The world of work is undergoing rapid, profound transformation. It feels like we’re living through what used to be years of change every six months.
As a result, for millions of professionals around the globe, the very concept of a “job” has been and continues to change—from discrete and straightforward to fluid and complex; from co-located to distributed and from localized to globalized; from permanent to contract, fractional and freelance.
We’re moving into a skills-based economy, where what truly matters is not our job titles but the skills and talents we each bring to the table. More and more, businesses of all sizes are looking for professionals who can deliver real results using cutting-edge technology, and they’re willing to pay a premium for that expertise.
Leaders of these businesses, whether from startups or Fortune 100 companies, are grappling with how they can innovate, adapt, and excel amid all this change and disruption. They’re wondering:
“How do I produce and innovate, even in a world of constraint? How can I get all the work done, at speed and within budget?”
“The talent sources I’m used to hiring from are running dry. Where can I find the people I need?”
“How can I maintain trust, morale, and productivity when people are working from home? Or living three time zones away?”
“We need to deliver a huge tech implementation, but I don’t have the right people or tools to get it done. How do I bring in the right experts to fuel my business right now?”
These questions and challenges are only intensifying as we navigate the rapid ascent of artificial intelligence. AI is reshaping how we work, and we are using it to reshape Upwork. We’re embracing its potential, excited about how AI can redefine the Upwork experience to make it even easier for businesses and freelance professionals to get incredible work done together.
Through our Upwork Updates: Fall 2024 collection of products, features and partnerships, we continue to introduce innovations for freelancers and clients that make Upwork an even more indispensable partner for navigating the future of work. One of our most significant updates is to Uma, Upwork’s Mindful AI, which we introduced earlier this year. Uma is more than just an AI tool; it’s an intelligent work companion empowering both freelancers and businesses to achieve their work goals with unprecedented speed, efficiency, and quality.
From helping freelancers write better proposals to assisting clients in evaluating those proposals and candidates for a job, Uma is already transforming the search, match and hiring process on the Upwork platform. And this is only the start of what’s possible with Uma. We’re continuously enhancing Uma to help freelancers write code, draft content, manage projects and more—both through its own capabilities and integration with our best-in-class ecosystem of partners—making it faster and easier than ever to achieve high-quality work outcomes through Upwork. The power of Uma’s proprietary AI, trained on the millions of work interactions that occur every day on our platform, represents a groundbreaking new direction for how to get work done.
Traditionally, businesses have come to Upwork to hire the right talent; we’ve provided that critical service and value for years. Today, we are building a future where customers are not simply hiring freelancers to deliver incredible work—they’re getting complete work outcomes on-demand, right on Upwork.
Historically, coming to Upwork has been like shopping at a supermarket, where businesses are responsible for knowing the recipe and hand-selecting all of the ingredients—the critical talent—that they need. Sometimes that’s exactly what customers want. Other times, they’d rather sit down at a restaurant and be served a complete meal.
With Uma, we’re expanding from serving up individual ingredients to taking on more of the work itself, or delivering a fully cooked meal for our customers. This means our clients and freelancers worry less about project management, coordination, decision-making, and the hassle that typically comes with executing complex work.
Upwork is supporting our clients and talent in new ways—helping businesses move from idea to execution faster than ever, and enabling talent to move from focusing on winning projects to doing the work they love and building their entrepreneurial careers in more enjoyable and successful ways.
As an example, let’s say a client wants to build an AI chatbot for their tutoring business, one that can teach students calculus, algebra, and physics. With Uma, the client simply tells Upwork what they want. Uma will then identify the top AI experts, gather data labelers with the relevant subject matter expertise, and pull together the right technology tools to build the chatbot. Our Upwork team will work in conjunction with Uma to manage the entire process, from selecting the best expert talent to delivering the final product, allowing the client to focus on growing their business while Upwork handles the heavy lifting of the project.
Whether you’re a small business needing an e-commerce website or a Fortune 100 company seeking an advanced SEO strategy, Upwork will be able to deliver complete work outcomes tailored specifically to your needs.
At Upwork, we’re not just imagining the future of work—we’re building it, right alongside our customers. We’re using AI to turbocharge their productivity. We’re combining the power of technology with the power of the world’s largest network of highly skilled freelancers and the deep expertise of our own team to help clients move from idea to execution and dream to delivery, faster and better than ever before.
For amazing talented freelance professionals and entrepreneurs across the creator economy, there is no more exciting place to craft a career centered on freedom, flexibility, and the utilization of AI tools that empower you to focus on doing the work you love, building your business, and maximizing your earnings potential.
Every day we are inspired to co-create the future of work. We hope you’ll join us.
Find out more about our latest innovations shaping the future of work at upwork.com/updates.
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