Is it OK to use AI images for my business? How do I spot AI images on social media? Should I hire someone who uses AI-edited photos?
Here, we cover some of your burning questions about AI images, sharing expert-led answers that touch on the tips, controversies and ethics in this ever-evolving space.
Over the last few years, we’ve gone from Instagram filters that give us a whiter smile to super-advanced AI image generators that allow users to create hyper-realistic photos from scratch, or to give existing photos a completely different spin.
When it comes to hiring or collaborating, knowing how to spot AI-edited images is an essential, albeit little-known, skill. How do you really know that the person you’re talking to online looks like their profile picture? How can you ensure that they haven’t fabricated graduation pictures or doctored that cute team photo from their last (fictional) place of work? You may think that people wouldn’t go that far…but they really do. It’s catfishing…gone corporate.
In this complete guide, we look at how businesses can adapt to viewing, creating and using AI images. Look upon an image in bafflement no longer—you’ll find everything you need to know right here.
How can I create AI images?
AI images fall into roughly three categories:
Lightly edited existing images—think ‘beauty filters’ and image-editing apps like Facetune that use AI-powered effects to beautify or alter the features of a real person in an image.
Heavily doctored existing images—this covers extreme cases of appearance alteration or examples where images have been edited to remove or include key aspects of the original image, such as location, clothing, or other people.
AI-generated images—these are ‘new’ images created by prompting an AI generator, such as ChatGPT or MidJourney. They aren’t completely original, as they use images from other sources to create a blended image, but they look unique.
Lightly edited existing images
Think ‘beauty filters’ and image-editing apps like Facetune that use AI-powered effects to beautify or alter the features of a real person in an image.
Heavily doctored existing images
This covers extreme cases of appearance alteration or examples where images have been edited to remove or include key aspects of the original image, such as location, clothing, or other people.
AI-generated images
These are ‘new’ images created by prompting an AI generator, such as ChatGPT or MidJourney. They aren’t completely original, as they use images from other sources to create a blended image, but they look unique.
For our purposes here, we’re not that concerned with the first category, as although these may embellish the truth, they are essentially harmless and are not created for the purpose of deceiving the viewer in a way that would impact on hiring suitability, for example.
However, the two latter categories should be of more interest to employers and businesses more widely, as they can impact on the accuracy of the impression given of the person, and may hint at more purposeful deception in particular contexts.
How to spot AI images on social media
Would you be able to recognise if an image on social media had been generated by AI? AI-edited images sometimes stick out like a sore thumb, while more sophisticated examples might be really difficult to spot. Some highly-skilled AI artists produce images that are so hyper-realistic, it’s genuinely difficult to identify if they are AI-generated or real, with only a few features betraying how they were created.
A 2024 study by the University of Waterloo revealed that 40% of people can’t tell if a photo of someone’s face has been AI generated, with further evidence released in 2025 that older generations have extreme difficulty in identifying AI generated deepfakes.
So, how to spot AI images on social media? The first step is to be aware of how saturated social media has become with AI images. On average, people create more than 34 million AI images each day, and it’s estimated that approximately 71% of images shared on social media are AI generated. So chances are, what you’re looking at is AI sourced!
You can also discover clues in images that betray them as AI. Look for details that feel a bit off, such as overly glossy skin, eyes that don’t look into the camera or appear ‘blank’, or hands that might be missing a finger here or there!
"AI-generated images have come a long way, blurring the line between real and synthetic visuals. The key to identifying AI-edited images is often in the details—look for inconsistencies in textures, lighting, or oddly shaped objects, especially in hands and faces."
-Oli Warriner, CTO at YOONO
Once you can recognise if images have been AI-generated or heavily edited using AI filters, you can start to identify accounts that use a lot of AI imagery, which may be an indicator that the person is a bot or is hiding their real identity for some reason.
Of course, not all AI use on social media is sinister—many people use AI filters to enhance or beautify their images, and platforms like Meta up to this point have seemed happy to encourage this.
