There’s infinite hype round generative AI this yr, and app builders have clearly been paying consideration. AI-focused instruments are blowing up Apple’s App Store charts in virtually each class, occupying high 10 rankings throughout training, productiveness, and photograph modifying. Opportunities are notably rife totally free graphics and design apps, a class that’s positively saturated with AI content material creation instruments.
But amount doesn’t imply high quality — and a fantastic many of those apps are bewilderingly dangerous. I’ve been utilizing a few of the hottest choices to grasp the state of AI instruments as we head into 2025. And for each critical try to make AI helpful, there appear to be a number of extra designed to money in on the hype: quietly paywalling options they promote behind expensive subscriptions and drastically misrepresenting the outcomes that customers can obtain, if the app even works in any respect.
Around half of the App Store’s high 10 graphics and design apps have “AI” within the identify, and three of them are all made by the identical firm — HUBX, an app developer based in 2022 that’s based mostly in Turkey. One of its apps, DaVinci AI, is marketed as an AI picture generator with some photograph modifying options. Almost each software is locked behind a $30 annual (or $5 weekly) subscription payment, and the free trial solely unlocks a subpar text-to-image characteristic that offers you a alternative between utilizing unspecified variations of Stable Diffusion and DALL-E AI fashions.
The pictures it produces are low-quality and resized or cropped incorrectly. In-app adverts seem while you click on just about any hyperlink. The UI is disagreeable to navigate. If you do pay for the total model, you possibly can’t obtain any edited pictures with out slapping an unpleasant watermark on it. And but, it sits far above the rankings for extra recognizable artistic platforms like Microsoft Designer, which has its personal built-in text-to-image AI generator. Adobe Express is the one design-focused app in the identical class that at the moment ranks above DaVinci AI.
The different two high-ranking HUBX merchandise I examined had been simply as lackluster: the Home AI “inside design” app spits out hallucination-riddled pictures of rooms which can be barely usable at the same time as idea plans, and the Tattoo AI app refused to work fully. Both apps have the identical characteristic paywalls and overview pop-up reminders as DaVinci AI. The copy and pasted App Store model historical past notes throughout all HUBX merchandise are additionally devoid of any particulars.
While all three apps characteristic a surprisingly massive variety of five-star critiques, the consumer suggestions throughout social media and the App Store feedback is overwhelmingly damaging. A recurring criticism is that customer support is inconceivable to get ahold of. HUBX by no means responded to my requests for remark.
Apps that clearly promote having AI options are extremely engaging. According to Sensor Tower, 4 out of the highest 10 most downloaded iOS graphics and design apps within the US thus far this yr have had “AI” someplace of their title. That’s truly two fewer than final yr, however the preferred apps are booming. Photoroom noticed downloads enhance by greater than 160 % since final yr. Comparatively, Photoshop Express downloads on iOS — which additionally consists of generative AI options — fell by 21 % throughout the identical interval.
AI-focused artistic apps aren’t all dangerous, however the app market saturation makes it more durable to seek out the nice ones that use the expertise in additional centered methods. Apps like Google’s Magic Editor and Adobe Photoshop have particular instruments for eradicating undesirable objects from pictures or inserting new ones in particular locations. Smaller builders that present related options and carry out these duties nicely are additionally climbing the App Store rankings.
For instance, Photoroom and Picsart AI — all-in-one graphic design apps akin to platforms like Canva and Adobe Express — are literally fairly good! They rank extremely within the free “Photo and Video” App Store class and supply an identical number of options to rapidly create on-line content material utilizing premade digital belongings and templates, alongside some AI-powered modifying instruments like computerized background and object removing.
Neither app blew me away, however they did precisely what they marketed: the background removing options aren’t pretty much as good as Canva’s, however they did the job, and object removing erased undesirable features of pictures even when it wasn’t as convincing as Google’s Magic Editor. Both apps lock a few of their extra premium modifying options and digital belongings behind a $13 month-to-month subscription, which is fairly commonplace if you happen to’re being upfront about it — particular person Canva and Adobe Express subscriptions begin at $15 and $10 per thirty days, respectively, by comparability.
There’s additionally a noticeable divide between the iPhone and iPad charts — only a few AI-focused names seem within the high 100 free or paid checklist for the iPad, which as an alternative characteristic a extra numerous vary of graphic design apps like Adobe Fresco, Clip Studio Paint, and Canva. And curiously, the checklist of high paid iPhone apps appears very related. There’s an abundance of sketching and 3D modeling platforms, premium reference supplies for artists, and instruments that streamline particular artistic duties like eradicating backgrounds and resizing pictures.
The divide suggests the spammy AI app phenomenon is a mass-market one which hasn’t fairly caught on with conventional photographers and illustrators who nonetheless need to use their tried-and-true apps. It additionally means that AI itself holds much less attraction if customers are anticipated to pay for it, which tracks with the form of artistic AI apps that seem most ceaselessly — customized tattoos, brand makers, and inside design — that are expert companies that often require fee. People don’t essentially need to take away the ability barrier; they need to take away the monetary one.
Using in-app prices to look on the App Store’s free class, and thereby entice a wider viewers, is hardly new. Mobile video games have been profiting from this loophole for years — and what’s now taking place with the artistic AI market appears eerily acquainted.
