---
id: "lib-2026-11-02-chengdu-s-art-outsourcing-city-splits-under-ai"
type: "library"
title: "Chengdu's art-outsourcing city splits under AI"
title_original: "AI冲击下，美术外包之城正在两极分化"
lang: "ZH"
org: "触乐 Chuapp (on 36Kr)"
source_type: "Practitioner post"
date: "2026-11-02"
week: "2026-W45"
url: "https://nosov.ai/library/lib-2026-11-02-chengdu-s-art-outsourcing-city-splits-under-ai/"
original_url: "https://www.36kr.com/p/4052490060240003"
tier: "B"
tier_name: "Useful, limited"
tier_reason: "Reported feature by Xu Yidan for the games outlet Chuapp (republished by 36Kr) with first-hand accounts from Chengdu art-outsourcing workers, a sales lead and a studio producer; concrete prices and budgets, but pseudonymous, anecdotal sources."
summary_basis: "full-text"
original_minutes: "14"
tags: ["future of work", "business transformation", "game art outsourcing", "labour", "pricing"]
---

# Chengdu's art-outsourcing city splits under AI

Original title: AI冲击下，美术外包之城正在两极分化

Tier B (Useful, limited): Reported feature by Xu Yidan for the games outlet Chuapp (republished by 36Kr) with first-hand accounts from Chengdu art-outsourcing workers, a sales lead and a studio producer; concrete prices and budgets, but pseudonymous, anecdotal sources.

Summary based on the full text.

## In short

A 2 November 2026 feature from Chuapp (触乐), republished by 36Kr, on Chengdu's game-art outsourcing industry. Studios moved from banning AI (2021) to requiring it be redrawn (2025) to accepting AI in outsourced work (2026), and now ask for halved deadlines. Workers say AI changes the workflow without making it faster. Cheap volume work is shrinking, while studios pay more for the parts AI handles badly, and junior training paths are closing.

## Key numbers

- 99.9%: share of domestic game-studio outsourcing orders that include AI in the workflow, per one 2D artist's projects
- at most two days: time AI saves a 3D modeller on a 30-day job
- RMB 5 million to 1-1.5 million: one producer's outsourcing spend across three past projects vs the budget for his new AI-pipeline project
- 90% vs 80%: cut in outsourced volume vs cut in outsourcing cost, because unit prices for the remaining work rose
- 20%: drop in order volume from top game studios seen by one outsourcing sales lead

## What it reports

- Pricing works in "person-days". In 2024 a 2D anime-style card illustration was priced at about RMB 1,000 per person-day, while a junior artist's salary works out to RMB 150-300 per day.
- A 2D artist says 99.9% of domestic studio orders she sees include AI. Her view: AI "changed the process, it did not speed it up". Getting a usable image out of AI can take as long as drawing it.
- A 3D modeller says AI-generated models look tidy but fail client specs (for example 5,000 faces where 1,000 are allowed). On a 30-day job AI saves at most two days, and he has mostly stopped using it.
- AI-made reference sheets from clients sometimes have structures that do not line up, which adds rework for the vendor.
- A submitted file with a layer labelled "AI generated" is treated as a major incident, and everyone in the delivery chain is penalised.
- Prices: a high-detail illustration that fetched about RMB 13,000 at the peak is now roughly halved, with the artist redrawing the same amount of work. One client cut a 10-person-day job to 5; delivery took 7.
- Top studios' order volume is down 20%, per one sales lead; one former client has stopped outsourcing and is building an in-house AI pipeline.
- A producer building an AI 3D pipeline: three past projects spent RMB 5 million on outsourcing; the new one budgets RMB 1-1.5 million. Volume falls 90% but cost only 80%, because he pays double for the remaining 10% (concept art, key poses, effects). Pose work that took 30 days is now 5-10 days outsourced, with AI filling in-between frames.
- Rumours among vendors: one firm cut 80% of staff; others stopped hiring juniors. Larger vendors are moving to full-package and co-development contracts.

## How they got it

Interviews with about seven people in Chengdu's outsourcing scene (artists, a 3D modeller, sales leads, a vendor business head, a studio producer and an intern), mostly under pseudonyms. Figures are the interviewees' own estimates and examples.

## Limits

- Anecdotal and pseudonymous; no company data or survey.
- The 99.9% figure is one artist's impression of her own projects; the 80% layoff and "100,000 outsourcing firms" figures are hearsay.
- Covers one city and one industry, mostly the domestic Chinese market; overseas clients are described as more cautious about AI.

## Why it matters for companies

Buyers of creative services are pricing AI savings into contracts before the savings exist on the vendor side, and the gap lands on the workers. The producer's numbers show a pattern worth checking in any outsourced function: volume collapses, but unit prices rise for the work AI cannot do, so savings are smaller than the volume cut suggests. The loss of junior training paths is a supplier-base risk for firms that will still need senior talent later.

## Key passages in translation

> 对于我们干活的人来说，AI就是改变了工程流程，并没有提速。

For those of us doing the work, AI changed the process. It did not speed it up.

> 而且，30天的工期，AI最多也就能节约两天。

And on a 30-day schedule, AI saves two days at most.

> 整体量缩减了90%，但单价提升了，成本只降低了80%，因为你愿意花双倍的价钱买那10%。

Overall volume fell 90%, but unit prices rose, so cost fell only 80%, because you are willing to pay double for that 10%.

Original: https://www.36kr.com/p/4052490060240003