Upwork Launches New Generative AI Tools and Services Hub

Upwork, a global employment marketplace, is launching a hub dedicated to connecting companies seeking workers with technical skills specific to artificial intelligence with independent professionals with such expertise. According to Upwork, the AI ​​Services Hub is also designed to host a suite of generative AI tools emerging from OpenAI and AI content generator Jasper.

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Upwork offers free trial of Jasper Generative AI

According to Dave Bottoms, general manager of Upwork Marketplace and vice president of products, the company is making a 30-day free trial of Jasper Generative AI services for copywriting, marketing and image building available to all talent on Upwork to help them grow their business. Increase capacity. Productivity, communicating more effectively with customers and enhancing the quality of their work.

“These updates are technically found outside the AI ​​Services Hub, in other areas of the product flow,” he added.

Rising demand for AI jobs and skills

Jobs in generative AI are reportedly set to increase by 20% in the US in May 2023. According to online training and education site Coursera, top jobs in AI include positions for data scientists and engineers specializing in AI, machine learning, data, robotics and software.

Upwork is driving rapid adoption of generative AI among professionals and businesses

The company has reported an increase of over 450% in weekly job posts related to generative AI over the past year.

“AI was the fastest-growing category on our platform in the first half of 2023, as measured by the total number of individuals hired,” Bottoms said. He noted that generative AI job posts are up more than 1,000% and related searches are up more than 1,500% on Upwork (Figure A) when comparing the second quarter of 2023 to the fourth quarter of 2022.

According to Bottoms, recent research from Upwork indicates that the demand for AI skills is growing rapidly, with 64% of C-suite executives saying they would hire more professionals of all types because of generative AI.

“Businesses looking for freelance professionals on Upwork with expertise in AI tools like ChatGPT, DALL-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Jasper and more.” He added that there is a 230% increase in such job posts in the fourth quarter of 2022 as compared to the second quarter of 2023.

See: Should You Use Generative AI for Placement? Read this TechRepublic article to find out.

Interactivity is the key to the new Upwork AI Hub

The new AI Services Hub is the company’s first effort to help Upwork customers find and hire the best AI talent.

“It’s an interactive experience that helps businesses quickly connect with independent professionals with AI expertise and find ideas on how to integrate AI into their business,” he added. “For example, once there, customers can book a 1:1 consultation to get advice from an AI expert, hire a professional with experience in general AI use cases, check out the new AI Services Resource Center are and can do much more.”

OpenAI powers some of the features in Upwork’s new hub

The company said that OpenAI will offer some new features in beta for job seekers and employers, including:

• A large language model job post generator designed to help recruiters post customizable job post drafts.
• A proposal tips tool for freelance professionals on Upwork to improve their proposals for specific job positions by providing clients with personalized tips on how to best demonstrate skills that meet the hiring demands.
• Guides for integrating generic AI into business.
• Research on the adoption of generic AI in the workplace.
• Access to AI and machine learning Upwork community groups
• Upwork Chat for businesses operating on the platform; It is designed to assist with tasks such as recruiting and talent search (Figure B).

Rising demand for agile engineers, creators, AI chatbot professionals, and more

“Some of the roles we’ve seen growing are acceleration engineers, AI content creators, machine learning and deep learning engineers, data scientists, AI chatbot developers, and professionals with model tuning and AI model integration expertise,” Bottoms said. “As we look at the work being sought in the market categories we support, we see talent using AI tools to enhance their workflows in nearly every category.”

Upwork aims to be the leading destination for AI-related talent and clients seeking work, he added. “In the last year alone, more than 10,000 contracts involved AI work, and more than 250 AI skills are represented by talent on Upwork.”