📊 Full opportunity report: The Skills Marketplace Nobody Is Building Yet on ThorstenMeyerAI.com — validation score, market gap, and execution plan.
TL;DR
While open standards and directories for AI skills exist, there is no dedicated marketplace akin to app stores. This gap presents a strategic opportunity for companies to define the next AI ecosystem layer.
Despite the existence of an open standard for AI skills and several reference implementations, a comprehensive marketplace layer has not yet been developed, creating a significant gap in the AI ecosystem that companies are poised to fill.
Since December 2025, the open standard for AI skills, documented at agentskills.io, has been adopted by major players like Anthropic and OpenAI, enabling interoperability across different models and runtimes. The standard specifies a simple format—SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter—that allows non-engineers to create, share, and deploy skills without coding expertise. Several free directories, including SkillsMP and GitHub repositories, host community skills, but none facilitate monetization or vetting beyond community trust.
While the technical groundwork exists, there is currently no dedicated marketplace layer akin to app stores for AI skills. This absence means skills are discovered mainly through GitHub stars or word of mouth, with no revenue sharing, no formal security audits, and no cross-surface portability beyond the standard. The ecosystem remains fragmented, with the potential for a few smaller companies to dominate the future landscape if they develop a marketplace that addresses these gaps.
Experts suggest that the next 9 to 18 months are critical for building this marketplace, which could become the dominant infrastructure layer for AI, capturing significant value as organizations increasingly rely on portable, reusable skills rather than monolithic models.
The skills marketplace.
The directory exists. The marketplace doesn’t. Here’s the gap — and who closes it.
There are 140+ free Agent Skills on community marketplaces today. 17 official Anthropic skills under Apache 2.0. A published open standard at agentskills.io that OpenAI’s Codex CLI adopted. Microsoft, Google, Vercel publishing skill collections. And no skills equivalent of the App Store. No revenue share. No vetted-author verification. No security audit pipeline. No paid skills at all.
Folder. Frontmatter. Instructions.
A skill is a directory containing a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter and Markdown instructions, plus optional scripts and templates. Progressive disclosure: the agent loads only metadata into context until the skill becomes relevant. The format is simple. The implication is significant.
AI skills marketplace platform
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The directory exists. The marketplace doesn’t.
Five layers, in roughly the order they emerged. The first five are real and growing. The last five are the capture gaps — each is a real product, each is uncaptured, and any company that solves four of five wins the layer.
agentskills.io · Anthropic + OpenAI · Dec 2025
AI Engineering: Building Applications with Foundation Models
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The platform owner’s incentives do not align with the developer’s.
Same structural problem that produced the App Store / Play Store / Steam separation in mobile and gaming. The platform owner extracts rent at the marketplace layer; the developer wants to publish once and distribute everywhere. The two only align if a third party owns the marketplace.
Skills as a platform retention feature.
- Cross-surface friction is a soft retention mechanism, not a bug
- Partner directory is curated to drive distribution into their stack
- Revenue share competes with the lab’s own enterprise sales motion
- Verified-publisher status is awkward when the auditor is also the model vendor
- Skills tied to one model = same problem the standard was built to solve
Three fronts the labs cannot credibly compete on.
- Cross-surface neutrality — “publish once, run on any model”
- Verified-publisher status as a paid security service
- 70/30 revenue share creates incentives for vertical specialists
- Trust calculation is cleaner: auditor ≠ model vendor
- Wins by being the only neutral broker between labs and enterprise
Ai Automation Kit PLC Programming Software, Logic Function HMI, Run Simulator
1 PLC Controller
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Smaller than you assumed. Closer than you think.
~20 engineers · $30–50M Series A · founded 2026 H2 / 2027 H1. Reference: Replicate’s positioning in model hosting — neutral, multi-vendor, developer-first. The challenge is distribution.
GitHub (= Microsoft, conflict). Cursor. Replit. Linear. The most legible path is “GitHub Skills” — but Microsoft competes at the model layer, reproducing the original problem.
Harvey in legal · a healthcare-AI company yet to emerge · Bloomberg in finance. Slower path, structurally stronger trust position. Customer never has to ask “is this skill safe?”
