A recent survey by A.Team reveals a widening gap in the tech freelance landscape, with artificial intelligence (AI) propelling top talent to new heights while leaving others struggling to keep up.
The survey of 214 highly skilled tech workers in the A.Team network found that a staggering 92% reported increased productivity due to AI tools. This advantage allows freelancers to take on more projects, leading to 80% reporting a jump in earning potential. Moreover, 91% said AI skills made them more attractive to future employers.
AI Winners and Losers
However, the survey also hints at a potential downside. While AI is empowering those already at the top of their game, it may be leaving some freelancers behind. “Those writing SEO or basic HTML code are definitely in trouble,” said the report.
A paper from a Harvard Business School researcher found a 21% decrease in the number of freelance job postings for automation-prone jobs after the rollout of ChatGPT.
Here is the experience of one freelancer highlighted in the A.Team report:
Last year Andrew Neely noticed that his gig writing freelance SEO articles and emails for a marketing firm was drying up.
At that point, ChatGPT was six months into its stratospheric rise to 100M weekly active users. Neely suspected he was one of the first victims of the white collar workers’ greatest fear: being replaced by AI.
Then Neely was accidentally cc’d on an email from the content manager at the marketing firm confirming his worst suspicions. The manager was asking someone else to take the article written by ChatGPT, which wasn’t very good, and make it better.
Neely confronted the manager. She said they were using AI as a cost-cutting exercise. Not long after that, the manager left the firm as well.
This divide raises questions about the future of freelance work. Will AI create a new class of super-freelancers who dominate the market? Or will the technology eventually democratise, levelling the playing field for everyone? It’s too early to say for sure. That said, AI is transforming the freelance landscape, and those who embrace it will be best positioned for success and greater productivity.
The A.Team survey suggests that freelancers who invest in developing their AI skills and leverage the technology effectively stand to reap significant rewards. However, it also serves as a warning to those who fail to adapt, as they risk being left behind in an increasingly AI-powered world.
AI is pushing more people into freelancing
The report suggested that the dream of the “cushy” big tech job has “burst”. After many tech workers were laid off over the past year, they realised that no job is secure, Plus, the report indicates that those surveyed want more “autonomy.” They also want to be challenged mentally.
“Working fractionally is more interesting than corporate work because you can work on that one highest impact problem that each company has at several companies,” Alex Whedon, an AI expert in the A.Team network, explained.
“I personally got bored at each company I worked at prior because I’d solve the one problem, I thought was most important and then be uninterested in the remaining problems. Today, I am far more interested in my work 10 months later because I am still working on that one high-impact problem.”
If you dream of becoming one of AI’s tech freelancing elite, then if you haven’t built an AI application yet for a corporation or startup, then perhaps now’s the time.
