AI descriptions for antiques, with sources and templates
8:50 · Watch on YouTube
Description AI writes a full listing for one piece from a photo, your sizes and your notes, after searching museums, archives, makers' records and auction houses first.
Every source is listed and labelled, and a maker or date only appears when your notes or the sources support it. The video also covers listing templates per marketplace.
About this video: The screens are the real Artifactly app, recorded on a demo shop with made-up stock. The voice is computer-generated.
Questions this video answers
How does the Artifactly AI description writer work?
It writes a full listing for one piece from a photo, your sizes and your notes. First it searches the web live for the maker, the period, the materials and any marks. Then it writes the listing from your notes and what it found.
Does the AI make up makers or dates?
A maker or date only appears when your notes or the sources support it. The AI writes from your notes and its research, and nothing else. Unknown, or a dash, means nothing did.
How do I set a listing template for eBay?
Set Default makes a template the one Artifactly uses when you publish to that marketplace, unless you pick a different one at the time. For eBay templates, eBay rules are checked when you save: no scripts, forms or embedded frames. Filter them by marketplace: eBay, Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy, Vinted, or Universal, which works anywhere.
Chapters
Full transcript
Word for word, as spoken in the video, by chapter.
0:00The AI Curation Lab tabs
This video shows the AI Curation Lab, starting with Description AI, which writes your listings, and Templates, which lay them out. The question mark beside the title opens help for the tab you are on. Show Guide explains the whole Lab, right on the page. There are six tabs. Description AI and Templates come with every plan. White Background, Virtual Staging and Trend Intelligence come with the Dealer and Showroom plans. Content Engine is Showroom only. A free trial works like the Dealer plan, and a padlock shows on any tab your plan does not include. Below the tabs are three links to other websites, which open in a new tab. eBay Research Tool opens eBay's own research tool, Terapeak, in your eBay account, to look up sold prices and listings. Google Lens searches by photo, to help identify makers, marks and similar pieces. Gemini AI Vision opens Google's Gemini, to ask about a photo.
1:16Description AI: choose a piece
Now Description AI. It writes a full listing for one piece from a photo, your sizes and your notes. It has its own Show Guide too. Regenerate Existing writes a fresh description for a piece you already have. Leave it on New product for a piece you have not uploaded yet. We choose the G-Plan Fresco dining table. Choosing a piece fills in its photo link, its SKU, its sizes, and notes made from its era, maker, material and condition. The old description is not used. For a new piece, paste a link to a photo, or drop a photo on the box below it, or click the box to choose one. Only one photo is used, so choose the clearest. Custom SKU is optional. Leave it blank and one is made for you. Height, width, depth and seat height go in centimetres. In the notes, type every mark, label, stamp and number exactly as it appears, and any history you know. The AI writes from your notes and its research, and nothing else. Listing Template shows how the description will look inside one of your templates. It is a preview only, and does not change what is published: when you publish, the template chosen in the publish window is used, or else that marketplace's default. We pick one, to see the preview with the result. Include business footer adds the footer you write in Business Profile, on the Command Room. Until you have written one, the box stays greyed out.
3:00Write Description: the research
Now press Write Description. First it searches the web live for the maker, the period, the materials and any marks. It looks at museums, archives, makers' own records and auction houses first. The button counts the seconds while it researches. Then it writes the listing from your notes and what it found. If it cannot find any sources, it still writes the listing, from your notes only, and tells you so plainly. In all, allow one to two minutes. Each description counts towards your monthly AI allowance, which it shares with AI Auto-Fill: thirty five a month on Curator, forty on Dealer, and seventy on Showroom. One more thing while it works. The research notes and the sources are not saved with the piece, so copy anything you want to keep before you leave the screen.
3:54Sources and price guide
Here is the result. At the top is the title it wrote. Sources lists every website the research used, each one labelled: museum or archive, auction record, reference, marketplace or dealer, or other website. Searches run shows exactly what was searched, and Read the research notes shows what was found. If nothing could be checked, an amber box says Not verified, and why. The Price guide is a suggestion for you only. It is never put into your price, and never shown to buyers. It searches eBay with the title of the piece. With no title, it uses the category, when that says what the piece is, and the main words of your notes. It says what it is based on, eBay sold prices or eBay asking prices, and names the search it made. If nothing comparable was found, it says so.
4:53The written description
Next come the description itself: the Aesthetic Narrative, about how the piece looks, and the Historical Provenance, about where it comes from. Some listings also get an Interior Stylist's Note, with ideas for where the piece could go, and a Condition and Restoration section. Extracted Specifications lists the designer, era, material, origin and dimensions. A maker or date only appears when your notes or the sources support it. Unknown, or a dash, means nothing did. Why This Piece? gives reasons to buy, such as its value and how rare it is. Customer-Facing Description Preview shows the text as your buyers will see it. Under the preview, Rate this description usually appears, with Excellent and Needs Work. Descriptions you rate Excellent can be used as examples for your future ones. Ones you rate Needs Work are never used. We leave it unrated here.
6:00SEO data and saving
SEO and Merchant Data gives a meta title, a meta description, and image alt text, which help search engines and Google Shopping. Because we chose a template, Template Preview shows the description inside it. Its own box lets you compare other templates, without writing the listing again. Last is the green button, Save Description To, with the piece's name. It replaces that piece's description in Artifactly. Your live listings keep the old text until you send the piece again. We do not press it here. For a new piece, that button says Transfer To Upload Form instead. It opens a new item form with everything filled in, for you to check, add your photos and price, and save.
6:50Listing templates
Now the Templates tab. Your templates lay out your listings for each marketplace. Artifactly gives you a set of starter templates. Edit any of them, or press New Template to make your own. Filter them by marketplace: eBay, Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy, Vinted, or Universal, which works anywhere. Each card shows the marketplace, the format, HTML or plain text, a Starter tag for the ones Artifactly gave you, and a small preview. Set Default makes a template the one Artifactly uses when you publish to that marketplace, unless you pick a different one at the time. A star marks the default. We do not press it here. Apply to All puts the template on every live listing on that marketplace. It shows you a check first, with exactly what the first three listings will get, and changes nothing until you press Change all. We do not press it here.
7:50Editing a template
Press Edit to open the editor. At the top are the name, the marketplace, and the format. Open Placeholder Reference to see the fields you can drop in, such as the title, price, era or dimensions. Click one to put it in the template. When the listing is made, each one is replaced with the piece's own details. The template itself is written in the big box below. Preview shows exactly what that marketplace would receive, using your first item. For eBay templates, eBay rules are checked when you save: no scripts, forms or embedded frames. Save would keep your changes. We press Cancel, so nothing changes. That is Description AI and Templates. The next video carries on in the AI Curation Lab, with its other tabs.