AI-Generated Assets Flood CGTrader Marketplace but Nearly No One Is Buying Them

'Buyers aren't yet opening their wallets': AI-generated assets are flooding online marketplaces, but consumers are snubbing AI for human-made products | Fortune

Consumers are getting fed up with AI slop found on online marketplaces, and companies are beginning to take note. About a year ago, online 3D model marketplace CGTrader introduced the ability for designers to upload AI-generated assets for purchase on the platform, in addition to the digital models they rendered themselves. The site has more than two million 3D models for sale, which serve as the foundational component for architects, video producers, game designers, and other creatives to build their product around. But CGTrader may be a case study for how having more AI-generated products for sale does not guarantee the technology's popularity, and why buyers still favor human-made goods. A recent report from the company found that despite one in six models uploaded to its platform being AI-generated, those assets accounted for just $1 out of every $90 in generated revenue, and just 2.6% of sales. "AI is entering the catalog rapidly, but buyers aren't yet opening their wallets for it," the report said. The report, which drew data from marketplace sales between June 2025 and May 2026, noted that only 5% of CGTrader's customers tried an AI model and found it worked well, as compared to the 20% who tried it and found the assets inadequate. CGTrader CEO Dalia Lasaite pinpointed the reason why the company's customers turned away from its AI offerings: It's not that they hate AI; it's just that they valued what humans had to offer more -- not least of all because humans simply make better stuff. "Buyers are looking for really high quality when they are shopping at the marketplace," Lasaite told Fortune. "And as a result, they tend to prefer human-created 3D models, at least at this point." As AI adoption increases, consumers' feelings toward the technology, particularly its application for creative uses, has become tangled. A 2025 Stanford University study found that when participants were given access to an online marketplace with both AI-generated and human-produced art, they gravitated toward AI-generated pieces, with the number of generative AI images on the platform rapidly increasing. However, a Pew Research Center poll last year found half of Americans said they liked a painting less after learning it was made by AI. In a report published on Tuesday, Pew found 52% of American adults were "more concerned than excited" about greater AI use in data life, as compared to 38% who said the same thing in 2022. But Dennis Zhang, a professor of marketing and supply Chain, operations, and technology at Washington University in St. Louis's Olin Business School, said more AI-generated products in marketplaces reflects more than just how people feel about AI right now; it also hints at the role AI could play in the economy more broadly. "One side of economists always tells you, 'Don't worry about AI. For every technology revolution in human history, people re-pivot to something else to do," Zhang told Fortune. "What we're saying is something else: It's not only people as workers will re-pivot to something else to do, it's also people as consumers will re-pivot to the dimension that humans will matter more." The rise of AI in the marketplace In his recent working research, Zhang measured the proliferation of smartphone app launches after the wide release of coding agents Claude Code and Codex. He initially found that compared to 2023 and 2024, the number of apps launched steadily increased, a trend that continued through 2026. But additional analyses controlling for other variables found that the impact of coding agents on app production was about a 160% increase in apps by April 2026 compared to the period two years prior. Then Zhang looked at how people were engaging with this influx of apps on the marketplace. The number of apps with more than 10 reviews dropped significantly after the AI launches, suggesting people engaged less with AI-generated apps than human-made ones. These results were not causal. "There is some slight evidence showing that the products that are helped by AI in production are less attractive than the products where we had observed before, where it's mostly human-crafted on the coding side," he said. "However, it's not like the AI products are unloved by everyone, right? It's still creating utilities for the market." Looking more deeply, Zhang hypothesized that for apps where humans still had a larger hand in the concept and development for the app, increased unpopularity could be simply because the apps aren't as soon as the fully human-generated ones, which were likely developed by programmers who have been in the industry longer, and are therefore more sensitive to factors like user interface. In other words, AI has enabled more vibe coders to design more apps, but lack of experience means those apps just aren't as good; it's a labor issue. On the other hand, for apps that are obviously completely AI-generated, consumers may have snubbed them because they value product scarcity and are seeking out tools with human-added value; it's a consumer psychology issue. Put together, Zhang posited, these attitudes toward AI-generated products can begin to paint a picture about the future of how automation is integrated into work and society: "I would actually think people's affection or judgments of products is going to shift from the parts which are created by AI to the parts which are less likely to be created by AI," he said. Zhang sees evidence that AI will transform labor, not largely displace jobs. While how AI is being deployed in the workplace informed this view, he likewise believes that how consumers respond to AI in the marketplace -- not completely eschewing the technology, but rather valuing human touches -- affirms humans' place in the economy. CGTrader CEO Lasaite came to a similar conclusion. When AI was first introduced in 3D modeling, creators were apprehensive, she said, but that sentiment has slowly changed as AI-generated models became faster and cheaper to produce. "Over time, we all realized that AI will be some kind of part of our life, and we adapt," she said. "Maybe we can be more productive and just keep the best parts of our job to ourselves, and use the AI to help with the rest."

