Two jobs have seen a 21% reduction since the launch of ChatGPT

Two jobs have seen a dramatic reduction in demand since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.

Freelancers working in writing and coding related jobs have seen a fall of 21% in the workforce with the impact of generative AI technologies.

Other forms of freelance job postings focused on data entry, video and audio editing, and social media postproduction were less affected by ChatGPT, although still dropping by 13%.

Jobs focused on image-generation such as graphic design and 3D modelling saw a 17% drop in demand since the introduction of image-generating AI tools.

This research comes from a new paper published by the Imperial College Business School, Harvard Business School and the German Institute for Economic Research.

The paper, “Who is AI Replacing? The Impact of Generative AI on Online Freelancing Platforms”, looks at the impact of generative AI technologies on the demand for creative professionals who work on an hourly basis for different clients.

The researchers reviewed data on a global online freelancing job platform, of almost two million job postings on the site, spread across 61 different countries, for a two-year period between July 2021 – July 2023.

They categorised these job roles into three sectors, automation-prone, manual work and image generation. 

The study was conducted by Dr Xinrong Zhu, Assistant Professor in Marketing at Imperial College Business School, alongside Dr Ozge Demirci, a Postdoctoral Fellow from Harvard Business School and incoming Imperial Assistant Professor, and Jonas Hannane, a PhD student from the German Institute for Economic Research.

The researchers reviewed the frequency of job postings throughout the two-year period to understand the demand for freelancers working for different organisations, and whether this was influenced by the launch of ChatGPT.

They backed up these findings by reviewing patterns from Google search volume indexes, which confirmed that sectors where workers had a high awareness on generative AI and how to utilise it, such as the tech industry, exhibited a more significant decline in demand from employers.

“Though many organisations may be shifting from freelancers to generative AI, it still remains to be seen whether organisations are happy with the quality of work that AI provides in comparison to freelancers, and whether this trend will continue,” said Dr Zhu.