Generative AI continues to dominate public discourse and is reshaping the work landscape. At Upwork, we’re seeing firsthand the transformative impact generative AI is having on professionals and companies alike, supercharging productivity and efficiency for talent and businesses that need to get mission-critical work done.
New technology amplified by human ingenuity is capable of more than either can do alone; this is the premise behind our recently launched AI Services hub and the core insight underpinning our ongoing “Work, Smarter” campaign. As the world’s work marketplace, we’re in a unique position to empower talent with differentiated access to tools, resources, and insights to help them succeed in this new AI-powered era of work.
To help skilled professionals on Upwork become the most AI-enabled talent in the world, we’re introducing a central destination within the AI Services hub built just for skilled independent professionals. Here talent can find AI-oriented apps, offers for discounts on the best tools, and educational content, in addition to AI-related projects. We’re also launching early access to Upwork Chat Pro, a new GPT-4-powered app, currently live as a beta, developed by Upwork to give independent professionals the opportunity to start and complete work faster and more effectively.
We believe that empowering skilled talent with access to the best AI tools, apps, and resources will lead to greater productivity, higher freelancer earnings, and, ultimately, better outcomes for clients. We know independent talent on Upwork are interested in leveraging generative AI in their workflows.
Our latest research from the Upwork Research Institute shows that over three-quarters (76%) of freelancers have high confidence in their ability to learn new AI tools. Independent professionals believe generative AI can help them be more efficient and productive. But, given the flood of tools reaching the market, there is uncertainty about the best tools to meet a specific need, or how to incorporate a new tool into common workflows.
Earlier this year Upwork began offering direct access to generative AI apps for the professionals on our marketplace. We started with generative AI services from Jasper for copywriting, marketing, and image creation. Through partnership with Jasper, all talent on Upwork had access to this tool, enabling them to unlock opportunities to increase their productivity, communicate more effectively with clients, and elevate the quality of their work.
Today, we’re building on our commitment to empower talent on Upwork to be the world’s most AI-enabled independent professionals. By partnering with leading providers like Adobe, Amazon, Miro, and ClickUp, we’re able to curate and present the most advanced AI tools, without leaving the Upwork platform. Independent talent on Upwork now have access to:
In addition to these new tools, we’ve introduced an AI Education Library via Upwork Academy. This will enable talent to easily access AI skills and powerful capabilities they can use to mobilize these apps and unlock new projects on Upwork. This AI education module includes:
AI isn’t new to Upwork. But advances in machine learning and data science techniques have led to tuning large language models (LLMs) that enable a more robust Upwork experience that is even more powerful than ever for customers on our marketplace.
In July, we announced new beta features powered by OpenAI that include an AI-powered job post generator, an Upwork chat experience, and automated proposal tips for talent. Today, we’re building on these features with the beta premiere of Upwork Chat Pro, a generative AI app deeply integrated into our platform and powered by GPT-4, OpenAI’s most advanced LLM.
The new app leverages unique insights from Upwork about independent professionals to provide specific, contextualized responses and recommendations relevant to the needs of professionals on Upwork. The ultimate goal for the app is to help independent professionals start, create, and complete projects more efficiently and effectively.
We will begin making the app available to independent professionals on Upwork over the coming months, and those interested in the experience can sign up on the waitlist (must be logged in to access). Upwork Chat Pro takes us another step forward in delivering on our promise to help people find economic opportunities and get work done better, faster, and more efficiently on Upwork.
The magic of our marketplace starts with our ability to match the best talent with the right business needs. It extends to our unique position as a two-sided marketplace that can introduce our talent pool to differentiated access to a comprehensive array of AI-based tools and resources. This allows them to be best equipped to provide maximum value to clients and quickly adapt to ever-changing market demands.
As we look ahead to 2024, we will continue exploring the best ways to help our customers take advantage of the opportunities generative AI presents. We plan to build on today’s updates and continue to provide support to independent professionals on Upwork.
What does that look like? It means more apps so talent have the best tools to increase their productivity. It means more offers so talent receive unique access to work solutions. And it means a lot more features and functionality from our team so talent have an ideal experience and are set up to do their best work. The field of generative AI isn’t slowing down, and our innovation isn’t going to slow down, either. Our plan to innovate, iterate, optimize and create value for our customers will only accelerate in the months and years to come.