Using artificial intelligence and computer vision, an AI Image Describer takes pictures and turns them into human-readable text descriptions. Examples include: improving accessibility, search engine optimisation (SEO), creating content that is relevant to your audience and providing a good user experience by turning images into descriptive text.
In this article, we will cover how to create an AI image describer, the advantages of the tool, real-world examples of how they can be implemented, and the best practices for creating one, based on our previous experience with using AI tools as part of our content marketing and digital workflow.
How AI Image Describer Technology Works
An AI Image Describer uses deep learning technology to analyse images to provide text-based descriptions in a manner that replicates the way a human would process and write about an image.
How AI Image Describer Technology Works
Through discussions with other digital marketers, it is noticeable that the majority of AI image descriptors use a similar three-step model to create descriptive text based on an image.
1. Analyse the Image (Computer Vision) – The AI will look at the image to see what is within it, such as the people, objects, colours, text, and background.
2. Understand Context (Machine Learning) – The machine learning models use the relationships between all of the items identified in step 1 to describe the scene (for example, “A person holding a laptop in an office”) and its content (for example, “an office with green walls and a desk”).
3. Generate Natural Language (NLP) – After the model has interpreted the visual insights, it will generate a human-readable description of the content using natural language.
Most modern AI image describers are built on either convolutional neural networks (CNNs) or transformer-based models.
Why AI Image Describers Are Important Today
AI-powered tools for image description help make digital marketing more accessible than ever. They provide three key advantages:
Key Benefits of AI Image Describers
- Improves Web Accessibility
Users who are blind or visually impaired rely on alternative text descriptions to interpret pictures they encounter on a webpage. Image describers produce text-based representations of the graphical components of a page so that these users can better understand what is being displayed.
- Boosts SEO Performance
Search engine crawlers cannot “see” images, but they can view their associated alt text tags. By utilizing descriptive alt text tags for your image files, you improve their potential to show up in Google Images search engine results pages.
- Saves Time & Cost
By using AI-powered image descriptions, you can significantly decrease the time spent creating and updating the descriptions for images found on large websites and e-commerce sites.
- Enhances Content Creation
Bloggers & Social Media Managers, and Marketers Can Quickly Create Captions and Descriptions Using AI.
Descriptive Alt Text is a great benefit to individuals with disabilities based on the web accessibility guidelines.
Common Use Cases of AI Image Describers
We have experience with AI image describers in various industries, and we’ve outlined the most impactful examples below:
1. Website Accessibility & Compliance
AI image describers provide meaningful descriptions of images to help websites meet the WCAG guidelines for accessible websites. Examples of websites that are best served by this technology include:
- Government Websites
- Educational Websites
- Software as a Service (SaaS) Sites
- Corporate Sites
2. SEO & Image Optimization
Search engines use descriptions of images to understand what is visually represented in your image content. Therefore, AI image describers are useful for:
- Alt Tags on Images
- Featured Snippet Generation
- Image Search Visibility
- Increased Page Relevancy
3. eCommerce Product Descriptions
If you’re running an online store that has hundreds of image-based products in your catalog, the AI image describers can help with the following:
- Identifying Product Features
- Product Description of Color and Material
- How Products Should Be Used
- Increased Visibility for Finding Products Based on Product Features.
When you have an enormous product inventory for an e-commerce store, the use of AI image description technology has a dramatic impact on the speed of catalog optimization.
4. Social Media & Content Marketing
Social Media and Content Marketing: Using AI image description technology helps to generate:
- Instagram Captions
- Descriptions for Pinterest
- Summaries of LinkedIn Posts
These examples of uses of AI image description technology offer a great benefit to those with multiple content calendars to manage.
AI Image Describer vs Manual Image Descriptions
| Feature | AI Image Describer | Manual Description |
| Speed | Instant | Time-consuming |
| Cost | Low | High |
| Scalability | Excellent | Limited |
| Consistency | High | Varies |
| Human Creativity | Moderate | High |
Our recommendation:
Use AI image describers for scale, then lightly edit for tone and branding.
Limitations of AI Image Describers
Though AI image describers can produce high-quality captions or descriptions, there are still limitations in their performance.
Common Limitations include:
- Cultural context/emotional context could be missed
- AI image describers could create a generic description of an image
- They may struggle to capture the essence of abstract or artistic pieces of art
- Humans must check for accuracy in all AI-generated content
From our own experiences, we have found the best results are achieved when AI generates content with our help.
Best Practices for Using an AI Image Describer
To get the most out of an AI Image Describer, here are some best practices for using one:
- Always review the descriptions generated by AI image describers. This will help ensure that you receive a description that best meets your needs.
- Provide relevancy (in relation to the content you are providing)
- Keep your alt text short (ideally no greater than 125 characters)
- Avoid keyword stuffing in your alt text.
- Define your audience’s intent and provide useful content for them.
These practices align with Google’s helpful content and accessibility standards.
Summary
Based on extensive experience using AI Tools in real-world marketing cases, we recommend using an AI Image Describer Tool to increase compliance/accessibility/SEO and create digital marketing content in bulk. AI Image Describers create text descriptions of images that improve compliance/accessibility/SEO and allow for automated content generation. They also help you save time, improve compliance/accessibility/SEO, and improve discoverability when used in conjunction with human oversight.
If you intend to create accessible digital content accessible SEO-friendly from 2026 onward, look to add an AI Image Describer Tool into your content creation workflow now.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an AI image describer used for?
An AI Image Describer is primarily used to generate text descriptions to support compliant, accessible, SEO-friendly digital marketing by creating descriptions of digital images, thus making image content more accessible for people with disabilities.
Is an AI image describer accurate?
Many AI image description machines are able to identify many typical common objects/scenes accurately; however, due to the inherent complexity/sensitivity of many images, human review of any AI-generated description is a good idea.
Can AI image describers help with SEO?
AI Image Describers generate improved alt text descriptions for image content, which help search engines understand and rank the images effectively.
Are AI image describers free?
Many of these AI image description tools offer you free versions with limited amounts of usage, whereas to access their advanced and more extensive feature sets, you normally would need to subscribe to a paid version.
Do AI image describers replace human writers?
While AI Image Description tools are great assistants to human writers and save them time, they do not replace them altogether – the creativity and context of human writers will always remain important factors in the overall success of any marketing content project.
