Technology has reshaped the art market over the last decade for everyone, but the transformation ahead will be nothing short of revolutionary. The power structures that once held considerable market share before social media and e-commerce remained resilient to the systemic change that disrupted industries like retail, media, and hospitality. These sectors were overhauled by technological forces, while the art market’s core institutions—galleries, museums, art fairs, and auction houses—largely continued operating under familiar structures. But beneath the surface, accelerating shifts are already driving a new era that few are talking about.
The difference between this technological shift and the last is speed. Social media took years to be widely adopted by the art world—except for a few early movers who capitalised on its potential[1]. Many dismissed it as a playground for amateur photographers and influencers rather than a serious business tool—until they were forced to adapt or risk irrelevance. AI won’t give the industry that kind of grace period. It is already in motion, reshaping who holds power, who makes money, and who gets left behind. For art market entrepreneurs and collectors alike, the question is not whether AI will change the game—it already is. The real question is: who will take advantage of its exponential leverage capabilities, and who will let the opportunity pass them by?
WILL AI REPLACE ARTISTS AND ART MARKET PROFESSIONALS?
There is a predictable cycle of fear that accompanies every major technological leap. When the printing press was invented, people feared the destruction of knowledge. When the internet emerged, the publishing industry braced for collapse. When social media began dominating communication, traditionalists dismissed it as a game for students. And yet, in each case, the technology didn’t kill the industry—it made it bigger, faster, and more efficient.
AI in the art world will follow the same trajectory. In the art press, the current conversation is focused on AI-generated art, with Christie’s experimental AI auction beating estimates and grossing $728,784 but receiving enormous backlash from over 4,000 individuals claiming copyright infringements. Galleries are tentatively exploring exhibitions featuring AI-generated works, questioning whether they hold real cultural value and a valid market. The problem is this is not where AI’s exponential value lies. A few AI-generated pieces may achieve headline-grabbing sales—just as Beeple’s NFT did when he became the third highest-selling artist in history, an event many argue was an orchestrated insider play [2]—but this does not mean AI-generated art is a sustainable asset class. AI’s real power in the art market is not in replacing artists [3]—it’s in empowering those who know how to use it.
AI won’t just displace jobs; it will displace entire business models. Small, specialised teams equipped with AI tools and customisation capabilities will achieve what once required massive infrastructures. The concept of "work on demand"—where creative and technical teams form (virtually or in-person), execute projects, and disband—will become the dominant model, much like Hollywood film production.
Amjad Masad, CEO of Replit, an AI-powered applications coding platform, predicts we will see billion-dollar companies being formed by small teams at rapid speed. With AI agents capable of turning ideas into production-ready solutions within hours, the real power lies with those who can solve high-value problems by assembling modular systems that create market-ready solutions. The future will belong to those who understand how to integrate AI into valuations, due diligence, logistics and business strategies—not those who ignore it.
WHAT ARE THE MOST Powerful Use Cases FOR AI IN The Art Market?
The biggest misconception about AI is that it is simply another tool for automation. That is an understatement. AI is not just optimising tasks—it is unlocking entirely new capabilities and ways of delivering value and equity.
First, valuations. The art market has lagged significantly behind other industries in pricing transparency. Stock markets, real estate, and even high-end collectibles like luxury watches have evolved with data-driven valuation models. The art world, by contrast, still operates with opacity, gut instinct and insider information, especially in the primary market [4]. This is why the market remains illiquid—buyers lack confidence due to the absence of universally accepted pricing benchmarks. AI can solve this.
Artprice, the world’s leading art price database, recently rolled out its Intuitive Artmarket® AI integration for its 9 million users—the first step in solving this problem. The next step will be making such data widely accessible and cost-free just like finanical markets, which will inevitably happen.
Why is it that the S&P 500, a single trading platform, transacts $65 billion every five hours, while the entire art market transacts roughly the same amount in a year?[5] The answer is simple: trust, transparency, and efficiency. AI-driven valuation models will increase liquidity and transaction volumes in the art market, allowing collectors to make informed decisions. The people who benefit? 99% of participants. The ones who lose? The 1% who profit from opacity. But everyone will profit as the market continues to grow past it's current stagnation point.
Second, auction strategy. AI’s predictive analytics can analyse historical sales, collector behaviour, market trends and a multitude of other key economic indicators to optimise bidding strategies. This will give collectors and traders clearer information, allowing them to act with the precision that was once only available to top-tier insiders.
Third, is due diligence and information validation. AI-powered tools will make forgery detection, provenance research, and legal compliance exponentially faster and more accurate. This will drastically reduce one of the biggest obstacles in art transactions: risk.
