Hayden Brown said Upwork's AI category is growing more than 22% year over year.
“our own AI category growing over 22% year over year.”
Person
Hayden Brown
1 episodes · 16 quoted claims
Hayden Brown said freelancing among US knowledge workers rose from 28% to 38% in a year, per an Upwork survey.
“Our most recent survey showed a ten point increase in freelancing in the US. within knowledge workers. It's at 38% of the population today. It was at 28% just a year ago.”
Hayden Brown said about 60% of jobs that exist today did not exist in 1940.
“I think it's 60% of jobs that exist today did not exist in 1940.”
Hayden Brown said an Upwork survey found 23% of its clients had moved work back to humans from AI or were about to.
“a recent survey we did showed that 23% of our own clients have actually already moved work back to humans from AI or are about to do so.”
Hayden Brown said adding a little human expertise to agent work raised the success rate by more than 70%.
“suddenly the success rate goes up more than 70%.”
Upwork launched an MCP server capability that lets AI agents authenticate with the platform so it can identify them.
“we launched this, what's called the MCP server, but really is a capability to let agents authenticate with Upwork so we know who they are”
Hayden Brown said authenticated agents on Upwork can post jobs, make hires and manage projects.
“they can go forward, help post jobs, make make hires, uh, manage projects, et cetera.”
Hayden Brown said Upwork had 18 million freelancers active in the last year.
“across, you know, 18 million freelancers, uh, that were active in the last year.”
Hayden Brown said ChatGPT has more than 900 million users and Anthropic is growing quickly each quarter.
“with 900 plus million users on ChatGPT, you know, Anthropic, uh, growing so massively, you know, quarter by quarter.”
Hayden Brown said Upwork can get ten times savings or more in some use cases by using open source models inside its own environment.
“there are definitely use cases where we know we can get, you know, ten x savings or more by using open source models”
Hayden Brown said 58% of current full-time employees are thinking about becoming freelancers.
“58% of current full-time employees are actually thinking about becoming freelancers”
Hayden Brown said 42% of Gen Z are freelancing.
“Gen Z is the biggest one. 42% of Gen Z are freelancing.”
Hayden Brown said freelancers with AI skills earn 34% more per hour than those without.
“Uh, freelancers that have AI skills are earning 34% more hour than folks who don't have AI skills.”
Upwork built an internal AI tool called Crystal Ball with access to company data, which Hayden Brown uses to query the database in natural language.
“we've set up, uh, a very powerful tool, we call it Crystal Ball, and it has access to all of our internal data.”
Hayden Brown said a new generalist role called the AI orchestrator is becoming popular on Upwork.
“the AI orchestrator. This is becoming extremely popular on our platform because people are looking for someone who can orchestrate and use these AI tools”
Hayden Brown said that before the 2008-2009 Great Recession, people felt secure in full-time jobs, and the recession pushed many to see portfolio freelancing as more secure.
“Before the 2008, 2009, uh, great recession, uh, people at that time, I think, felt they were very secure in a full-time job.”