Creative production intelligence

AI image generation vs stock graphics

Benchmark licensing, labour, and risk budgets across stock libraries, AI tools, and hybrid workflows. Capture the hidden costs of legal reviews, brand control, and training so you can pick the mix that keeps campaigns on brand and on budget.

Recommended approach

Adobe Firefly Enterprise

Monthly cost delta vs baseline

£1,888

Brand alignment score

84/100

Usage scope

Multi-channel marketing · 80 assets/month

Production inputs

Monthly assets80

Usage rights

Heavier paid usage = higher licensing and QA budgets.

Revision rate

28%

Model how often creative rounds need a second pass.

Team hourly rate

Blend designers + producers for labour calculations.

Quality review minutes / asset

Hybrid AI share

60%

Risk & governance inputs

Brand risk exposure (£)

Potential downside if licensing or prompt misuse slips through.

Risk tolerance

35%

Lower tolerance increases reserve budgets for issues.

Legal review hours

Legal hourly rate

AI training hours this month

Training hourly rate

Libraries & tools to compare

Stock library

Premium stock library

£14.00 per image • 12 min search

High-touch libraries such as Getty Premium and Adobe Stock corporate plans.

Mainstream stock subscription

£6.50 per image • 9 min search

Popular plans from Shutterstock, Envato Elements, or Storyblocks business tiers.

Budget / microstock bundles

£2.80 per image • 7 min search

Low-cost credit packs and community marketplaces.

AI generator

Midjourney Pro

£48.00/month • 2.5 min prompting

High fidelity AI image generation with custom style prompts and multi-mode upscaling.

Adobe Firefly Enterprise

£60.00/month • 3 min prompting

Firefly + Creative Cloud stack with indemnification included for enterprise buyers.

Canva Pro + AI

£10.00/month • 2 min prompting

Accessible AI art inside Canva with brand kits and quick deployment workflows.

Cost comparison breakdown

Sorted by monthly cost. Hover cards reveal where the money goes.

AI generator

Adobe Firefly Enterprise

Best fit£2,101 / month

Line item	Monthly	Per asset	Notes
Direct spend	£66.40	£0.83	Licences, subscriptions, credits
Labour & QA	£753.60	£9.42	Prompting, edits, review time
Risk & overhead	£1,281	£16.02	Legal, reserves, training
Total	£2,101	£26.27	Annual: £25,216

Production hours

8.7 h

Risk reserve

£583.85

Alignment score

84/100

Why teams pick this option

Full indemnity coverage
Native Photoshop/Express export
Brand style controls

Firefly + Creative Cloud stack with indemnification included for enterprise buyers.

Hybrid workflow

Hybrid blend (60% AI)

£2,850 / month

Line item	Monthly	Per asset	Notes
Direct spend	£515.84	£6.45	Licences, subscriptions, credits
Labour & QA	£965.76	£12.07	Prompting, edits, review time
Risk & overhead	£1,368	£17.10	Legal, reserves, training
Total	£2,850	£35.62	Annual: £34,200

Production hours

13.5 h

Risk reserve

£1,001

Alignment score

90/100

Why teams pick this option

AI share handled at 60% with human QA backstops
Re-use stock for regulated placements, AI for rapid experimentation
Balances licensing confidence with production velocity

Split production between curated stock and AI templates for volume and brand control.

Stock library

Mainstream stock subscription

£3,989 / month

Line item	Monthly	Per asset	Notes
Direct spend	£650.00	£8.13	Licences, subscriptions, credits
Labour & QA	£924.00	£11.55	Prompting, edits, review time
Risk & overhead	£2,415	£30.19	Legal, reserves, training
Total	£3,989	£49.87	Annual: £47,873

Production hours

20.5 h

Risk reserve

£1,643

Alignment score

100/100

Why teams pick this option

Royalty-free licences
Reasonable brand alignment
Large asset catalogue

Popular plans from Shutterstock, Envato Elements, or Storyblocks business tiers.

Creative operations tips

Capture brand-approved prompts and negative prompts inside your design system.
Track output re-use across campaigns to surface redundant stock spend.
Bundle AI experimentation hours into marketing ops budgets, not design headcount.

Quality guardrails

Establish human-in-the-loop review before publishing AI-first imagery in regulated markets.
Use Firefly or Getty licences when campaigns require indemnification for trained data.
Schedule quarterly creative audits to retire deprecated prompts and stock sets.

KPI watch-list

Turnaround time per asset vs campaign launch deadlines.
Brand compliance incidents traced to asset source (AI vs stock).
Training hours booked vs creative output velocity.

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Disclaimer

Calculations blend publicly available licensing data with interviews from in-house creative teams as of Q2 2025. Pricing does not replace legal advice—confirm contract terms, indemnities, and intellectual property policies with your counsel before publishing generated content. Affiliate links may appear on this page—see our affiliate disclosure for details.