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Speaking a thousand pictures: How GenAI is changing the business of art

Small-brand commissions are drying up, briefs are shrinking, and artists face growing pressure to prove their work is human-made. Simultaneously, they have to worry about their art being used to train AI models or being reproduced without their consent. Bengaluru: In 1935, the German philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin posed a question about art in an age of rapidly advancing technology. In his essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, he argued that even the most perf

Truvace record3 min read1 sourceEvidence: Emerging · 47/100 — Investigative reporting · n = 12 · 1 independent sourceJournalismTRV-2026-2387 · cite or check it
Speaking a thousand pictures: How GenAI is changing the business of art

In brief

Indian illustrators and painters told Mint that generative AI is eroding commissions, lowering what clients expect to pay and pushing artists to prove their work is human-made. Almost all of a dozen artists interviewed said clients now use AI tools to build visual references before approaching them.

The effects differ by field. Illustrator Rajyasree Sarkar says commissioning enquiries for books have fallen despite a growing audience, and Vijaya Aswani moved into teaching after small-brand branding work began to feel risky. In animation and advertising, firms say AI cuts time and cost: Vinc's chief executive says shots once quoted at a year were delivered in six weeks at about 35% lower cost.

Legal protection remains unsettled. In July the Delhi High Court held in ANI Media v OpenAI that training on copyrighted news articles fell within fair dealing, though a lawyer calls the ruling interim and single-judge, with trial pending. Advertising regulator ASCI issued labelling guidelines in September that take effect three months after publication.

Main points

  1. Almost all of a dozen artists Mint spoke with said clients increasingly use AI tools to develop visual references before approaching artists, changing expectations of the final work and its price.
  2. Mumbai realism artist Shambhavi Upadhyaya photographs and films each commissioned painting after studio sessions of three to seven hours, to prove it is authentic after people on social media called her paintings AI generated.
  3. Vinc chief executive Rudresh Upadhyaya says a batch of animation shots quoted at one year of work was delivered in six weeks at about 35% lower cost.
  4. Sarkar turned down a book project where the client wanted only ideas from her because its earlier books were entirely AI generated.
  5. India's art auction market more than tripled from about ₹700 crore in 2020 to over ₹2,400 crore in 2025, according to an earlier Mint report.
  6. Galleries in Kolkata, Jaipur and Varanasi are considering process notes, studio photos, digital signatures and metadata alongside certificates of authenticity.
  7. The Delhi High Court's July interim ruling in ANI Media v OpenAI found training use fell within fair dealing; a DPIIT paper proposes a mandatory licence with statutory royalties.

The gain

An AI-led filmmaking company's chief executive said it delivered animation shots once quoted at a year of work in six weeks, at about 35% lower cost.

The full story

Several artists described lost or shrinking work. Aanchal Gupta says she sometimes loses projects because clients think her fees are high relative to what AI can produce, and she faces mismatches between AI-generated references and what can be made by hand. Aswani, an illustrator for 11 years, said she still feels insecure about her career and does not know what to tell college students asking whether artists have a future.

Authenticity checks are spreading. Bengaluru artist Isha Praneeth's submission to an online gallery went through an AI-detection check before approval. Aakriti Art Gallery director Vikram Bachhawat asks for sketches, studies or studio photos and expects proof of creation to sit beside certificates of authenticity; collectors, especially younger buyers, increasingly ask whether a work is entirely human-made. Mukesh Art Gallery's Mohit Gupta cautions that no such record would conclusively establish authorship.

Copying concerns are concrete. Wildlife artist Sudarshan Shaw says another artist took elements of his painting Nine Tigers and used AI to turn them into a video. Lawyer Salman Waris says copying and storing artworks for training is infringement unless an exception applies, that style imitation is hard to challenge, and that authorship of AI-made images depends on how much the human directed and shaped the result.

Sources

  1. JournalismLivemint2026-11-05

The debate