New research shows the share of skilled knowledge workers who freelance jumped from 28% to 38% in one year, as AI raises the premium on judgment-driven work and pressures execution tasks
PALO ALTO, Calif., July 14, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Upwork Inc. (Nasdaq: UPWK), the world's human and AI-powered work marketplace, today released its second annual Future Workforce Index 2026, a study of 2,400 U.S.-based skilled knowledge workers combined with Upwork Marketplace platform data. The research finds that over 1 in 3 skilled U.S. knowledge workers now freelance, up from roughly 1 in 4 a year ago, as AI restructures which work commands a premium.
The Future Workforce Index is Upwork's annual research report on the future of work, exploring how AI adoption, workforce models, and changing career preferences are reshaping skilled work. Key findings from the report include:
Not all AI work is gaining value, and the split comes down to judgment, not just usage. Freelancers performing AI work on the Upwork Marketplace earn 34% more per hour than those not incorporating AI, but not all AI work is becoming more valuable. For example, generative AI and creative production work saw 90% year-over-year growth in contract starts while per-contract earnings declined 13%, suggesting that lower-complexity AI execution may become less lucrative as it scales.
Complex AI-augmented work is driving higher earnings and new roles. Freelancers doing more complex work with AI saw earnings increase 45% year-over-year. AI-augmented professional services — where domain experts integrate AI into established fields — grew 72% in volume with earnings rising 22%. The research points to the early emergence of the "AI Orchestrator": a professional who connects AI tools to domain expertise, applies human judgment, and turns AI-enabled execution into business outcomes.
Skilled freelancing is accelerating. Skilled freelancers now represent 38% of U.S. knowledge workers, up from 28% the prior year. At the same time, 58% of full-time employees now say they are considering freelancing, up from 36% the prior year. This shift suggests workers are seeking out more control over how they build expertise, choose projects, and monetize their capabilities as AI reshapes which skills are valuable.
Freelancers are among the fastest adopters of new tools, which makes their earnings and behavior a reliable early signal for where the broader labor market is heading. The findings suggest that the next phase of AI adoption will depend less on deploying more tools and more on developing and accessing the human expertise required to make them useful.