Who Is AI Replacing? The Impact of Generative AI on Online Freelancing Platforms

Ozge Demirci, Jonas Hannane and Xinrong Zhu

No 11276, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: 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 eight months after the introduction of ChatGPT. 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 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 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J21 J24 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ain, nep-lma and nep-tid
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