Transforming Cybersecurity Audit Practices with Agility and Artificial Intelligence (AI) (Security, Audit and Leadership Series)
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The 2026 H2 author looks like the 2007 YouTube creator.
Write the skills now. Capture when the marketplace ships.
The capture mechanism does not yet exist. Skills you write today have no way to charge for themselves. This is a feature, not a bug, for the next 12 months. Write skills, accumulate authorship reputation, build a portfolio that becomes legible the moment a marketplace with revenue share goes live.
The directory exists. The marketplace doesn’t. Whoever builds it captures the most defensible position in the post-model AI stack.
Four assignments. By role.
Start writing skills now.
The marketplace doesn’t exist yet but the reputation system runs on what you publish in 2026. The early-mover advantage when the marketplace ships is real. GitHub stars compound into discoverable authorship.
The window is open. Funding is favorable through Q3.
The standard is set, the demand is forming, the labs won’t build it themselves, and the second-mover penalty in marketplaces is severe. The “App Store of agents” thesis is investable today.
Demand a skill governance roadmap.
If your AI vendor’s answer is “we trust Anthropic to vet skills,” the answer is incomplete. Demand SIEM integration, audit logging, enterprise approval workflows. Current admin controls are a starting line.
The position is winnable in 2026 H2.
Natural fits: GitHub, Cursor, Replit. If you build developer tooling but aren’t one of those, you have 12 months to figure out whether your product becomes a skills publishing channel — or watches the value flow past it.
Strategic Importance of Building the Skills Marketplace
Creating a dedicated marketplace for AI skills could reshape how organizations develop, share, and monetize AI capabilities, shifting value from models to reusable artifacts. It offers a new layer of infrastructure that supports organizational-specific judgment, procedural knowledge, and tailored AI solutions. Companies that establish this marketplace early could gain a significant competitive advantage, becoming the primary gatekeepers and custodians of AI-driven organizational assets.
Emergence of Standards and Ecosystem Fragmentation
Since late 2025, the AI community has seen the development of an open standard for skills, supported by major AI vendors and community directories. However, the ecosystem remains fragmented: there is no formal marketplace, no revenue-sharing mechanisms, and limited security protocols. This situation mirrors early app store landscapes, where the platform layer was established before a robust marketplace emerged. The current environment favors smaller, agile players who can quickly build and deploy a marketplace that addresses existing gaps.
“The marketplace layer for AI skills is the missing piece that will define the next phase of AI infrastructure. Without it, the ecosystem remains fragmented and under-monetized.”
— Thorsten Meyer
Unresolved Challenges in Developing a Skills Marketplace
It remains unclear which company or consortium will successfully build the first comprehensive marketplace, and how security, vetting, and monetization will be managed at scale. The open standard provides a foundation, but the operational and commercial models are still untested. Additionally, the degree of enterprise adoption and regulatory compliance remains uncertain.
Next Steps for Market Formation and Adoption
Over the next 9 to 18 months, key players are expected to develop and launch marketplace prototypes that address discoverability, security, and monetization. Industry collaborations or consortia may emerge to establish governance standards. Monitoring these developments will be crucial, as the first successful marketplace could become the dominant platform for AI skill distribution and monetization.
Key Questions
Why is there no existing marketplace for AI skills?
While open standards and directories exist, the ecosystem has yet to develop a dedicated, scalable marketplace layer that addresses discoverability, security, vetting, and monetization.
Who could benefit most from building this marketplace?
Small to mid-sized AI vendors, platform providers, and organizations seeking control over their AI assets stand to gain early advantage by establishing a trusted, scalable marketplace.
When might we see a fully operational AI skills marketplace?
Experts estimate that a mature marketplace could emerge within 9 to 18 months, depending on industry collaboration and technological development.
What are the main challenges in creating this marketplace?
Key challenges include establishing security and vetting protocols, creating monetization models, ensuring cross-surface portability, and gaining enterprise trust and adoption.
How could this marketplace impact AI development and deployment?
It could shift value from individual models to reusable, portable skills, enabling organizations to rapidly customize and scale AI capabilities, fostering innovation and efficiency.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
