How freelance marketers actually feel about AI
My relationship with AI has done a full 180 since I've become self-employed, and I think it's because no one is shoving it down my throat.
When I was still in a full-time role, I remember resisting ChatGPT. Only in hindsight do I understand why: at the time, it represented a shortcut to producing output for the sake of more, not better — strategy be damned.
Fast forward about a year and a half: today, I'm self-employed and working with five clients. I use Claude multiple times a day, every day. I reach for it because I want to better my work, become more efficient, and most obviously, because I don't want to fall behind in a rapidly changing industry.
A few weeks ago, I became nosy about how other marketers are using AI, so I surveyed my Substack readership. The majority of respondents were self-employed, and I noticed an interesting split between their opinions and those of people in full-time jobs. Adopting AI because your boss mandated it is a completely different energy than choosing it yourself.
61% of freelancers feel excited about it, compared to 50% of full-timers. And 45% of freelancers report no external pressure to adopt it, while 75% of full-timers feel moderate to heavy pressure from leadership.
But the outlook on AI isn't entirely rosy for contractors — the tools are also creating new challenges, like around time-based pricing.
This week on False Start, I reflected on the survey insights and my own experience, and I share exactly how I use AI in my client work: https://lnkd.in/e2pqr4qb