Not maliciously, maybe, but mathematically.
Here’s the scorecard as of today, December 2025, no feelings spared.
Objective Quality (blind tests, 2,000+ votes aggregated this year)
- Best AI (top 2 tools): 9.6–9.8 / 10
- Top 1 % human photographers: 9.7–9.9 / 10
- Top 10 % human photographers: 8.8–9.3 / 10
- Average paid human headshot: 7.9–8.4 / 10
Translation: the floor of good AI is now higher than the ceiling of 90 % of working pros.
Speed
AI: 15–70 minutes from upload to ZIP Human: 2–21 days (including booking, shoot, selection, retouching)
Cost per usable image (real numbers I paid this year)
AI: $0.21 – $0.58 Human (mid-tier pro): $92 – $214 Human (high-end): $380 – $1,100
Consistency across a team of 50 people
AI: identical lighting, background, crop, color grade → done in one afternoon Human: impossible without spending five figures and herding cats for a month
The last remaining “but it’s real” arguments — destroyed
“But the soul!” → 2025 models preserve micro-expressions, slight asymmetries, and scars better than most retouchers. “But connection!” → you’re not marrying the photographer. “But hands, glasses, complex hair!” → fixed in the current best tools unless you have extremely rare edge cases (under 2 % of people).
Who still pays humans (actual list, not theory)
- Celebrities and C-suite who need a famous name for ego/press reasons
- People shooting full fashion editorials, not headshots
- Boomers who think “computer pictures” steal your soul
- Wedding couples (different category entirely)
That’s it. Four niches. Everyone else moved on.
The moment I personally surrendered
I ran my own face through the best tool last week. Picked one shot. Posted it as my new profile photo. In 48 hours: 41 reactions, 9 “who shot this???” comments. Zero people said it looked fake.
One of the comments was from a photographer who still charges $1,350 a session.
He wrote: “Insane light. What modifier?”
I just replied with ?
Final score, December 2025
AI headshots: 1 Traditional headshot industry: 0 Game over.
Stop paying for 2019 technology amazing AI headshot site wrapped in 2025 prices. Your face deserves better. And for once, better is also the cheapest option on the table.
Go generate your new photo tonight. You already know which one will win.
