Freelancers are using AI tools more than other professionals

Freelancers are using AI tools more than other professionals. 20% of freelancers say they regularly use generative AI, compared with only 9% of the non-freelance workforce. This means freelancers are 2.2 times more likely to use AI ‘frequently’.

The top task they use it for is research (41%) followed by brainstorming and ideation (35%), translation (33%), and writing proposals (32%).

Freelancing platform Upwork surveyed 3,000 US workers and found that 38% of the US labor force did freelance work in the past year. Together, they contributed $1.27 trillion to the economy. Around half of them provide knowledge services such as IT or marketing, while nearly a quarter produce influencer-style content. Notably, 60% of them work remotely.

Across all work, 62% of time spent involves language tasks, so generative AI could impact a wide range of jobs. The roles most exposed to automation are clerks, management analysts, and telemarketers. However, the adoption of large language models is also likely to create new roles, including AI developers, interface designers, data curators, and AI ethics and governance specialists.