The proliferation of generative AI has ushered in a transformative era in visual content creation. Capable of producing photorealistic images from text prompts in seconds, tools like Midjourney, DALL·E, and Adobe Firefly are reshaping how businesses and individuals source images.
The global stock photography market was valued at $4.65 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow to $6.97 billion by 2030. In parallel, the AI image generator market is on an exponential growth trajectory: from $300 million in 2023, it is projected to reach anywhere between $917 million and $60.8 billion by 2030, with compound annual growth rates ranging from 17.4% to 38.2%. While the stock image market grows steadily, AI image generation is accelerating at a vastly higher rate, signalling a disruptive force that could overtake significant portions of traditional licensing.
Using conservative modelling, if generative AI displaces just 5% to 15% of demand for stock images, that represents $232 million to $698 million in potential annual loss globally.
