In autumn 2026 there is no longer one best image AI. The leading models have different strengths: Midjourney for artistic and cinematic motifs, Google's Nano Banana for realistic people and products, OpenAI's GPT Image for precise instructions and editing, FLUX by Black Forest Labs from Freiburg with open models, Ideogram for text in images and Adobe Firefly for commercially safe brand work. Which model fits depends on what you need.
Which image AI suits which job?
- Midjourney: still considered strong for photorealistic and artistic motifs with atmosphere. Weaker at precisely editing existing images.
- Nano Banana (Google): realistic people and products, several reference images in one motif, visualisations based on facts.
- GPT Image (OpenAI): implements long, precise descriptions well and suits editing, but is not the fastest model.
- Seedream (ByteDance): recommended for cinematic advertising motifs, but less widely tested so far.
- FLUX (Black Forest Labs): models from Germany, some with open weights. This makes it possible to run image AI on your own servers.
- Ideogram: leads when text in the image has to be legible and spelled correctly.
- Adobe Firefly: trained on licensed content and therefore considered a safe choice for brand work.
Version numbers change almost monthly. Before deciding, test with your own use case rather than relying on rankings.
What do companies sensibly use AI images for?
- Cover images for blog posts and presentations
- Illustrations for abstract topics that are hard to photograph
- Drafts and mood boards before a shoot is planned
- Variants for social media formats
- Backgrounds and cut-outs for product images
Where are real photos the better choice?
Whenever authenticity matters. Your team, your premises, your products and your trade fair stand should show what things really look like. An AI image of your team can, at worst, look like an attempt to deceive. Under the AI Act, realistic AI images of real people or places must also be labelled as AI-generated, more in AI labelling on your website.
Then there is copyright: under case law so far, pure AI images are generally not protected by copyright in Germany. What that means for your brand is covered in AI content and copyright.
Our rule of thumb
AI images suit motifs that do not exist in that form or only serve as illustration. For everything that shows your company, use real photos. The two combine well: a shoot provides the real motifs, AI adds variants and backgrounds.
Sources
- Quotenmeter: The 8 best AI image models 2026 (German)
- Morphic: The 8 best AI image generators 2026 compared (German)
- Lexicanum: The best AI image generators 2026 compared (German)
