MBO's New AI Data Says Your Next Freelance Hire Probably Already Uses Gen AI
If you hire freelancers, MBO Partners has a useful reminder: a lot of the independent talent market is already using AI whether you ask about it or not.
In its AI in the Future of Work report, MBO says it surveyed 1,132 independent workers and 3,832 traditional workers. The headline numbers are hard to ignore:
- 74% of independent workers said they are familiar with generative AI
- 37% said they are already using Gen AI in their work
- 59% of those users said they use it for more than one application
- only 8% said their work is at risk of being replaced within five years
- 62% of nonusers said they expect to use Gen AI in the next two years
That is not a market standing still. That is a market normalizing AI use fast.
The practical part for owners is what those workers are using AI for. MBO says independent workers report using Gen AI for research and writing, creative content, coding, marketing, and administrative tasks. In other words, the tool is already sitting inside the jobs many small businesses outsource first.
That changes the hiring question.
The old question was, "Do you use AI?"
The better question is:
- What parts of the job do you automate?
- Where do you still need human judgment?
- How do you check for hallucinations or bad outputs?
- What does your review process look like before I see the final work?
Those questions matter because AI is not just a speed boost. It can also hide sloppy work if nobody is checking the output. The best freelancers will be able to explain their workflow clearly, name the failure modes, and show where they add judgment instead of just output.
MBO's report also suggests a bigger shift in the labor market. Independent workers are not panicking about AI replacement the way some employees are. They seem to see AI more as an amplifier than a threat. That makes sense for a lot of client work: if a freelancer can use AI to research faster, draft faster, and organize deliverables better, the buyer gets more leverage for the same spend.
But leverage only shows up if the business knows what it is buying.
For owners, that means three things:
- Put AI use in the scope of work, not as a mystery feature.
- Ask for examples of AI-assisted deliverables and how they were checked.
- Make sure the freelancer is responsible for accuracy, not just speed.
If you are hiring independent talent this week, assume AI is already part of the workflow. That is not a reason to lower your standards. It is a reason to raise them.
The freelancers worth paying for are the ones who know how to use Gen AI without letting it run the job.