Then, there are royalty payments for artists that perform at a higher level than ARR. Imagine a world where artists receive automatic royalties based on how often their work is exhibited or even viewed—both physically and digitally. AI-powered tracking tools can monitor audience engagement in galleries, museums, and online platforms, automatically triggering royalty payments, much like Spotify does for musicians. This could redefine the financial sustainability of artists and incentivise more people to become creators and receive fair and equitable compensation.
Perhaps the most overlooked but revolutionary application is AI powered robots handling logisticial tasks such as crating, shipping, installation, tracking and fluctuating import / export obligations. Logistics costs and inefficiencies are a major problem for everyone in the industry from collectors, auction houses, galleries and artists. Imagine an art market standard that delievers art and low cost or even free - like Amazon is already doing. Companies like Amazon show us that robots and AI systems can reliably ship anything all over the world at a low cost[6].
Customisation: The Key to AI Dominance
The AI industry's market size jumped from $196 billion in 2023 to $243 billion projected in 2025, and projections to hit roughly $1 trillion within five years. AI’s value is no longer theoretical—it is proven.
McKinsey’s 2024 AI survey found that 65% of businesses were already using AI for at least one business function. But McKinsey Senior Partner Alexander Sukharevsky warned that AI’s true competitive advantage lies in customisation, stating:
"Despite the spike in adoption, we are still in the experimentation phase, with many organisations seeking relatively simple, one-step solutions. Although it varies by industry, roughly half of our survey respondents say they are using readily available, off-the-shelf AI models rather than custom-designed solutions. This is a very natural tendency in the early days of a new technology—but it’s not a sound approach as AI becomes more widely adopted. If you have it, your competitor probably has it as well. Organisations need to ask themselves: What is our moat? The answer, in many cases, likely will be customisation."
This is where art market businesses as well as collectors will win or lose. Soon, everyone will be using AI—just as everyone now uses social media and email. But those who master AI customisation—integrating it into their strategy and systems—will dominate.
WHAT IS The Cost of Ignoring AI?
There is no neutral stance on AI. You either integrate it—or you fall behind.
The worst decision is assuming you have time to catch up later. AI is not a tool of the future—it’s a tool of right now. If you ignore it, you will:
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Lose revenue to AI-driven competitors.
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Struggle to compete with smaller, faster teams leveraging AI customisation.
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Miss out on capital, liquidity, and market access.
The companies that dismissed social media as a “fad” in 2010 paid the price later. The same mistake is being made today with AI. The art market will not wait for late adopters.
Conclusion: AI Is the New Leverage
Every major innovation—the printing press, the steam engine, the internet, social media—reshaped industries and created massive new wealth. AI will do the same.
The only question is: which side of history will you be on?
Want to future-proof your art market strategies? Let’s talk.
NOTES
[1] My track record shows that I worked with several early adopters to social media either directly or through partnerships and watched them innovate and take market share against larger competitors.
[2] It is widely known that two blockchain owners used the auction and their new crypto wealth to drive the price of Beeple’s work through the roof and gain public attention, making Beeple the 3rd highest sale of a living artist in history behind Hockney and Picasso. It was a brilliant publicity play. Soon after came the NFT boom and eventual bust which all the auction houses took part in.
[3] AI’s central power is not in creativity, feelings or building culture and community. Those are very human attributes in which an artist uses to create art. AI won’t displace artists - it will help them in doing functional tasks so that they have more vital energy to focus into their art pratise.
[4] Figures in private sales are not publicised but AI, with predictive models, and it’s ability to aggregate and analyse large amounts of data, can solve this problem and help both collectors and art market entrepreneurs make better decisions. By tracking proxy data, supply chains, social media, websites scraping, analysing comparative markets, and expert opinions – AI can generate highly complex calculations in seconds. While these methods can't provide perfect accuracy (neither could humans), they offer a more data-driven approach to valuation and market size estimation in the opaque primary art market. The key is leveraging AI's ability to process and analyse large amounts of diverse data to infer patterns and make predictions, even when direct primary market data is limited.
[5] The NYC property market generates the same figure as the global art market in 9 months. It’s just one city with a small supply of property on the market at any given time. The art market is minuscule compared to traditional asset classes which is a common reason for investors stay out of it.
[6] Amazon already ships low cost or free and the company is still today investing in better technology ingregrations that cut cost to even lower levels.
SOURCEs
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About the author
Christopher Thomas Shake
Christopher Thomas Shake is an art market strategist with 17+ years of experience in art and finance; he help's the most creative people in the world turn their ideas into assets and sustainable businesses. His work focuses on business innovation, revenue scaling, and tech-driven systems for art market entrepreneurs who want to compete in the global art market—gallerists, curators, collectors, and art-tech founders who are building the future of the industry.