AI may be turning some freelance markets into price contests, where strong profiles carry less weight.

Before AI, a better profile, stronger experience, and better reputation helped workers stand out.

After ChatGPT, those signals mattered less in AI-exposed jobs, and cheaper workers gained relative demand.

They find that in the most AI-exposed jobs, human capital signals became about 7.8% less important after ChatGPT, while price became about 1.1% more important.

They also find that strong-profile workers lost part of their demand edge, and demand shifted more toward cheaper workers, which supports the idea that AI made these workers seem more interchangeable.

– arxiv. org/abs/2606.21880

Title: "Human Capital, AI, and Labor Commoditization"