Upwork becomes an ‘OpenAI shop,’ using OpenAI for team member productivity, internal operations, and across its product portfolio.

Upwork is the world's largest work marketplace, connecting businesses and freelance professionals worldwide. The platform enables companies of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises, to hire highly skilled freelance professionals to scale their workforces and solve business problems, big and small.

Upwork saw the potential for AI to transform every facet of its business. After evaluating many leading AI systems, OpenAI stood out for its ideal combination of models and applications that Upwork could immediately use to improve its product portfolio, reduce operational overhead, and surge productivity. 

“We saw ourselves becoming an ‘OpenAI shop.’ We knew we had to move quickly with our AI adoption, and OpenAI offered solutions for everything we needed. Now we’re able to leverage AI to empower our workforce, and infuse it into our product development process — helping us build new experiences that delight clients and talent on our global marketplace,” shared Adel Farahmand, VP of Partnerships and Marketplace Success at Upwork.

Upwork's internal AI incubator, Upwork Labs, began harnessing AI to tackle key customer challenges, starting with the difficulty of creating effective job posts for complex projects. This initiative led to the launch of Job Post Generator, Upwork's first OpenAI-based product. Leveraging GPT‑3.5, it streamlines job post creation, reducing the time by 80%. Clients using Job Post Generator also spend 9% more on Upwork than those who don't.

Building on this success, Upwork introduced additional unique customer experiences leveraging OpenAI, augmented by Upwork’s extensive marketplace data set:

• Upwork Chat Pro: A general-purpose work app powered by GPT‑4o that is embedded in the Upwork experience, offering tailored interactions that help freelancers tackle challenging and repetitive tasks faster, boost productivity, increase their earning potential, and improve work quality. 
• Proposal Tips: A feature utilizing OpenAI’s models to help freelancers craft one-of-a-kind, professional responses to job posts, increasing their chances of winning projects. 
• Best Match insights: A beta feature using GPT‑3.5 that helps clients identify the right freelancers for their jobs by highlighting relevant skill sets and client reviews. 

Recently, Upwork aggregated these features and more to launch Uma⁠(opens in a new window)™️ , Upwork’s Mindful AI. In addition to powering many features across the platform, Uma combines Upwork’s data with OpenAI’s models to serve as an intelligent companion to clients and freelancers on Upwork. New clients using an early version of Uma spent at a 7% higher rate in their first month on Upwork versus new clients who didn’t use Uma. This ultimately means more opportunities and success for Upwork’s freelancers. 

“We are committed to staying at the forefront of the industry by adopting and deploying AI and other emergent technologies. By leveraging AI, we empower our customers to achieve greater productivity and efficiency while producing higher-quality work outcomes. With OpenAI we are delivering cutting-edge solutions that are driving significant advancements in the way work gets done,” said Dave Bottoms, General Manager, Upwork Marketplace.

With the increase in AI capabilities came an increase in customer job posts. As the number of posts grew, Upwork wanted to ensure the posts were high-quality while reviewing for potential fraudulent activities. Fraud review traditionally requires a lengthy manual effort.

In response, Upwork launched a number of internal process automations for fraud built on OpenAI’s models, including ones that identify low-quality and scam job posts, which helped improve the quality of the Upwork marketplace and the experience for freelancers.

After an evaluation of AI tools, Upwork found that 98% of Upwork team members preferred ChatGPT Enterprise for daily productivity, as well as specialized tasks like coding and QA. As a result, Upwork now provides all team members with access to ChatGPT Enterprise.

Team members have already taken advantage by building GPTs to operationalize repetitive work, generate sales scripts, analyze data sets, create customer experience (CX) macros, and optimize content articles for SEO. Upwork is also taking advantage of OpenAI’s newly announced voice and desktop app offerings, which will allow them to embed OpenAI technology deeper into their workflows.

And it’s not just Upwork team members, but also freelancers on Upwork who are expanding their AI capabilities. Upwork created the OpenAI Experts on Upwork resource to connect OpenAI customers and businesses with expert independent professionals skilled in OpenAI technologies. Featured on Upwork's AI Services hub, it provides a direct link to professionals who can help with deploying AI solutions.

ChatGPT Enterprise has such a wide set of capabilities, it’s allowed Upwork to deprecate some software services. “When evaluating new AI software, we’ve begun asking ‘Can you do this with OpenAI?’,” says Farahmand. “We’ve found a few instances where ChatGPT can solve the problem without needing another application.” 

Looking ahead, Upwork sees AI playing an increasingly larger role in its platform. “We plan to not only continue to integrate AI into Upwork to enhance the customer experience but, more importantly, reimagine features from the ground up and expand our offerings,” says Matt Jaffe, Head of Product for Core Experiences at Upwork and founder of Upwork Labs. “AI has always been a part of our approach, and we aim to expand its capabilities even further.”

Jaffe believes the potential with AI is unlimited. “We see tremendous possibilities ahead as we continue delivering on our promise to help people get work done better, faster, and more efficiently on Upwork than anywhere else.”