February 20, 2026
Tonodiaz/Depositphotos.com
Will Google’s Pomelli Photoshoot Live up to the Hype for Retail SMBs?
Google’s latest AI toolset, produced by Google Labs, could be a game-changer for small- and medium-sized businesses, particular in the retail industry. The entire suite, under the handle of Pomelli, is designed for brands looking to enhance their product and service presentation to the general public — with a glow-up coming courtesy of its latest AI tool, Photoshoot.
“Today we’re introducing Photoshoot, a new feature in Pomelli that uses business context (Business DNA) and Nano Banana image generation to turn product images into a professional-grade studio shot,” wrote Daniel Adonai, senior product manager for Google Labs.
“Whether you’re selling handmade jewelry, artisanal coffee or promoting a yoga studio, high-quality visuals are essential for building trust with customers. With Photoshoot, you can generate stunning product images for your website and social content,” he added.
Today, we’re introducing Pomelli’s latest feature update, ‘Photoshoot’
With Photoshoot, you can start from a single image of your product and easily create high quality, customized product shots to elevate your marketing.
Available free of charge in the US, Canada, Australia… pic.twitter.com/ryW1djxyKm
— Google Labs (@GoogleLabs) February 19, 2026
Pomelli, more broadly, starts by “building your business DNA” by analyzing the brand’s website to create a starting profile. From there, having garnered an understanding of the enterprise in question — including tone of voice, images, color palette, and more — the platform can generate an array of campaign ideas. If you’d rather put forth your own idea for strategic analysis, that’s also an option: Pomelli will “create content tailored exactly to your vision.”
And while creation of marketing materials and other creative assets has been available since Pomelli first launched as a public beta experiment in late October, this latest Photoshoot tool could signify a sea-change for product marketing. Here’s how it works.
- You simply pick up the product you’re looking to feature and take a picture. Google specifically tells users not too worry to much about polishing this initial photo — “we’ll take care of it.”
- Next up, select a template of your choice — a number of options are on the table as defaults, including “studio” and “lifestyle” — or have the Pomelli AI suggest the most appropriate for you. A variety of images are generated, then you pick one, and apply finishing touches.
PetaPixel writer Matt Growcoot suggested the tool could threaten the jobs of professional product photographers and other creatives, signaling that Photoshoot is just the latest AI tool targeting this profession — and that more than half (58%) of U.K.-based photographers have already lost work due to generative AI. But as DigitalTrends contributor Shikhar Mehrotra pointed out, those lured by Photoshoot’s promises may not have had the capital to expend on pros in the first case.
“Pomelli’s Photoshoot is clearly aimed at small-scale businesses and e-commerce sellers who don’t have the budget or the resources for a professional product shoot,” Mehrotra wrote.
BrainTrust
Nicholas Morine
Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
Will the new Photoshoot tool within Pomelli see widespread adoption among retail SMBs? Why or why not? What headwinds exist?
By democratizing product marketing, from photos to video and beyond, what outcomes can we expect in terms of retail e-comm over the next few years?
Will larger players with much more significant budgets rely on traditional photographers and graphic artists, or will AI tools be more attractive?
Poll
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I firmly believe that many AI tools will help level the playing field between large corporations and smaller businesses. Pomelli is potentially one of them. However, smaller retailers will need to assess whether it truly captures the essence of their brands. The other, wider point, is that overly automated marketing isn’t always fun. A lot of small retailers are creative and like to be involved in the nitty gritty of marketing development.
Still trying to play around with it – apparently too much demand is slowing down the service 😉 Would you be comfortable having your ad platform create the campaigns for you and your competitors? If it’s mainly AI-powered product shots, I can see it being highly in demand for merchants. Cue the tiny violin for all of the paid photo apps that have been created for this exact need though.
The emergence of tools like Google’s Pomelli Photoshoot is a strong signal that AI-driven content creation is rapidly becoming table stakes for eCommerce—and that has very real implications for SMBs trying to compete in an increasingly agentic, content-driven retail environment.
The short answer is yes—tools like this will likely see meaningful adoption among SMBs, because they directly address one of the biggest barriers to entry in digital commerce: the cost and complexity of creating high-quality product content. AI can now turn a simple product image into studio-quality marketing assets in seconds, dramatically reducing costs that historically ranged into the thousands per SKU. That said, adoption won’t be universal overnight. Quality control, brand differentiation, and the risk of “AI sameness” are real headwinds, particularly for brands that rely on a distinct visual identity. The winners will be those who use these tools as accelerators—not replacements—for thoughtful brand strategy.
Looking ahead, the democratization of product marketing will fundamentally reshape eCommerce. When every seller can generate high-quality visuals, video, and campaign content at scale, the competitive battleground shifts from “who can produce content” to “whose content performs best”—especially in AI-mediated discovery environments. This ties directly into the broader shift toward agentic commerce: if AI agents are increasingly making or influencing purchase decisions, then product content must be structured, consistent, and machine-readable. SMBs, in particular, need every advantage here, and tools like Pomelli effectively lower the barrier to competing with larger, better-funded brands.
As for larger retailers and brands, they will likely adopt a hybrid model. AI tools will handle scale, speed, and iteration, while human creatives focus on differentiation, storytelling, and brand integrity. In that sense, this isn’t a replacement of traditional creative roles—it’s a reallocation of where human value is applied. The brands that win will be those that combine AI efficiency with human-led creativity, especially as we move deeper into an environment where both consumers and AI agents are evaluating the quality and relevance of digital shelf content.
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I firmly believe that many AI tools will help level the playing field between large corporations and smaller businesses. Pomelli is potentially one of them. However, smaller retailers will need to assess whether it truly captures the essence of their brands. The other, wider point, is that overly automated marketing isn’t always fun. A lot of small retailers are creative and like to be involved in the nitty gritty of marketing development.
Still trying to play around with it – apparently too much demand is slowing down the service 😉 Would you be comfortable having your ad platform create the campaigns for you and your competitors? If it’s mainly AI-powered product shots, I can see it being highly in demand for merchants. Cue the tiny violin for all of the paid photo apps that have been created for this exact need though.
The emergence of tools like Google’s Pomelli Photoshoot is a strong signal that AI-driven content creation is rapidly becoming table stakes for eCommerce—and that has very real implications for SMBs trying to compete in an increasingly agentic, content-driven retail environment.
The short answer is yes—tools like this will likely see meaningful adoption among SMBs, because they directly address one of the biggest barriers to entry in digital commerce: the cost and complexity of creating high-quality product content. AI can now turn a simple product image into studio-quality marketing assets in seconds, dramatically reducing costs that historically ranged into the thousands per SKU. That said, adoption won’t be universal overnight. Quality control, brand differentiation, and the risk of “AI sameness” are real headwinds, particularly for brands that rely on a distinct visual identity. The winners will be those who use these tools as accelerators—not replacements—for thoughtful brand strategy.
Looking ahead, the democratization of product marketing will fundamentally reshape eCommerce. When every seller can generate high-quality visuals, video, and campaign content at scale, the competitive battleground shifts from “who can produce content” to “whose content performs best”—especially in AI-mediated discovery environments. This ties directly into the broader shift toward agentic commerce: if AI agents are increasingly making or influencing purchase decisions, then product content must be structured, consistent, and machine-readable. SMBs, in particular, need every advantage here, and tools like Pomelli effectively lower the barrier to competing with larger, better-funded brands.
As for larger retailers and brands, they will likely adopt a hybrid model. AI tools will handle scale, speed, and iteration, while human creatives focus on differentiation, storytelling, and brand integrity. In that sense, this isn’t a replacement of traditional creative roles—it’s a reallocation of where human value is applied. The brands that win will be those that combine AI efficiency with human-led creativity, especially as we move deeper into an environment where both consumers and AI agents are evaluating the quality and relevance of digital shelf content.