The use of Artificial Inteligence is becoming increasingly more common, with people using it to make researching faster, to write for you, and even create images just through a singular prompt. In other words, AI is an incredibly strong tool that anyone can use. And that is where the issue lies.
With the fact that anyone can use generative AI (creating images) means that it can fall into the hands of untrustworthy people who will use it to exploit others… And that includes the roofing industry.
Why should it be avoided?
Just as mentioned above, AI images can be used to exploit people, and this can be done through a multitude of ways.
You’re unable to verify their quality of work.
If their social media and website have AI images of perfect roofs, you will have no evidence that the company can produce work of that standard. It will also make it hard to trust any of their images, whether they were edited by AI to look better or be completely generated.
A situation where you believed that the images of their work were real, paid for work, and were left with a result that is not what the images have promised, would be quite a painful experience with many additional costs to cover their shoddy work.
This won’t be the case with every roofing company that uses AI. This kind of technology is currently being used by millions of people around the world, so naturally there will be lots of companies using it themselves. And the majority of them won’t be using it for malicious reasons. But AI can create unrealistic expectations for customers, with impossible roof details, unrealistic lighting and flawless surroundings.
The biggest issue lies with how businesses portray their AI content. Is it a more ‘fun’ image that is very obviously AI or altered? This does not cause any issues as we are all aware that what we are seeing isn’t real. However, realistic looking roofs that have been generated or altered by AI without a disclaimer? That is misleading. A trustworthy contractor would distinguish the difference between their real work and ideas.
One factor that has to be kept in mind is that AI is a part of marketing, not roofing. Anyone can create these amazing images in the span of a few seconds, however it says nothing about: installation quality, attention to detail, health and safety standards, knowledge of building regulations, and customer service.
These fake images may also have a story behind them… And what do we mean by that?
The company may lack real photos of their work or lack good images of their own work. Just as previously mentioned, it doesn’t have to be a bad sign. Businesses start somewhere, so as a new business it is difficult to obtain a whole gallery of roof photos. It could also be a sign that the company does not regularly take staged or process pictures of their work.
And now, with the immense amounts of AI generated content, how could you possibly avoid it?
What does it look like?
Take a look at these couple of images and see if you can spot which one is AI generated and which one is a high quality picture… See how many inconsistencies you can spot!
The answers will be revealed at the end of this article.
How can you avoid it?
It is important to understand how to spot AI so that you can avoid misleading content.
How realistic do their work examples look like?
Real images will have imperfections, such as the angle not being the best, glare evident on the photo, dust or debris on tiles, different weather conditions and more. If every photo they show off looks a little too perfect, it might be a good idea to question their authenticity and look for their process photos (on social media, blogs, case studies, website, etc…) or if they don’t post any you should ask for them… These images will usually be a bit rough and should have details consistent with their perfect photos.
There are a few details that are consistently done wrong by AI, so it’s always good to keep an eye out for:
Neighbouring houses – how many windows do they have? Are they missing doors? Have strange structures?
-Wheelie bins – How many of them are there? Are the shapes and sizes consistent?
-Cars – Do the car models look like real cars? Do their licence plates make sense?
-Moss on adjacent roofs – is the moss excessive?
-Uneven gardens – are there fences that dont make sense? Do the sizes of gardens make no sense?
-Shadows – is there no shadow of the person taking the picture? Do the shadows make sense with where the light is coming from? Are they sometimes too dark for no reason?
-Scaffolding – Does the scaffolding look brand new with no marks or stains? Are the boards nailed though they shouldn’t be in scaffolding? Is the scaffolding going around a property that isn’t being worked on?
But some things AI keeps within its images that look too good, almost impossible:
Has perfect sunshine and clouds.
Looks like a magazine photo.
Scaffolding looks brand new or bolted down, as if there was no work done.
The background is too perfect, almost unrealistic.
And appears almost computer-generated.
If a roofing company only presents images that belong in a catalogue, ask for real examples of work. These are the raw, unedited images that may also include the process and how the roof looked before. If they can provide this, you should now consider…
The consistency of the images.
As polished and perfect as these images look, AI does make mistakes… And what do these mistakes usually look like?
Tiles or slates that aren’t aligned properly or look unnatural (wavy or melt into each other).
Parts of the home with unusual shapes, such as chimneys, doors, windows, etc…
Different roof sections changing patterns (different shapes of tiles, different types of ridges, etc…)
Guttering, soffits & fascia that don’t make sense (does the guttering look like its meant to catch water?)
Though AI has made a huge improvement on this, it still gets it wrong… Logos and text. More often than not, looking at the logos on shirts, vans, or banners, they will look wrong or as if they were stuck on there (don’t follow the folds of the clothes).
As you can see in the image, there are weird inconsistencies with the logo, as if bits of them are taken away or warped. This is most evident by the roofers on the roof, where when the logo is too far away, it no longer makes any sense.
Even process photos can be faked, but these are usually a lot easier to notice. Random areas of the roof not having tiles (tiles overlap each other so missing tiles on an already tiled part of the roof are a big red flag), ridge tiles installed before the roof being complete, roofing felt/ membrane not being right under the tiles, timbers and battens missing/ disappearing or looking wonky, etc… All of the previously mentioned mistakes AI makes should also be taken into consideration when looking at the process images.
AI Videos
Another big problem is AI videos.These are usually easier to spot, but some more expensive AI video generating apps make you question whether it could actually be real.
With videos, it’s good practice to pay close attention to people’s movement and their facial expressions. Some things might seem too smooth, the characters on screen will stare at nothing with a blank stare, or they’ll move awkwardly. Usually these videos look uncanny, like something is wrong with them, and that’s when it’s good to question their authenticity.
It’s also good to keep in mind that if a small company is posting movie quality advertisements, they are most likely using AI or stock videos.
Why We refuse to use aI generated images
Understanding the issues that AI can create is important for businesses. We acknowledge that many can mistake AI generated images as real. Frankly, they are getting harder and harder to spot. It is against our company values to generate fake roofing images to use for marketing purposes.
We always document roofs that we have worked on, collecting a large gallery of photos used for our marketing and as examples that we happily provide to our customers. We take pride in the work that we do, ensuring to provide the best roofs we possibly can to our customers.
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