Despite The Hype, Only 22% Of 3D Artists Regularly Use AI

This year, Poliigon, a 3D resource library founded by Andrew Price, also known as Blender Guru, conducted its annual survey, revealing how 3D artists around the world work, earn, and create in 2025. It hasn't been an easy year for the creative industries, and while some trends are all too familiar, others may come as a surprise.

A total of 3,779 responses were collected through This Week in 3D Newsletter, LinkedIn, X/Twitter, and Poliigon Newsletter. The survey shows that 3D art remains a young field, with 71% of artists having 10 years of experience or less. Just 12% in total report earning over $100K a year, in contrast to 26% whose income falls below $20K annually. Unsurprisingly, 3D careers in the United States offer significantly higher wages.

Although higher education is increasingly questioned in creative fields, nearly half of 3D artists have a degree in a related discipline, and it does seem to boost income slightly.

Apparently, advertising dominates 3D usage, and CG Trader now leads in model library popularity over TurboSquid. The survey also looks at company politics, software use, and satisfaction, and, of course, AI. In 2025, layoffs across the industry seem to go hand in hand with growing interest in generative AI, with more reports of AI replacing human workers.

Poliigon's survey reveals that 46% of companies have no restrictions on AI usage at all, and only 9% of companies ban all usage entirely, disheartening but not shocking. Despite this, AI image generators don't seem that popular: 26% of artists never use them, 15% use them weekly, and only 7% use them daily.

More than half of the artists surveyed use it only occasionally, and similarly, more than half of them report using it during the early stages of production, such as concept art or look development. Interestingly, AI 3D model generators see almost no usage at all, with 68% of artists never using them, implying they might not be very useful in practice.

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