Disruption with Applied AI: How AI is disrupting Freelancing space, Market prospects vs Efficiency Upgrade

The Market Prospect:

Artificial intelligence is such a hot topic in software development that companies are even seeking freelancers to help out with their AI-based projects.

One might not normally equate AI development -- which can involve complicated, cutting-edge technologies such as cognitive computing, machine learning, deep learning and so on in long-term initiatives -- as something suitable for freelance projects, but news from freelancing battle ground are contrary to thoughts!

Upwork, which matches employers with freelancers, published data from its Web site that showed AI was the second-fastest-growing in-demand skill in the first quarter of the year. Among development-related skills, AI is No. 1, followed by skills such as natural language processing, C++ development, Swift development and others, with the AI-related machine learning skill also making the top 20 list.

Upwork said in a statement last week.

As AI continues to shape our world and influence nearly every major industry and country, companies are thinking about how to incorporate it into their business strategies, and professionals are developing skills to capitalize upon this accelerating tech trend. While some speculate that AI may be taking jobs away, others argue it's creating opportunity, which is evidenced by demand for freelancers with this skill.

"It's much easier to see when jobs go away than it is to envision the jobs that will be created but our data clearly shows that businesses are embracing AI and that it's creating enormous opportunity"

- CEO Upwork Stephane Kasriel.

Efficiency Upgrade:

Continuing the flow of emerging AI demand, I'll now share how AI is complementing & reshaping the face of freelancing & life's of freelancers.

When it comes to (human) productivity, artificial intelligence can be a great ally. Many company owners claim that robots aren’t replacing human jobs, but making it even easier for people to do them. Since many pieces of research show that a majority of repetitive tasks can be done by bots and robots, rather than wasting precious human intelligence and knowledge, why not combine them and get impeccable results? Companies like Hitlist, Cable and Wireless or Alaska Airlines saw the mentioned A.I. potential and (successfully) brought it into service.

Freelance (artificially) intelligent

Hey, and what about freelancers? The recruiting department of the biggest freelance platforms such as Upwork and Peopleperhour, claim that the majority of freelancers provide services in niches that are very likely to be replaced by AI. Yup, web design, copywriting and SEO jobs can be “in danger”, but then again if you employer prefers (human) quality over quantity, you have nothing to worry about. On the contrary, here are 10 tools based on A.I. almighty, to utilize in order to make the most out of your work and uplift your productivity.

1. Let A.I. organize your time – Futurenda

It is very common that freelancers work on several projects at the same time, so in order to meet all the deadlines, they must be well organized. Moreover, if they are hired on an hourly contract time is money, so wasting it on trivial tasks isn’t helpful at all. That’s where A.I. comes in!

Futurenda is an A.I. agenda that plans things out (especially) for freelancers by dividing to-do tasks into sessions and filling them into the agenda…fully automatic! The Futurenda founders highlight that they wanted to create an app that will manage a dynamic timetable completely by itself, so the user can fully focus on his job. This app is smart enough to keep an eye on the deadlines and adjust the agenda accordingly. Is there any reason not to tell Siri to start downloading this app right now?

2. Smarter digital marketing – Crystal.io

It is quite common to be a freelance digital marketer, but on the other hand, it isn’t that easy to manage all the social media campaigns, monitor analytics and make reports just by yourself. However, by utilizing A.I., Crystal.io makes digital marketing data smarter and simpler.

Unleash your creativity (that A.I. certainly can’t replace) and worry less about CAC, analytic charts and graphs or daily social media scheduling.

3. Make converting video stories – Flo

Everybody knows how many benefits you can get if you post goes viral. However, in order to ensure that your post will be shareable it must be creative and engaging…well that’s the hard part and company owners are seeking help. That’s why freelance platforms are full of community managers. But…not all of them have the necessary skills.

Now, this is the part when you, as a freelancer, can take advantage of artificial intelligence! To be more specific, you should try out Flo, a video editing app that auto-edits your videos into short shareable stories using Deep Learning, Computer Vision and (of course) A.I.

