I don’t know if it’s necessary, but I’ve incorporated it as part of my workflow because I can see the difference in the noise reduction. It takes great images and imparts the wow factor to push them over the edge.

I tried Aftershoot also and didn’t end up keeping it. I think the software idea has promise, and I’m sure AI will eventually revolutionize these things, but I did some comparisons using my eye and the software and ended up with very different information (the number of keepers and the recommended images were different).