The Economy Has Spoken: Stuff That's AI-Generated Has Almost Zero Value

Can't-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Online marketplaces are being flooded with AI slop -- but is anybody willing to actually pay for it? In the case of CGTrader, a long-established online marketplace for 3D assets used by video game developers, film editors, and 3D printing nerds, users are sending a clear message. As 404 Media reports, the marketplace is being flooded by AI-generated assets, representing one in six models -- but they only account for only $1 out of every $90 in revenue. In other words, virtually nobody's willing to shell out for AI slop, meaning it's economically almost valueless. "Buyers are voting with their wallets, and AI-generated content is struggling to compete," the company noted in a press release about its most recent 2026 market trends report, as quoted by 404. The trend suggests there's a growing "gap that undercuts the assumption that AI-made content is repricing the market." "The upload numbers alone would suggest a takeover," the company noted. "The revenue numbers say otherwise, and buyers refusing to pay for AI-generated models is saying something bigger than no thanks: it is a signal of how far they trust AI generation itself." "Which leaves the question the industry has been avoiding: an AI model may be cheaper to produce, but what is it actually worth?" CGTrader noted in its press release. Buyers polled by CGTrader overwhelmingly say they aren't willing to buy AI-generated assets because they're far lower quality than human-made ones. According to a customer survey, 20 percent "tried AI and found it not good enough," according to the site. Only four percent of buyers of 3D printing models said AI "works well," suggesting that translating AI models into a physical object remains a major challenge. The trend perfectly highlights how vast swathes of the internet are being drowned out by AI slop -- and how users are feeling inundated by it against their will. Now that AI slop is overtaking humans in terms of internet traffic and content, online marketplaces could start feeling the effects of disillusioned users refusing to open their wallets as well. That means companies like CGTrader will have to tread carefully by highlighting human-made content. "AI uploads are currently growing faster than AI purchases, which makes effective discovery and ranking increasingly important," CGTrader CEO Dalia Lašaitė told 404 Media. "Our approach is to prioritize quality and performance signals rather than raw volume, including how an asset performs commercially, how buyers rate it and other indicators of quality." More on AI slop: Experts Warn That AI Slop Is Corrupting Kids' Brains

Report Suggests Nearly No One Is Buying AI Generated Goods

A classic conundrum of 'why would I buy something you didn't make,' platforms like CGTrader has shelves of AI made models collecting dust AI has proliferated on just about every digital platform imaginable, with many major firms stoking those flames. Despite this, the long-term audience for AI generated media has yet to be established. While the swamp of slop can be hard to wade through, nothing illuminates like the hard numbers. And according to a new report, sales on AI goods have not improved despite making itself unavoidable. CGTrader, one of the longest running marketplaces for 3D assets, recently published its annual report of trends and growth. The site lets users buy and sell their models for use in games, animation and 3D printing, even for commercial purposes. As highlighted by 404 Media's Emanuel Maiberg, approximately a sixth of new items for sale are generated by AI. Despite all the new sellers, there are nearly zero buyers, as just one percent of sales went towards these items. "Our goal isn't to increase the volume of AI-made assets on the marketplace," CGTrader CEO Dalia Lašaitė tells Maiberg. "It's to give designers better tools to work faster and focus more of their time on creative work. Ultimately, buyers will choose the assets that best meet their needs. The distinction that matters most isn't whether an asset is AI- or human-generated, but whether it meets the required quality standard." According to the report, surveyed buyers cite quality as the main reason they skipped AI generated goods. The survey also found that only five percent of buyers were satisfied with AI purchases, and just four percent of overall users think AI "works well." My gut also tells me that, if the end product is just a few prompts away, why would anyone buy something you didn't actually make. While the report illustrates a pretty strong consensus from their user base, it does complicate some of the wheeling and dealings at CGTrader. Last March, the site penned a deal with tech giant Tencent to streamline their AI initiatives into the market, as well as refine user-made models. It may turn the site into a showroom for AI rigs, but sales suggest those models are all collecting a lot of dust. CGTrader is far from the only company forced to talk about AI through both sides of their mouth. Every major platform seems to be simultaneously investing millions into AI proliferation, while having to trim the resulting monstrosities from public consumption. This only exacerbates the core issue that none of these AI companies have figured out how to turn a profit, but that won't stop them from making it your problem.