We live in a world dominated by visual content. Yet, we have little to no knowledge on what and how that content works.  We publish, share and consume thousands of images a day, yet we have no idea why a particular image has so much engagement and the other, none. That is about to change. Mixing analytics with A.I., Israeli-based company Picscout is breaking the chains of ignorance and promises to inject science where instinct previously ruled. With Insight for Business ( and it’s consumer version “Insight for Everyone”), the Getty Images-owned company is tapping into its vast repository of analytics gathered over years of monitoring content to extract the secret sauce that makes images highly engaging. We spoke with General Manager Uri Lavi to learn more:

 A little about yourself. What is your path to Picscout?
Uri Lavi General Manager at PicScout
Uri Lavi, General Manager at PicScout

I have a background in engineering, with extensive experience in data fusion and high scale intelligence systems. However, I’ve always been passionate about the right combination of technology and business, with the ultimate goal of finding the best solutions to business problems.

This is exactly what PicScout’s highly talented team offers to its customers.

What is ? What does it solve?

With Insights for Business, companies discover how their visual content is used online. PicScout image intelligence system, based on deep learning technology, analyzes images in social media, news websites, blogs and other websites.

We then deliver meaningful insights to our customers about their reach, success and impact across the web.

How specific is the information it collects, besides image location?

Our technology allows us to collect and analyze extensive amounts of data, including visual data, out of which we derive insights such as demographics, engagement, performance, quality, and more, as well as customer-specific insights.

Does it track only images I supply to it or does it give a general view of the trends and interests in photography?

Insights for business gives you intelligence about your imagery online, as well as additional insights, such as current trends in your industry, performance against competitors, success of your brand ambassadors and more.

Using the data it collects, can I use it to create more performing photos?

With Insights for Business, you can measure the success of your images, and evaluate their performance. You can also discover which images have the strongest impact on your audience, and what their visual concept, style, and composition are.

PicScout also aims with Insights for Business to infer how “close” your imagery style (DNA) is to the best-performing images in the world. All this allows you to adapt your content creation accordingly.

Who is it for? photo archives, independent photographers or brands?

PicScout image intelligence technology can generate visual insights for anyone. Whether you’re an individual or a company, we have various packages adapted to each profile. Insights for Everyone is aimed at providing the service to individuals, whereas Insights for Business is adapted to companies.

Our customers range from photographers to brands, PR agencies, and more.They all use our visual insights to enhance their business decisions.

Dashboard for the prediction of success based on past analytics
Dashboard  predicting  success based on past analytics.
Are you using any type of A.I. to help? If so, what kind?

Absolutely. We use AI to understand large volumes of data, specifically deep learning to analyze visual data gathered from social media, blogs, editorial websites and other types of websites.

We then derive insights from this data which our customers use for the benefit of their business.

What is the business model? monthly fee or volume based?

As previously mentioned, PicScout provides services to individuals as well as companies of all sizes.

Our business model is adapted to the type of client: consumers are usually charged a monthly fee, while businesses pay additional fees on top of their basic subscription fee.

What would you like to see Picscout Insights offer that technology does not yet allow you to do?

Here at PicScout, we constantly work on improving our technology to achieve our next goals and challenges.

Our next big achievement will be to include video analysis to Insights for Business – we’re on the way to achieving this one soon. Stay tuned!

Photo by Michael Stern

Author: Paul Melcher

Paul Melcher is a highly influential and visionary leader in visual tech, with 20+ years of experience in licensing, tech innovation, and entrepreneurship. He is the Managing Director of MelcherSystem and has held executive roles at Corbis, Stipple, and more. Melcher received a Digital Media Licensing Association Award and is a board member of Plus Coalition, Clippn, and Anthology, and has been named among the “100 most influential individuals in American photography”

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