Low Cost A.I. Virtual Staging

In 2024, the Zillow Group acquired Virtual Staging AI (VSAI), a company whose technology helps home sellers, agents and photographers create digitally staged listing images without the need for physical furniture and decor.

The founders of VSAI began working on this technology at Harvard Innovation Labs as students while researching AI and image processing. Most of the VSAI team is based in Munich, and as part of the acquisition, they have joined Zillow’s AI and tech teams to continue developing this virtual staging technology.

The advantages of AI Virtual Staging

The advantages of AI Virtual Staging is the rapid turnaround time and very low cost. This process typically requires several attempts to find acceptable furniture placements.

Snap2Close offers this service for only $5 per image with same day delivery.

The Negatives of AI Virtual Staging

The AI software estimates the size of the room using a technology called Photogrammetry and then auto scales the furniture to fit the room. Sometimes his technique works, but for discerning agents and homebuyers of more expensive homes then the results can sometimes be disappointing.

The biggest negatives of AI virtual staging is that the technology does not provide for compatible “same room” compatibility. For example, if you have three separate images of the living room or a great room then you cannot match the same furniture or placements on the other photos. Each virtually staged photo would not match the other virtually staged photos. Hopefully, Zillow and AI will eventually overcome this obstacle, but as of today it has not.

The best use of AI Virtual Staging is for low cost homes and for smaller rooms like a bedroom.