However, there is growing evidence that AI-altered images on platforms like Instagram are contributing to a decline in mental health and positive body image amongst young women in particular. As a result, Meta has reported that they will be scaling back the use of third-party augmented reality (AR) filters on its apps from January 2025.
This new decision seems to be in stark contrast to Meta’s otherwise enthusiastic adoption of AI image-editing in other areas, with recent reports circulating that Instagram users are randomly being shown AI-generated images of themselves, created by Meta AI, the company’s in-house research division for developing artificial intelligence technologies.
Should you hire someone who uses AI-edited images?
With AI editing software becoming so commonplace in phones and on social media platforms, it’s actually quite hard these days to avoid using AI to do a few ‘tweakments’, whether it’s as low-key as a colour filter or applying more appearance-altering effects. With that in mind, it can be difficult for employers to take a hard line on avoiding hiring someone who uses AI-edited images.
However, there are editing undesirables to be aware of when hiring. If an image looks like it has been purposefully doctored to conceal something important or deceive the viewer, this should ring alarm bells. The difficulty of course is spotting that this has been done in the first place!
As an example, perhaps somebody decides to slice out their former employer or fellow colleague from a conference picture, to give the impression that they spoke at or led an event that they did not. Another might be a doctored graduation photo, that gives the impression the person qualified…when a thorough background search reveals the opposite.
Examples like these demonstrate how important it is to know the telltale signs of AI-edited or doctored imagery, see above, so that you can really get to the heart of the matter. It can feel a bit like playing detective, but the more you get used to spotting the signs that an image has been AI-edited, the more natural it becomes to question when something about an image just feels a bit…unreal.
When is it OK (and not OK) to use AI-edited images?
It’s important for employers to be able to recognise when someone is using AI images in their online output, particularly if they are purposefully disguising their identity or using AI to alter important information about themselves. But what about you, as the business owner?
Is it OK for a business to use AI generated or AI-edited images?
"As for whether businesses should use AI-generated visuals? The answer depends on context. AI can be a powerful creative tool, but transparency is crucial. Misleading audiences with AI images can damage trust, while using them responsibly can enhance branding, marketing, and creative expression."
-Oli Warriner, CTO at YOONO
As our in-house AI expert Oli puts forward, there’s really no cut-and-dry answer. It all depends on how you intend to use the images, and whether you risk misleading your audience by using them in the wrong context.
Let’s take an example of ill-advised use of AI images. A business wants to give their team profile images a stylistic twist, so they decide to use AI filters to edit the headshots, which subtly alters the appearance of individuals working at the organisation. However, this backfires as customers don’t feel they are communicating with a real person, or the person they meet in real life doesn’t match with their online image. Customers lose trust in the business as a result.
OK, so how about a good example of AI use? A design agency wants to showcase their work in a fresh, creative light on their social media channels. They decide to take their existing portfolio imagery and use AI editing to adjust colour and style, but they decide to make it clear to their audience that the images have been AI-edited, and are being shared to demonstrate how AI can be used as a creative tool. Their audience finds this inspiring and interesting, and don’t feel misled.
So when it comes down to whether it’s a good idea to use AI images to promote your business, refresh your website photos or beef up your social media posts, the best advice is to always push for transparency. Be clear about which images are AI generated or use editing filters—it’s a double win as your audience will reward you for your honesty and you can benefit from the creative possibilities of AI imagery as well.
Do YOONO where this image came from?
At YOONO, we consider AI as a helpful hand for savvy businesses. But we also see it as our duty to keep our audience informed given there’s a lot of fear and misconception about artificial intelligence out there.
We want you to know—like, really know—what AI is, and how it can help you and your recruitment process. We provide intelligent background screening that allows you to cut through catfishing and online discrepancies, and get to the heart of the matter. Discover who they really are with one simple search, touching all bases before you sign on the dotted line.
AI images are just one part of the big internet puzzle that we try to help you solve, and we’re confident that our comprehensive reports and smart insights go a long way in helping to bring clarity to the situation. Start with a YOONO search now, and see where it can take you and your business.
