The Real Power Skill in an AI World

Freelancers are a powerful force in today’s world of work—in 2024, freelancers in the U.S. generated collective earnings of $1.5 trillion. More than one in four skilled knowledge workers now freelance—and their full-time counterparts are taking notice.

We expect to see the ranks of freelancers continue to grow over the course of 2025. And while success as a freelancer depends on several factors, there’s an increasingly important signal that indicates whether someone will be able to build a good career as a freelance knowledge worker: How well can they adapt?

The knowledge work battle

As the managing director of Upwork’s Research Institute, I’ve long been a proponent of freelancers and full-time employees working side by side. Not everyone wants to freelance, and that’s OK. When companies source freelance professionals who can provide specific skills, everybody wins. Nearly one-third of C-suite executives say that freelancers are highly essential to their operations, and 49% of full-time employees rely on freelancers’ skills in web design, generative AI, and more.

This means that the real knowledge work battle isn’t freelancers vs. full-time employees. Ultimately, how someone is paid isn’t what drives their greater success as a knowledge worker. It’s a matter of who can best adapt—specifically using AI to augment, not just automate…and make their work more effective and efficient in turn. 

Listen to Work Week: Which Skills Are the Most Valuable in an AI-Powered World of Work?

Why freelancers are winning at AI

Right now, freelancers are showing they’re the most adept at using AI for work. 

Roughly 54% of skilled freelancers report that they have advanced AI skills, allowing them to use this technology professionally. Only 38% of full-time employees report the same level of AI experience and comfort. 

Interestingly, more than 80% of freelancers and full-time employees say that they’re learning new skills on a regular basis—so why are freelancers so much more comfortable with AI? 

Intentional upskilling

Part of the difference is due to how freelancers and full-time employees access learning and skill development. Full-time workers receive more formal company-sponsored training and development in a push process, while freelancers seek out a mix of formal, social, and experiential learning, a more effective as-needed pull. While 64% of freelancers partake in self-directed learning, just 41% enroll in formal certification programs. 

Freelancers also get to choose the skills they’re learning, while full-time employees typically follow a predirected set of courses or training modules. And because only 26% of business leaders are focused on innovation, creativity, and risk-taking, their employees may not be getting as much exposure to emerging AI technology as freelancers. Only 39% of full-time employees are actively self-training on AI tools versus 51% of independent professionals. 

The soft skills secret

Success with AI isn’t all about hard skills, either. While 29% of freelancers do report having extensive experience building and training machine learning models, soft skills are a big part of efficient AI use. 

Working with conversational generative AI requires soft skills like clear communication, critical thinking, and problem solving. These are all skills that freelancers naturally strengthen through networking, dealing with clients, and tackling tough projects. 

Freelancers’ top soft skills

‍

How aspiring freelancers can succeed in a competitive landscape

The future is bright for freelancers; 82% of skilled knowledge workers who freelance say that they have more work opportunities available to them now than they did a year ago. 

Only 63% of full-time employees feel the same.

It’s no wonder, then, that 36% of full-time employees are considering a switch to freelancing, and 53% of Gen Z workers are already working independently. 

Simply making the switch to freelancing isn’t enough for success, though. The most successful freelancers:

• Determine the best fit between their personality and trainable skills
• Actively seek out work that helps them improve on and learn new skills
• Learn to work with AI, whether that looks like practicing how to train AI agents or build machine learning models from the ground up

Longevity and perseverance are also important. Consider that 66% of skilled knowledge worker freelancers have been independent for three years; 18% have more than 10 years of freelance experience under their belt.

How businesses can leverage AI skills 

To tap into the AI skills that freelancers can bring to the table, many business leaders need to reframe how they think about working with independent talent. A huge majority of leaders, 95%, in fact, are uncomfortable with the idea that a worker on their team may view themselves as a business owner or entrepreneur. But one-third of all freelancers view themselves as exactly this.

More than half of business leaders are also uncomfortable with professionals who work with multiple companies at once—another key part of how most freelancers work. 

Leaders who cling to these outdated viewpoints run the risk of falling behind their more innovative counterparts who are ready and willing to work with AI-literate freelance talent. Our research indicates that companies with the highest year-over-year revenue growth are also most likely to consider freelancers and other nontraditional talent as part of their organization’s fabric. 

Half of these high revenue companies rely on managed services partners who help them bring in external talent to support key operations—and 41% leverage a mix of human and machine AI strategies, where talent works alongside AI tools. 

This ability to work with freelance talent, full-time employees, and AI all at once is one way that organizations can overcome skill gaps, become less fragile, and operate like true work innovators.

Win the AI race with adaptable freelance talent

Ultimately, whether you want to pursue a freelance career or are trying to figure out a way to bring AI into your company, the answer is clear: Learning how to use AI effectively is essential. 

For current and future freelancers, this means honing your AI skills through hands-on practice, pursuing skill certifications, and picking projects that enable you to stretch your skills—not just stick with what you already know.

Meanwhile, business leaders need to rethink what they consider to be “normal” talent and engage freelancers who can bring specific skills into their organization quickly, without the need to retrain an entire team. Services like Upwork Business Plus and Upwork Enterprise give you the exact level of support you need, from talent short lists to fully managed custom AI projects. 

Sign up for Upwork today to get started.