Getty Images Bets On AI To Power Small Business Marketing

The digital age has created an insatiable demand for fresh visual content, placing immense pressure on businesses of all sizes. Artificial intelligence has emerged as a key solution, transforming content creation from a multi-day process into a matter of minutes. In this crowded market of AI-powered tools, Getty Images is leveraging its three decades of experience and a massive library of 615 million exclusive visual assets to stand out. Grant Farhall, Chief Product Officer at Getty Images, explained that the company is combining its vast content library with a suite of AI tools to provide small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with the essential ingredients for success in today's visual economy.

Getty Images' AI generator enables marketers to change the background in photos with imagery from the company's library of 615 million exclusive visual assets. — Getty Images

The Unending Thirst for Visual Content

For businesses today, feeding the visual content beast is a monumental task, driven by the rapid pace of social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. "The demand for imagery has gone way up," Farhall stated. He noted a fundamental shift in how visuals are used: what was once a single image in a monthly magazine is now a constant stream of images for social media feeds that might last only 30 minutes. According to a Bain & Company analysis, AI is raising the stakes and widening the gap between marketing leaders and laggards.

The demand for imagery has gone way up. Where in the past [B2B] customers were selecting that one image that was going to be in a magazine for 30 days, now they’re selecting images that are going to be the image on their social media feed for 30 minutes.

— Grant Farhall, Chief Product Officer at Getty Images

Getty's Solution: Exclusive Content Meets AI

Many SMBs struggle to generate creative assets at scale, often lacking full-time design teams or the skills to use complex tools. Getty Images aims to solve this "blank page problem" by combining its extensive library with user-friendly AI. While known for iconic news and archival photos, Getty also serves major brands like Dove and Toyota, with SMBs becoming a rapidly growing segment. Their AI tools are designed to help these smaller businesses target audiences effectively and generate ideas and concepts from a trusted starting point.

Why Commercially Safe AI Matters

In a competitive landscape with free AI platforms like Midjourney and powerful tools from companies like Adobe, Getty differentiates itself by offering commercially safe visual content. Farhall emphasized that the number one reason businesses hesitate to use generative AI is the concern over legal risks and ethics. Getty's AI image generator is trained exclusively on its own licensed creative library. This allows businesses to start with a licensed image and modify it safely. Crucially, Getty provides users with legal protection for images created with its AI tools, a safeguard that is rare among other platforms and protects businesses from potential copyright infringement issues.

Powering Personalization at Scale

Success in the AI space isn't just about having the most features; it's about helping businesses create highly customized content safely and quickly. With 75% of consumers more likely to buy from brands that offer personalized content, according to McKinsey, the demand is clear. Getty's platforms, including its primary site, iStock, and Unsplash, allow SMBs to customize exclusive content from thousands of contributors. For example, a simple but popular feature is the one-click background removal tool, which lets a retailer instantly isolate a product on a white background for their e-commerce site. This enables the rapid creation of different image versions for various channels, markets, and audiences.

Grant Farhall, Chief Product Officer of Getty Images. — Getty Images

AI in Action: Sony's 'Venom' Campaign

A notable success story involved a Sony Pictures campaign for the movie Venom: The Last Dance. To boost fan engagement, Sony used Getty's AI technology for its Venomize My Pet campaign. Fans could upload photos of their pets and transform them into creatures from the film. The campaign was a massive success, exceeding expectations by encouraging high replay value and organic social sharing, all while protecting the studio's intellectual property.

The Future Is Better Prompting

Looking ahead, Farhall sees a major opportunity in improving AI prompting. "Coming up with the right words to describe what you want the AI model to create for you is still very hard," he said. Getty is investing heavily in machine learning to enhance its search function, allowing users to find pre-shot images with richer, more descriptive queries. This will help businesses explore ideas more quickly and efficiently, making the creative process easier and more effective, even for those who don't end up using a final AI-generated image.