Sorting images of cars on the Australian carsales.com website has moved from manual to an AI-assisted process thanks to software developed at a hackathon.

The company says its Cyclops image recognition software is right 97.2 per cent of the time, and learns from its mistakes. Developed at a three-day company hackathon last November, it automatically selects and assigns angles to each image uploaded directly by photographers.

Carsales' director of AI research Michael Ridgway says the events, held every two years, are a great opportunity for staff to come up with ideas that help Carsales to continue innovating and evolving.

Team leader Agustinus Nalwan says previously every car image uploaded was categorised manually according to the angle featured in the image. With Cyclops, each image is automatically assigned an angle.

The technology is now being integrated for photos uploaded by users and will notify them to upload more if, for example, they upload images of an SUV's front exterior, side exterior, front seats, and dashboard, but neglect to upload a back seat shot.

"This is because Cyclops knows this is one of the most common features people research when purchasing an SUV," Nalwan says.

The technology is being rolled out globally across Carsales' international businesses, with an image comparison tool to be developed so that users can compare back seats of different models.