Photo editing apps these days have a ton of AI features, but honestly most of them are overkill. Some tools are really useful, while others are like flashy extras you'll never use. After trying countless apps, here are 7 AI features that really make a difference.
1. Noise reduction
The part that many people dislike the most about photo editing is when they have to remove noise from the photo. So when Lightroom introduced AI noise reduction in 2023, people were delighted. Not only is this one of Lightroom's best AI features, it's also one of the coolest tools of all time.

Many other photo editing tools, such as Picsart and AVCLabs' PhotoPro software also have noise reduction AI. Sadly, while you can use this feature in Lightroom on your computer, you can't access it on your smartphone.
2. Auto-Enhance
Auto-Enhance is probably the most popular AI photo editing feature. This tool already helps you learn the basics of how sliders interact with each other, and when starting out, people often use photos with Auto-Enhance applied without additional editing. But even if you want to create your own unique style, you can still use them as a starting point.
3. Spot Healing
Even if a scene looks stunning in real life, the camera doesn't always capture it exactly as we want it to. Sometimes, you will see stains and other unpleasant things that you want to remove. For example, when taking photos on a sunny day, the camera will sometimes appear spots. Sometimes the same thing happens when using a narrower aperture.

While having spots in your photos is always annoying, it's nice to know that you can rely on AI tools like Spot Healing to speed up the editing process. For example, in Lightroom, you can touch each point; The software will then delete them.
4. AI Masking
As you become more proficient at photo editing, you will gradually learn how to edit specific parts of the photo. People often start by using the Radial Gradient filter and sometimes still use this feature, but AI Masking is often more effective.
You will especially enjoy using AI Masking when editing the sky. It's extremely accurate when selecting the sky, but the tool is unstable when trying to mask subjects and backgrounds.

5. Automatic straightening
Regardless of using a smartphone or a camera, people almost always have a camera in their hand. Unless you really need to use a tripod, it just adds weight to carry and is difficult to set up.
Even with a lot of photo editing experience, many people still use auto-straighten as a starting point for their photos. Then make further adjustments as needed, but from experience, this tool is almost always accurate.

You'll find auto-straighten in almost every photo editing app.
6. Clone Stamp
Have you ever wished you could copy one part of your photo to another? Yes, you can and AI tools like Clone Stamp are the ideal way to do this.

Clone Stamp is especially useful when copying smaller objects, such as flowers, bricks, and clouds.
7. Recommended preset settings
As you gain more experience with photo editing applications, build a collection of preset settings that you can easily apply to your images whenever needed. Take a look at each preset setting and see how it fits your image. However, this is especially effective when combined with Lightroom's Recommended Presets feature.
This feature is available in the Lightroom mobile app. When you click on tab Presetsthe software will analyze your photos and provide you with many recommended preset settings. You can then look through these preset settings to see if any of them suit your style.

While many AI photo editing features may seem like gimmicks, some are actually useful. These tools can help you easily remove imperfections, refine specific areas, and precisely enhance images.