OpenAI and Upwork research finds AI shifting demand for freelance work

New research from OpenAI and Upwork finds shifting demand for freelance services, new combinations of skills, and larger budgets for AI-related projects.

Research background

The research was published on November 10, 2026, by OpenAI and Upwork. The report is titled "The Rebundling of Freelance Work in the AI Age." The authors are Caroline Chin, Shagun Kala, Nadav Kunievsky, Teng Liu, Alex Martin Richmond, and Carl Shan. It is part of OpenAI's Work at the Frontier series.

OpenAI says it studies freelance work because changes in the market arrive one assignment at a time: a client needs a different service, requests a new skill, or expands a project's scope. The research offers an early view of these changes in the AI era. Some familiar services are losing market share, while AI-related projects bring together different capabilities and involve larger budgets and more hours of work.

Upwork's 2026 Future Workforce Index found that 38% of skilled U.S. knowledge workers freelance. Its previous annual study estimated that freelance knowledge work generated $1.5 trillion in U.S. earnings in 2024. Those estimates extend well beyond Upwork's own marketplace.

Activity shares on ChatGPT and Upwork

The mix of work differed across the two platforms. Writing accounted for a much larger share of ChatGPT use, while video and animation accounted for larger shares of requests for freelancers in Upwork postings.

The selected categories show some of the clearest contrasts in activity on the two platforms. ChatGPT shares cover January 2025 to June 2026. Upwork shares are H1 2026. Changes in Upwork share are H1 2025 to H1 2026, in percentage points.

• Mobile development: ChatGPT 0.18%, Upwork 1.02%
• Video & animation: ChatGPT 1.02%, Upwork 6.52%
• Customer service & tech support: ChatGPT 6.52%, Upwork 10.18%
• Professional & business writing: ChatGPT 10.18%, Upwork 2.30%
• Graphic, editorial & presentation design: ChatGPT 2.30%, Upwork 14.45%
• Content writing: ChatGPT 14.45%, Upwork 7.81%

Freelance demand is shifting as AI use grows

Many activities that were relatively common in ChatGPT lost share on Upwork, while less common activities gained share. Of the 63 work categories analyzed, 43 followed this pattern. The remaining 20 work categories showed the reverse. ChatGPT use alone does not explain changes in freelance demand.

The comparison also captures how people currently use ChatGPT, not the full range of tasks AI can support—a gap OpenAI calls the capability overhang.

Clients are asking for AI in more kinds of work

By late 2025, clients were requesting the use of AI in many more, different kinds of work. Clients were seeking freelancers to apply AI in tasks including chatbot development, video production, marketing automation, and application integration.

Within individual projects, AI capabilities were often requested alongside other work. AI-related postings listed about as many tasks as other postings but more often combined tasks that had rarely appeared together in earlier jobs.

Some clients asked for AI-generated video, editing, and motion graphics in a single posting. The freelancer would bring those skills together to deliver a finished video.

Between early 2023 and late 2025, the mix of tasks in AI-related postings became 45% more diverse—the equivalent of an increase from about 15 equally common tasks to about 21. Early 2023: 14.6. Late 2025: 21.2.

AI-related projects have larger budgets and involve more work

Although posted hourly rates were similar for AI-related and other work, AI-related projects had larger fixed-price budgets and involved more hours of work. This pattern suggests that higher budgets may partly reflect a broader scope of work. Upwork through April 2026. Adjusted estimates compare the two groups within the same type of work and the same posting month.

Why it matters

The findings do not point to a simple substitution story. Some activities common in ChatGPT use lost share on Upwork, but this pattern was not uniform. AI-related work also spanned a wider mix of activities, combined tasks in less familiar ways, and carried larger fixed-price budgets and more hours. Together, these patterns suggest that AI may be shifting both what clients seek from freelancers and how they assemble projects.

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Sources

• openai.com: Work at the Frontier: AI’s effect on freelance work | OpenAI

This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.