AI headshots surge in popularity as job hunters skip expensive photographers

More people looking for work are ditching expensive photography sessions for AI-generated profile pictures that cost a fraction of the price.

Landing a job these days starts with how you look online. A decent profile picture can matter just as much as your resume, but professional photography isn’t cheap. Sessions in America easily run several hundred dollars, pricing out many applicants who need them most.

New technology lets people upload casual snapshots and get back polished, professional-looking results without ever visiting a studio.

Melanie Fan, who works in growth at Plush, an online shopping platform, still remembers shelling out $200 at Yale for a 15-minute session. “It was really expensive. The process of getting the pictures back, rendering them, looking at which ones I looked the best in, and then sending it back to the photographer for edit,” she told CNBC.

Fast and cheap alternatives flood the job market

Services like InstaHeadshots, PhotoPacksAI, HeadshotPro, and Aragon AI emerged to solve this problem. They turn out finished images in minutes for under $50. Upload a few selfies, pick a background, done.

For Fan, it worked. “After I changed my LinkedIn photo, the amount of inbound I’ve been getting from companies has skyrocketed,” she said. She’s seeing three to four times more messages from potential employers.

Canva jumped in recently with its own tool that creates realistic pictures people can tweak and customize. Their research showed 88% of applicants now believe good online photos influence hiring decisions. Up 45% from a year ago. That matches what’s happening across recruitment, 90% of hiring managers have tried using artificial intelligence, and 96% of job hunters using it said they got callbacks.

Danny Wu heads AI development at Canva. He says they’re not trying to kill professional photography. “This is just a more accessible way to get professional and unique headshots,” Wu said. Their software swaps backgrounds, moves things around, and adjusts styling.

Authenticity concerns rise among recruiters

Cheaper access brings questions. Recruiters are watching for photos that seem too polished, worried about candidates being dishonest. Job seekers feel it too.

Sam DeMase advises job hunters at ZipRecruiter. He says there’s real risk. Bad AI photos are obvious and make people look fake, which can hurt your chances. But even he admits the technology keeps improving. “It’s becoming more and more difficult to tell whether a headshot has been enhanced or generated by AI,” DeMase said.

LinkedIn’s position is simple. Use whatever tools you want, but the photo has to look like you. “Profile photos that don’t comply with our user agreement or professional community policies may be removed,” a company representative said.

Gen Z and millennials lead in using these images. Meanwhile, 66% of HR professionals now use AI to write job descriptions, and 44% use it to screen resumes, according to SHRM.

As noted by Cryptopolitan in earlier reports, AI keeps reshaping how people find work. Traditional photographers will probably lose business. But for job seekers watching their budgets, these tools offer a fighting chance in a brutal market.