Cloudinary launches AI moderation for brand image checks

Cloudinary has launched Cloudinary Moderation, an AI-powered product that reviews images against brand guidelines.

The tool is aimed at companies handling large volumes of partner, vendor and user-generated images before publication. It is designed to approve, flag or reject content based on rules set by each brand.

The launch is intended to address a gap between having visual guidelines and being able to apply them consistently at scale. Cloudinary cited an estimate that 85% of brands maintain visual guidelines, but only 25% can enforce them consistently when working with large volumes of third-party content.

The issue has become more visible as retailers, marketplaces and travel groups rely on outside contributors for product shots, listing images and other customer-facing visuals. Manual checks can cause delays and inconsistent decisions, while standard content moderation systems may not reflect a company's own branding rules.

Custom review

Cloudinary says the system can be trained on a brand's own visual standards rather than relying on a generic moderation model. It is intended to identify issues such as incorrect logos, colours that do not match brand guidance, poor image quality and other non-compliant content before publication.

The product also provides reasons for any flag or rejection, includes an audit trail for decisions and allows human reviewers to override automated results when needed.

Cloudinary has integrated the moderation product into its wider image and video platform. Customers already using its existing visual asset workflows can review and amend content in the same system instead of moving files into a separate moderation tool.

The launch reflects a broader shift among marketing and operations teams towards automating quality control for digital assets, particularly when content volumes are too large for staff to check every image manually. Cloudinary identified retail, consumer goods, travel and hospitality as potential sectors for the product.

Rivly, described as a marketplace business, is among the companies cited as an early user of the product.

"As a marketplace, maintaining high-quality and consistent product images is critical for customer trust and conversion," said Daniel Thompson, Chief Executive Officer, Rivly. "With Cloudinary Moderation, we will be able to automatically review seller-submitted images, understand any issues, and immediately guide sellers toward optimal images."

Wider push

Cloudinary is best known for software that helps companies manage, edit, optimise and deliver images and video across websites, apps and campaigns. The moderation launch extends that offering into brand compliance, where companies often combine marketing review with operational controls.

More than three million users and 11,000 customers use its platform, according to Cloudinary. Its customers include Adidas, Etsy, Fiverr, Grubhub, Minted and Paul Smith.

For Cloudinary, the release adds another AI-based product in a market where software providers are trying to show that automation can reduce repetitive work without removing human oversight. The company is positioning the software as a way to keep visual standards consistent when content comes from external contributors rather than in-house creative teams.

Keren Sela, General Manager for Moderation at Cloudinary, said the product is meant to address the tension between speed and control in image publishing workflows.

"Brands shouldn't have to choose between speed and brand control," said Sela. "Cloudinary Moderation lets them move fast while maintaining standards-automatically reviewing partner and user content against their specific guidelines."