Video editing is certainly not that simple, it is more than that – it is very time consuming and a skillful job. That’s why you can reap the benefits that A.I. brought to Flo, just tell the app what do you want to see in your video and it will make it happen. Flo can be your very own video making assistant that will do a great job in accordance with your instructions, and it will help you to get those 5-star reviews on your profile!

4. Visually analyze user behavior – Inapptics

A business developer is one more job that is very popular among freelancers. In addition, mobile app developers are looking for consultants that will help them get as many downloads as possible…and they are paid very well.

If you want to compete with other freelancers for this popular job position, you must be aware that monitoring analytics should be an integral part of your daily activities. A perfect opportunity to get some help from A.I. is Inapptics! This app aggregates all user interaction events and turns them into heatmaps so you can see all the actions a user performs, how they navigate the app, where they tap and much more. You just have to present the results in the best possible way and suggest app improvements accordingly.

5. Make an intelligent logo – Logopony

Being a freelance graphic designer can be a very profitable job. However, if you don’t have the necessary skills, don’t even try applying for interviews…unless you ask A.I. for help here and there…

Logopony is a great tool, based on artificial intelligence and trained on a set of professional logo designers that will help you to design logos like a pro! Start with the creation of professional and high quality logos, but keep an eye on the Logopony updates since soon it will be able to provide you with a variety of designs (such as app icons, business cards, flyers, social media images etc.) that will really ensure you are one competitive freelance graphic designer!

6. More productive meetings – Wrappup

It is very common that freelancers have a lot of online meetings, especially if they work with more than one client or if they are a part of an online team. Ok, A.I. still can’t replace you on meetings, however it can summarize all the details that were mentioned, so you can always be up to date.

How? Simply by using Wrappup app! It will basically take notes on all important informations that were mentioned on the meeting in a specific Slack channel. That way, even if you miss a meeting, you can always be in the loop with summaries!

7. Spreadsheets that will blow your mind – Magic Spreadsheet

It doesn’t matter in which niche you freelance, we bet that you are always filling out various Sheets. Hey, there is an A.I. based app that will make filling Sheets both fun and (even more) useful – Magic Spreadsheet.

Like the name says, this app will really do magic: it will turn your Sheet into a dashboard where you can send tasks to your team members, or get you any piece of information within seconds.

8. A.I. images finder – Everypixel

Whether you are a freelance copywriter, community manager or digital marketer we are sure that high quality images are something that always come in handy. Everypixel is a perfect smart image search tool that will help you find a suitable image to go with your work.

Artificial intelligence algorithm made the app smart enough to help you to distinguish beautiful photos from the ones that are not that appealing.

9.Spin content like a boss – Spinnerchief

Well, here’s some good news for all of you freelance copywriters out there! – let A.I. do the content spinning for you. Yup, we know how common it is that you spin an article several times for various purposes and how time consuming it can be. That’s why, you should give SpinnerChief a chance!

You will be surprised that in just one click it will rewrite articles to a very high level of human readability and originality. Not only will you get fresh content within minutes, but it will be written in the same way Google understands it. Use this fact smart and boost your SEO!

10. Organize your network and keep in touch – Mila

Have you ever thought how many potential collaborations do you waste just because you don’t have enough time to sort out all of your contacts? Surely, way too many.

Worry no more – Mila will do it for you! This very intelligent bot will divide all of your contacts into sections and lists. That way you will have are your potential sales and marketing partners already prepared! Really, you will love Mila!

As you see, despite all the changes and career shifts artificial intelligence will bring, there are many things that will go in favor of freelancers from emerging Jobs & freelance opportunities to work remotely. Also Try out the tools we shared and take your freelancing career to the next level!

Authored By:

Mesum Raza Hemani

About: Mesum is techno-functional data analytics consultant and a budding applied AI evangelist. Currently serving Pakistan’s first business intelligence & predictive analytics startup as consultant. By passion I have started data viz practice Lucid Data Artist and voluntarily founded Karachi.AI chapter for ML enthusiasts.

Reach me:

Facebook.com/LucidDataArtist