A human-first alternative to AI-generated content.
- Protect jobs
- Protect IP
- Cut carbon
AI is a tool, not the answer. We make your SOPs efficient so your team spends more time on customers, products and growing the business.
SSD Pathfinder
Change how your business makes content. Spend less, waste less.
Helping small businesses create product and marketing images with repeatable, ethical, sustainable processes, using AI responsibly.
Before and after
- Fewer shoots
- More images from one session
- Less time per listing
Case study coming soon: a sustainable, ethical image SOP for a team of under 10.
Our route
What you get
SOPs = standard operating procedures: your everyday tasks, written as simple steps anyone can follow.
Built on our 5Cs
Cost
Get more from photos you already own. Fewer paid shoots and less time on every listing, post and email.
Creative
New images built from your real products, so your website and Instagram look and sound like your brand.
Carbon
Reuse instead of reshoot. Fewer shoots means less travel, fewer props and less waste, and we measure the difference.
Culture
Simple, repeatable steps so new tools feel manageable. No tech knowledge needed.
Compliance
Know what you own and where it came from. Licensed AI only, results clearly labelled, your files kept in your name.
How it works
Three steps.
See where you are, make the changes, share the results.
See where you are
We look at how you make photos and marketing now, and where time, money and carbon go.
Make the changes
We put the right changes in place, with ethics and sustainability in mind. That could be new tools, AI or reusing what you have. We write them up as SOPs and test them with your team. Everything stays in your name.
Share the results
After six months we measure what's changed and give you a story to tell your customers.
We've done this before
For Daily Mail Group's studio, reusing our sets instead of building new ones.
If we use AI on your images
AI can now change a photo in seconds: swap a background, put a chair in a new room, or make a product look ready for a different season. It's useful, but it needs rules. These are ours.
Your real product, photographed by you or your photographer. AI only changes what's around it, never the product, so customers get exactly what they see.
We don't use AI because everyone else is. It's one step in a process your photographer and team already know, like changing a background. People stay in charge.
Images seen by EU customers must say if AI made or changed them. We add a clear label such as "AI-generated background" on the image.
Before anything goes live, your team checks it against the real product: colour, size and finish. If it isn't accurate, it isn't published.
We only use AI tools trained on licensed images, not other people's work.
Guidance led by Kelsey Farish, media lawyer.
AI imagery, done properly
Why we Assess before we create
Since 2 August 2026, businesses whose content reaches EU customers must label AI-generated or AI-altered images. Whether an image needs a label depends on which tool touched it, what it shows and who sees it. Assess answers all three before anything is made.
The tool decides, not the look
The same retouch can need a label if done with AI and none without. Only a log of your assets shows which.
Products count too
The EU definition covers AI-altered objects and places, not just faces. A product shot can qualify.
Your audience sets the rules
EU visitors to a UK site can bring it into scope. We check where your traffic and orders come from.
Provenance is your proof
Knowing what's yours, who shot it and when backs up an honest label and every "real product" claim.
Our approach
- Start real. Your own product photos are the base. AI builds the setting around them.
- Label clearly. "AI-generated background", shown on the image, not buried in the description.
- Use licensed-data tools. Generators trained on licensed content, with provenance built in.
- Keep a human in the loop. Every AI image is checked against the real product before it goes live.
Compliance guidance led by SSD associate Kelsey Farish, media lawyer specialising in AI. General guidance, not legal advice.
Why places are subsidised
We're gathering evidence on how small businesses change the way they work. Share your results as a case study and you join at a reduced rate.
Who you'll work with
"Setting up repeatable processes that plot a clear path through IP and compliance. Transparent, sustainable, and mindful of the impact on people and planet."
Helen
Founder and Project Lead
Creative Technology Solutions. Leads every project from first survey to final report.
Backed by the wider SSD team in creative direction, sustainability, legal compliance and impact reporting. Meet the team
Workshops
Learn it together. Keep it for good.
Small group, hands on workshops for local businesses. We start with a real job you already do, then build a written SOP around it that you test on your own products and take away with you. People first, sustainability led, and AI only where it genuinely helps.
Marketing Image and Product Image SOP
- Start from how you make images now, not a demo
- Map each step: what stays human, what can be supported by AI
- Build and test the SOP on your own products
- Check labelling and compliance before anything goes live
- Record before and after: time, cost and carbon
You leave with
- One tested, written SOP that you own
- Clear rules for when to use AI and when not to
- A simple 5Cs checklist: cost, creative, carbon, culture, compliance
- The confidence to repeat it without us
2 hours for up to 12 businesses. Easy to join from anywhere.
3 hours for 6 to 10 businesses, hands on with real products.
Funded cohorts, a three session series with follow up clinic, or train the trainer for your advisers.
Founding cohorts
Our first workshops run as founding cohorts at a founding rate. In return, we ask to share your results as a short case study, helping build the evidence for how small creative businesses can work smarter, greener and safer.