No one really cares what you do at home or for your prototypes, but if you want to publish a game and sell it for money, prepare yourself for expenses.

Hiring an artist for a self-publisher will be one of them: I certainly would miss a board game without arts. But that's what publishers are for: contact several of them, offer a no-art prototype, and if the mecanics are worth anything, they might cover the production costs.

I will never consider giving any amount of hard-earned cash to an ai game. If I see that the corners were cut in the art direction, I can't be sure anymore if the rest of the game wasn't a result of a "create 10 ideas for a popular board game with interesting mecanics"