Google Begins Rollout of AI Tools for Creating Product Imagery

Google has begun the rollout of Product Studio, a set of artificial intelligence (AI) tools that help merchants create and manage product imagery.

The tools, whose upcoming launch was initially announced in May, began rolling out Wednesday (Nov. 1) and will be available in Merchant Center Next and the Google and YouTube app on Shopify, Google said in a Wednesday blog post.

The new Product Studio includes an experimental AI-powered scene generation feature that uses a text-to-image generative AI model to help merchants place products into any scene they can imagine, according to the post. For example, merchants can use this feature to add holiday elements to their existing product imagery or experiment with new marketing trends.

“Stumped on where to start with generating a scene?” Matt Madrigal, vice president and general manager for merchant shopping, said in the post. “Product Studio will share a few prompt ideas, including holiday-themed scenes, to spark inspiration. It’s easy to tweak or reuse prompts that worked well for you in the past. You can also remove distracting backgrounds or improve resolution on your product images in one click.”

Early testers have been using Product Studio for a few months, according to the post. One, a small business skincare company called Doppeltree, used the tool to modify some plain product images for use on social media and eCommerce.

Product Studio’s free generative AI technology “allowed us to diversify our product imagery and produce high-quality images in a fraction of the time it would usually take us to do it on our own or hire a photographer,” Doppeltree Co-founder Tony Ouyang said in the post.

Google unveiled Product Studio May 23, saying the generative AI tool would be made available to merchants located in the United States within months.

Product Studio is one of several new shopping tools aimed at boosting small business sales that Google has launched in time for the holiday season, Madrigal told PYMNTS in an interview posted Wednesday.

“Today’s newest features are all about, how do we help small businesses put their best foot forward and connect with as many customers as they can,” Madrigal said.

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