technology overcomes difficulties surrounding manual photoshoots such asproper posing and appropriate outfit choices.
- Data concerns are overcome with specific guarantees from the companies or met with ambivalence by the users.
- Working smarter, not harder, as well as increased online and economic pressures, are likely contributors to the rise in the value seen in AI-generated headshots.
