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