Putting AI to work at Upwork

OpenAI

Upwork puts AI to work, uniting team members, operations and product development

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 improves the customer experience with new features built on the latest OpenAI models

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: