This paper studies the impact of Generative AI technologies on the demand for online freelancers using a large dataset from a leading global freelancing platform.

We identify the types of jobs that are more affected by Generative AI and quantify the magnitude of the heterogeneous impact.

Our findings indicate a 21% decrease in the number of job posts for automation-prone jobs related to writing and coding, compared to jobs requiring manual-intensive skills, within 8 months after the introduction of ChatGPT-3. We show that the reduction in the number of job posts increases competition among freelancers while the remaining automation-prone jobs are of greater complexity and offer higher pay. We also find that the introduction of Image-generating AI technologies [diffusion models] led to a 17% decrease in the number of job posts related to image creation.

We use Google Trends to show that the more pronounced decline in the demand for freelancers within automation-prone jobs correlates with their higher public awareness of ChatGPT’s substitutability.

[Keywords: generative AI, large language models, ChatGPT, digital freelancing platforms]

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