Every marketer knows this: You select a beautiful stock image, you build a website around it, and a few weeks later you see a competitor at a trade show using the same image in their booth.

Stock photos save us the cost of hiring a photographer (who wants to spend that kinda money!? No, seriously you should…), but stock photos remove all points of differentiation between us and our competitors.

When budgets are a constraint—and when aren’t they?—AI has a notable advantage here, as long as it can get the number of fingers right.

When we’re not trying to say anything specific, but rather just need “a doctor” looking at “a clipboard” with a “general sense of satisfaction” on her face, AI to the rescue! Now you can be sure that no one else has or will ever have the same image.

All things being equal? Go for AI (but count the number of fingers first).