‘Buyers aren’t yet opening their wallets’: AI-generated assets are flooding marketplaces, but consumers are snubbing them for human-made products

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.