It’s so impressive how AI has become such a big part of our lives lately, especially with the rise of so many AI tools over the past few years.

Take Shopify’s new Magic AI image editor, for instance.

This one can make any product photo look professional easily – all without the need to hire costly professional photographers and renting out big studios.

Now, I totally get if you’re a bit hesitant about using AI, especially since it’s not 100% infallible.

So, the big question is: is Shopify’s new Magic AI image editor too good to be true or is it really as amazing as it sounds?

Let’s dive into that in this blog post and find out together if it’s a tool that you should use for your handmade business.

Some of you already know that I’ve always been a huge fan of Shopify.

In fact, I almost always recommend Shopify to people who want to sell handmade products online. (Listen to this podcast I made about the top 3 reasons why I love Shopify.)

So Shopify has been getting more and more into the AI space with features like AI product descriptions, AI search features to help customers find the right products and AI chatbots for their customer service.

And they just announced a few weeks ago that they’re launching another AI feature called the Magic AI image editor, which they claim, can “make any product pictures look professional”.

Now, I like the thought behind why they’re doing this.

Shopify’s Vice President of Product, Glen Coates, said that many sellers on Shopify don’t have constant access or even the finances to work with professional photographers for their product photos. This is totally true!

And so this new Magic AI image editor aims to bridge that gap to help sellers present their products in the best way.

I don’t know where you stand on the topic of AI, whether you’re for it or against it. I personally use it if it helps make my work easier, but maybe I’m not a pro at prompt engineering, but I can’t rely solely on AI to replace my work.

It’s just not there yet, especially in the handmade space.

Trying Out AI Tools

Shopify’s AI Product Description Generator

To prove a point, I tried out Shopify’s AI product description generator for a new scented taco necklace I was releasing last month.

And it was just really disappointing.

It was super short with only a few sentences.

I prefer longer form product descriptions since that gives us more of an opportunity to convince people to buy, but also more ways for us to inject search engine friendly keywords.

And it was pretty boring too.

I had no control over instructing it to write something longer, or training it on who my ideal customer was even though there’s a field for “Special instructions”.

And not having that flexibility just makes it ineffective. 

Now, I used to pay $5 for an amazing copywriter to write my product descriptions for me, but I was on a time crunch and if I can save $5, why not, right? So I kept trying to work with AI.

ChatGPT’s Text Generation

I used ChatGPT next and the result was, well, very ChatGPT-sounding, with using words like “artisanal” and “exudes”.

ChatGPT just likes to sound like it knows a lot of big words.

And while it’s much better than what I can write on my own, it’s pretty generic and frankly, a little bit awkward.

“But wait, there’s a twist!” That’s kind of cringe. 

See what ChatGPT gave me when I requested for a product description below:

You can just tell it’s AI.

It has an AI voice, so I wasn’t impressed here either.

And Shopify’s Magic AI

So back to Magic AI.

I watched this Shopify official demo on how this Magic AI image editor works, and frankly, I’m not all that impressed too, especially considering my past interactions with other AI features on Shopify. 

It looks like it’ll just take your existing product photo and put it on top of different backgrounds, which to me, looks a little cheesy. Well, ok, quite a-lot-cheesy.

I think you have to really find the right background to make it work for your brand, and it’s hard to pull off unless you’re like a funny, witty type of brand.

I’m not sure what the AI capabilities are in terms of what it needs your source photo to look like.

For example, if you already have a background and props in your photo, does the AI know to remove those things to isolate just the product itself when regenerating a new photo? Or, does it require you to have a product shot on a plain background for this to work? 

So I think what Shopify is trying to achieve is a pretty tall order because most people aren’t going to be able to use this feature effectively, and to me, this means in a way where the photos look believable, realistic and on brand.

Because if it’s not any of those things, it’s just not going to be good. 

And if stores don’t focus on producing high quality assets like product photos, then it could actually backfire and make people distrust your shop which will lead to lower conversions and sales. 

Because if your product photos aren’t good, then by association, your products may not be either, right? 

And frankly, if a feature doesn’t work with a high probability of efficacy, then my belief is it might as well not be there because it’s not providing any real value. 

The Shopify Magic AI image editor is slated to launch in the Spring and comes at no additional cost to you if you’re already on Shopify so at least it’s free. 

I hope to be proven wrong when it comes out and we finally get to test it. 

But right now, I’m not holding my breath on this one.

Remember, all these AI tools are always evolving. 

Sure, there might be some hiccups or limitations now, but who knows? 

Since they’re still constantly being developed and improved, in just a few years, maybe these AI tools could become even more powerful and they may seamlessly help us with whatever we throw their way.

It’s pretty exciting to think about the potential future where AI becomes even more impressive and capable.

But, for now, what do you think about this new Magic AI image editor on Shopify? Let me know in the comments below!