Streamlining the Digital Asset Supply Chain: The Power of API-first DAM and AI Automation
This feature article has been contributed by Matt Noyes, Senior Director of Product Marketing at cloud-based image and video management services provider Cloudinary.
In today’s visual-first attention economy, delivering fast and flawless experiences at scale is both a necessity and a tremendous challenge. This is largely due to the complexities of navigating a rapidly expanding digital asset supply chain, which includes everything from the creation, management, transformation, optimization and delivery of every image and video a brand owns and publishes across a growing number of channels.
It’s a fight worth fighting, though. To keep up with consumer expectations, brands must produce dynamic, engaging and pixel-perfect visual experiences while balancing the pressure to bring these assets to market as fast as possible. Achieving this balance requires innovation and a focus on efficiency, particularly as it relates to post-production workflows.
Common challenges in the digital asset supply chain
One of the most notable challenges in the digital asset supply chain is that there is a never-ending tug-of-war between prioritizing time-to-market with the quality of the user experience. The faster you go, the more the quality tends to suffer.
This is partially due to omnichannel delivery requiring each visual asset to be customized for each platform, device, and screen it’s delivered on. Preparing content for this type of distribution is traditionally a manual process, which involves resizing, cropping, or reformatting images and videos for each specific use case. Tack on all the requisite back and forth between creatives, web teams and others, and this manual editing process not only consumes valuable time but can also lead to errors and inconsistencies that compromise brand integrity.
The worst part? More images and more videos simply require more work.
These excessively manual workflows also tend to rely on disconnected tools and systems, which creates functional and operational silos, making it harder for teams to collaborate efficiently. This lack of coordination leads to problems finding assets, slow approvals, delayed campaigns, and a diminished return on investment at each stage of the operation.
Leveraging API-first DAM as a single source of truth
A modernized digital asset workflow, functioning as a unified system, is critical to overcoming the challenges of fragmented and inefficient workflows. By centralizing assets in a single repository and enhancing collaboration through role-based permissions, teams can streamline the entire content lifecycle—from sourcing and organizing assets to final delivery. For example, creative teams can handle the initial production and approval workflows, while marketers and developers can focus on distribution, ensuring faster project turnaround.
The key is that this unified system can only deliver maximum efficiencies if it’s seamlessly connected to all the other business systems for which visual media is required: CMS; ecommerce platforms; social media platforms; workplace communication tools such as Slack or Teams; etc. That’s why we’ve seen a surge in the adoption of architecture among large organizations. Rather than being locked into a rigid system, composable architecture based on an API-first concept allows for modular integration of various services as the need arises. This flexibility ensures that brands can scale their workflows as needed without having to overhaul their entire infrastructure.
By adopting a composable approach, teams can innovate quickly and respond to evolving market needs, optimizing their visual content delivery in the short-term while staying agile in the face of changing demands.
AI-powered automations: post-production and delivery at scale
But even with a single source of truth in place, the process of uploading, tagging, editing, and optimizing each asset can still be very cumbersome. Fortunately, AI is revolutionizing how digital assets are managed, particularly in post-production workflows.
For example, AI can automatically analyze and tag elements within images and videos, whether it’s identifying objects, people, or specific details. This automatic tagging greatly simplifies how assets are organized and searched for, improving discoverability across large asset libraries.
AI automations are also crucial in transforming assets to meet the needs of multiple platforms. Auto-cropping images to fit specific screen dimensions, optimizing file formats for faster load times, or adjusting resolutions for various devices can all be handled by AI-driven tools. These capabilities reduce the need for manual editing, speeding up the workflow and ensuring assets are optimized for delivery across any channel or device.
One of the most valuable applications of AI in post-production is its ability to transform assets for specific use cases. For example, generative AI tools can remove or change the background of an image, adjust colors, or even alter product variations without the need for additional photoshoots or manual Photoshop work. This allows brands to quickly adapt and scale their visual content for e-commerce, advertising, or social media campaigns, ultimately saving time and resources while maintaining quality.
The future of the digital asset supply chain
The future of the digital asset supply chain lies in adopting modern workflows that integrate AI-powered automations and composable architecture. By streamlining the process from asset creation to final delivery, brands can overcome the challenges of fragmented workflows, improve collaboration, and deliver high-quality visual experiences at scale.
With the ability to automate post-production tasks, optimize content for omnichannel delivery, and scale operations through modular workflows, the digital asset supply chain can finally achieve the balance between speed and quality that today’s market demands. Brands that invest in these innovations will be better positioned to create the compelling and dynamic digital experiences that consumers expect.
About Matt Noyes
Matt Noyes is the Senior Director of Product Marketing at cloud-based image and video management services company, Cloudinary.
You can connect Matt via his LinkedIn profile.
Share this Article: