Storyteq, the technology arm of Inspired Thinking Group (ITG), has acquired Pixelz.ai to bolster their R&D team and accelerate their generative AI capabilities.

Storyteq’s R&D team are pushing the boundaries of image creation technology through the development of their AI Studio tool, with this acquisition building on their market-leading Creative Automation credentials. Pixelz.ai are at the cutting edge of generative AI, boasting over 60,000 users who have already generated around 3 million unique images.

AI Studio represents the next evolution in image creation by enabling intelligent product placement into any environment, while ensuring full brand compliance. With the ability to take comprehensive art direction and fine-tune every image, creatives and marketers now have the power to remove, expand or build image backgrounds, add photo-realistic lighting and shadows as well as upscale images without compromising quality.

Marketers will be able to use AI Studio to produce images at unprecedented scale and faster than ever before to meet growing content demands, with the technology currently being trialled by major brands such as Heineken.

Lennard Kooy, CEO of Storyteq, said: “The rapid development of generative AI has enabled us to go from concept to an advanced tool in months rather than years, and it’s great that major brands are trialling AI Studio’s capabilities. The future holds even greater promise, with Studio AI fast approaching the power to create logos and typography, and even entire product and packshot images from scratch.”

The Pixelz.ai deal is part of a series of mergers and acquisitions from Inspired Thinking Group, including creative workflow firm ReviewStudio and data-driven customer experience company Emerald Thinking.

Simon Ward, CEO of Inspired Thinking Group, commented: “Innovation is at the core of the Inspired Thinking Group’s identity, and the acquisition of Pixelz.AI significantly boosts Storyteq’s R&D department as we look to be the first to unleash the full power of brand compliant generative AI. Collaboration through partnerships and acquisitions is a central driver of innovation and we will continue searching for businesses who complement our first-class marketing and technology solutions.

“AI can help to solve the challenge that major brands are fighting to deliver more content than ever before, without an increase in resources, while empowering creatives to focus on important post-production and campaign idea creation.”

AI Studio expands the capabilities of ITG’s Capture studio, adding to virtual production, automated e-commerce shoots, and traditional photography for global brand campaigns.