In 2021, there was no way to really escape the online chatter about NFTs.

In fact, the Bored Ape Yacht Club market exploded to more than $1 billion over the course of the year, with prominent celebrities like rapper Eminem and NBA star Stephen Curry jumping on the trend. But it isn’t just artwork that is making waves in the NFT market. The president of Square Enix, the developer of the famous RPG series Final Fantasy, put out a statement detailing how he felt that NFTs would be a major development in gaming in 2022

Another use of an NFT is to prove ownership of a specific perk. One popular form of NFT that is found in everyday life is the fan token. It is a vehicle by which sports teams sell digital influence; for a small price, a supporter can own an NFT which gives them voting rights on certain topics or access to unique content. These tokens can be sold as well as bought and retain a value for the owner. That’s not the only form of NFT that has made it into pop culture; the rock band Kings of Leon released an entire album as an NFT early last year. This is very much the accepted ‘base level’, with innovation happening all the time, not least in the field of AI.

How will the world of AI influence NFTs in the coming years? Here are a couple of ways the two technologies could influence each other in the near future.

AI Created Art as NFTs

There has been extensive work done in the past several years around getting Artificial Intelligence to create new works of art. While many of the NFT artworks that can be seen online at the moment have been created using randomly generated features in a JPEG, true AI artwork would see far more variety and creativity than has been found in this area of the NFT marketplace. With the ability to create unique works of art quickly, this could be a great way for future NFT minters to make a profit.

NFT Avatars

AI companions are already in our homes in the form of Alexa and Siri, who help us to run household tasks such as adjusting our heating or lighting in the home. Work is being done to create AI-based avatars for this technology, which opens up the possibility for NFTs to be incorporated into the technology. They could provide proof of ownership for specific avatars for AI companions, allowing for a market to be created for specific skins or features that are developed.

Intelligent NFT Marketplaces

The real benefit that AI will bring to the NFT market will be in the form of an intelligent and adaptive approach to running the marketplace. An AI capable of spotting trends in the NFT marketplace and putting adjusting prices, listings, and other market parameters on the fly will be useful in every online shop but will have particular benefits for an emerging market like NFTs. By making the shopping experience more intuitive and adaptable, it will encourage buy-in from new customers.

Interested in other ways that AI will impact the world around us in the coming years? Check out this article on Artificial Intelligence’s impact on healthcare.