"In AI, success means staying current—explore open-source options and collaborations."
Welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview with Young Kim, the visionary CEO and Founder of Bella Virtual Staging. In this in-depth conversation, Kim shares insights into the transformative journey of Bella Virtual Staging, a company that has evolved from traditional staging to become a trailblazer in the realm of virtual staging.
With a rich background in media-related ventures, Kim unveils the strategic shift towards integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into their operations, revolutionizing the real estate industry.
Kim delves into the significant impact AI has had on Bella Virtual Staging’s processes, shedding light on the incorporation of generative models to streamline photo editing tasks, making them more efficient and realistic. As the interview unfolds, Kim addresses the challenges faced in achieving unparalleled realism with AI, offering a candid perspective on the ongoing quest for perfection.
Join us on this exclusive exploration of how Bella Virtual Staging is shaping the future of real estate visualization through cutting-edge AI technology.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Young Kim: Hello my name is Young Kim, I am the CEO and Founder of Bella Virtual Staging. We started Bella Virtual Staging in 2019 which initially started off as a conventional staging company and later evolved into a virtual staging company.
The previous companies I founded were media related, and when we were introduced to the idea of virtual staging, our designers decided to have a go at it. Four years later our team has contributed to over 5 Billion dollars in real estate sales.
Can you share with us your journey towards integrating AI into your business operations?
Young Kim: Traditionally all our video/photo editing processes from start to finish would require our designers to manually edit all the photos using programs such as 3D Max, Photoshop, AutoCad and Sketchup.
With the rapid advancement of AI we are implementing AI as tools for our designers to use to make their processes easier and more efficient. For example, we have a furniture removal service where traditionally our team would have to manually photoshop out items of a room and then restore the photo to an empty state which was extremely tedious and time consuming.
However, now, using AI generative models we are now able to fast track this process by identifying what items should be removed from the photo and how the room would look without furniture. Additionally we have created a model that can identify rooms using AI to help our designers work faster on the project.
What specific areas of your business have been most impacted by AI, and how?
Young Kim: We are seeing many companies use Stable Diffusion to generate virtual staging in empty homes. They are charging anywhere from 1 dollar to 0.50 per image, compared to our services which charge around 20 dollars per image.
The quality of work or the realistic nature of the Stable Diffusion photos is nowhere near the quality of our services, however people have compared pricing to our services.
We simply ask them to compare the quality and they understand the differences in pricing and thought that goes into our work.
What are the biggest obstacles you’ve faced in implementing AI, and how did you overcome them?
Young Kim: The biggest obstacle we have faced when implementing AI is the ability to make the photos realistic. With the basic tools out-there it is possible for mediocre work, however, it is very obvious that the photos have been digitally enhanced.
At Bella Virtual Staging, one of our check marks is for the photos to be modified so realistic the clients should not be able to tell they have been enhanced.
Getting the AI models to be realistic is still a work in progress as we are using thousands of samples to train, we are very close to getting the AI to a place we feel can live up to our standards.
What advice would you give to other CEOs looking to integrate AI into their business?
Young Kim: AI is ever changing and new advancements we are hearing about on the weekly. Rather than investing so much into your own AI development, see what’s out there first as you might be late to the race.
There’s many open source AI services you can take advantage of and other companies who are developing AI technology. So keep and eye out for what’s out there. Many “AI Companies” actually leverage open source software out there.
How do you see AI evolving in your industry over the next 5 years?
Young Kim: We can definitely see a huge growth in AI being used in the real estate sector especially for visualization.
I believe over the next 5 five years many of the traditional techniques, such as photoshop, will be used using AI commands to make work easier for designers.
Eventually the majority of design work in real estate will involve some sort of AI.
What does “success” in 2023 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Young Kim: Success in 2023 means reaching 8 Billion dollars in real estate sales attributed to our services.
We highly value the success of our clients as it is a reflection of our companies success with our work and the impact it has for our clients’ sales.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Young Kim for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Young Kim or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
