VSCO has carried out a examine on AI utilization in images – and the outcomes counsel that a big majority of photographers are utilizing AI sooner or later of their workflows.
VSCO surveyed 401 photographers, each professionals and hobbyists, on how AI is perceived and utilized throughout inventive and enterprise workflows, and located that 83% of photographers typically use the expertise.
What’s extra, of the skilled and hobbyist respondents, 68% and 34% respectively stated they use AI on no less than a weekly foundation. VSCO says the expansion in AI adoption spans a number of genres from wedding ceremony images to landscapes.
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The survey does not imply that 83 % of photographers are utilizing generative AI – practically half of the respondents reported utilizing AI for repetitive, mundane duties. Around 63 % are utilizing common instruments like ChatGPT and Claude. Assisting with enhancing and culling is the most well-liked function for AI, adopted by shot planning, enterprise administration, and mentor-like suggestions.
Honestly, I’m not stunned to see such a excessive proportion of photographers utilizing AI, and I feel it’s solely going to develop when you think about how a lot time it will possibly prevent in post-production.
In fact, the study also revealed that 38% of photographers used AI more in 2025 than the year before, and 29% started using it for the first time in 2025, while just 2% of photographers have “pulled back” on AI in the past year. However, VSCO didn’t specify to what extent “pulled back” meant.
Opposition to AI in photography is mainly geared toward enabling it to take the creative reins. However, it appears that most photographers use it to handle the more repetitive and less-creative aspects of the craft, as the study showed 55% of photographers use AI to assist with editing, culling, and to automate aspects of post-production.
I’d say the study highlights, at least to some extent, how photographers are increasingly accepting the benefits of AI rather than seeing it as a threat to their jobs. Respondents were also asked how they feel about AI, and 49% of professionals and 37% of hobbyists said they were curious about using it.
Of course, there are still what I’d call severe concerns surrounding AI and its adoption within photography, with 17% of the survey respondents indicating they felt skeptical and 5% saying they felt threatened by it.
Looking ahead, I can’t see future studies contradicting this one by VSCO, especially when I think about how I use AI to streamline my own post-production workflow and the hassle it saves me.
While this study certainly doesn’t represent the entire photography community, I think it further highlights the inevitability that AI will become a staple of the craft, with the extent of this depending on individual photographers.
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I’m sorry to break this to you, but your mirrorless camera probably already has AI built into it.