Today I played a little with a combination of Stable Diffusion XL and an AI upscaler.
I mean, considering that we are still at the beginning of the development cycle and I am just a newbie, who plays with AI tools for 3 months the possibilities are already now promising for the coming future in the next years.

I believe that future AI image models could be structured as "multi-layered" models.
In the first step a rough image sketch with a few diffusion steps (almost like a composition sketch) would be generated based on the prompt and subsequently each identified content of the image would be filled in with more details by using fine tuned AI upscalers.

So you will for sure have fine tuned portrait upscale models for skin, hair, lips, eyes, hands, fingers, etc. And probably also for other type of motifs, which will work like "inpaints". Like a painter, who would add details to an oil painting by several following steps.

This direction is already being explored with models like Stable Cascade.

I think the current diffusion technique is still very ineffective because of the current hardware limitations.
Certainly there will be many new techniques and model refinements in the future which we can't even imagine at the moment.
I also believe that the current generation errors will be spotted and corrected by the AI automatically.

So in a nutshell for me, there is no longer any uncertainty that (stock) photography will be replaced by AI. The question is not if, but when it will happen.

Some following examples.

Generated with SDXL:
https://ibb.co/9VwFMXS

AI enhanced:
https://ibb.co/pWZs2G9

Generated with SDXL:
https://ibb.co/H4skKNC

AI enhanced:
https://ibb.co/b5gZ5Qv

Generated with SDXL:
https://ibb.co/4FtjrL0

AI enhanced:
https://ibb.co/RNjqyDf

Generated with SDXL:
https://ibb.co/KxrRPmS

AI enhanced:
https://ibb.co/GHNT1hQ

Generated with SDXL:
https://ibb.co/HPC9Lm3

AI enhanced:
https://ibb.co/0XtDm3z

Generated with SDXL:
https://ibb.co/HHdjDJK

AI enhanced:
https://ibb.co/9mxFNt9

I don�t think most customers have time for that. there are so many details and endless variations possible. why should a customer try them all instead of just browsing a huge collection and then maybe picking a few base files and then adapt these with ai? vhange hairstyle and skin on a base model or change their clothes?

ai is like a camera. everybody can take pictures with their mobile phones and save spending money on stock agencies.

but developping a concept, rgen shooting takes a lot of time.

same for making a design in photoshop.

same for ai, you can do it at your computer, but you must develop your ideas and refine them first.

customers can do it all, they don�t need stock agencies in principle.

they buy because they have no time.

personally i predict we will get more customers. because adapting an image or video with ai will become much easier and new people who don�t want to learn editing or photoshop will come new into the market.

i am sure adobe is working on a magic ai editing tool for the masses, that allows prompting as well as adapting with ai