How is AI impacting freelancers?

In what seems like a relatively short space of time, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has established itself as an indispensable tool in the business world. Although it’s been present (in some capacity) since the mid-1900s, only recently have we truly started to grasp the vast potential of this transformative technology.

In business, both owners and employees can leverage AI to support them in their everyday responsibilities. In particular, the time-saving benefits on offer can help companies streamline operations and allocate resources more efficiently. Different businesses will have their own internal policies on recommended AI use; in what is a largely ungoverned industry, owners have to set their own frameworks for proper practices.

But what about freelancers who are looking to blaze their own trail in the corporate world? In this post, we explore some of the most prevalent ways in which AI is impacting the professional life of freelancers.

Work tasks

Freelancers in a range of different industries are taking advantage of AI tools to help them complete work tasks more efficiently and to a higher standard. For example, copywriters can leverage AI to find inspiration or hooks for their content to help them overcome writer’s block.

Similarly, a web designer can use it to analyse data about a website’s performance, or even to identify technical issues with a site. The technology has the ability to interpret huge amounts of data far more efficiently than humans can, allowing professionals to spend more of their time on the tasks that require human insight and creativity.

Especially in creative roles, experts recommend that freelancers don’t rely entirely on AI to produce the end product. AI-generated content is essentially just recycled material that’s been sourced from different places on the internet. The technology isn’t yet able to think for itself, so using AI without applying your own input and expertise means you’ll run the risk of plagiarising existing content. In addition, any output needs to be fact checked and proofread, largely to make it more accessible to a human audience.

Planning and scheduling

When freelancers are working to multiple deadlines for different projects, organisation and time management is key. These are skills you’ve likely developed yourself over the years and by now you might have experimented with different methods and found an approach that works best for you. However, there’s a chance that AI could be used to enhance your existing workflows and processes, without changing them entirely.

Broadly speaking, AI is capable of handling mundane tasks that reduce the amount of time you have to spend on your core responsibilities. Whether it’s creating and sending invoices or scheduling meetings with your clients, tasks that traditionally take a long time can be handled more efficiently by AI – when it’s used in the right way. When it comes to scheduling, the technology can learn from your existing workflows and provide key insights to help you optimise your working patterns. With AI able to learn and personalise its recommendations over time, integrating these tools into your workflow could yield both instant and long-term results.

Finding roles and sending applications

Freelancing is an incredibly competitive pursuit. No matter which industry you work in, companies are always looking for the best talent at the lowest rate. That’s why it’s so important to ensure your application stands out from the competition – this is where AI can help. According to recent stats, when asked what they use AI for, 30% of people said they use it to help them prepare for interviews, highlighting just how prominent it is in the modern job hunting process.

When it comes to finding the right positions, machine learning tools can analyse personal skill sets and past experience to filter through job boards and present you with the most relevant roles. Not only could this approach pull out positions you might otherwise have missed, but it saves you from manually trawling through job sites yourself, saving a huge amount of time.

When it comes to your application documents, natural language processing tools are adept at both optimising existing CVs and cover letters, and helping you to tailor entirely new ones to each application. In the same way you should be cautious when using AI to create professional content, you shouldn’t rely on these systems to draft your documents word for word. A cover letter written exclusively by AI isn’t going to help you stand out from the crowd and won’t appeal to human recruiters. Make sure you still give your documents a personal touch, and use AI sparingly when it comes to content creation.

Leverage AI effectively

While the corporate world has mixed opinions on the role of AI in modern business, there’s little doubt that freelancers who fail to embrace the technology run the risk of being left behind in an incredibly competitive landscape. If you’re new to the tech, familiarise yourself with popular tools and see how you could integrate them into your workflow. When used in the right way, AI can truly be a game changer for freelancers.