The Freelancers Making AI Do the Boring Stuff — So They Can Do the Work That Actually Pays

Hannah is the founder of Digital Nomad Kit and creator of the Virtual Excellence Academy, where she's spent the last decade training 45,000 freelancers worldwide — many of them digital nomads, career changers, and people who never fit the traditional nine-to-five mold. She's watched the AI conversation shift in real time, from panic to something much more useful: a genuine competitive edge for the freelancers willing to use it well.

“I think a couple of years ago, when things were a bit fresher, there was a lot of fear,” she says. “But as time has gone on, we're realising people still hire people to do things — they just don't want to do the things they don't want to do.”

That distinction is everything. The freelancers pulling ahead right now aren't the ones who've handed their work over to AI. They're the ones who've figured out exactly which parts of the job AI should quietly take off their plate, and which parts still need a human touch.

The Gap Is Widening — And It's Not About Who Uses AI, It's About Who Uses It Well

Hannah is clear-eyed about who AI is actually helping. “It's making the gap between excellent freelancers — who've always had a good client experience, a really good skill behind them — and people who are kind of hobbyists just doing tasks. It's making that gap wider.”

For freelancers already treating their work as a real career, she says, AI isn't replacing their expertise — it's amplifying it.

Expertise paired with AI is creating so much opportunity. One freelancer I work with has almost doubled her income.

The numbers back her up. Hannah points to recent data showing a roughly 40% increase in clients specifically seeking freelancers with AI skills, and research suggesting freelancers with AI specialisation are earning around 44% more than the average. AI fluency isn't a nice-to-have anymore — it's becoming the thing that determines who gets hired.

What That Actually Looks Like in Practice

The most convincing part of Hannah's story isn't the stats — it's the specifics. She shares an example from her own community: a web designer who'd built a successful business the traditional way, over many years, and was initially nervous about AI. Now, she uses AI-assisted coding to deliver fully custom, polished websites in a single day, at a lower price point than before.

The result? She's nearly doubled her income — not by cutting corners, but by using AI to move faster through the parts of the job that used to eat her time, while her expertise still shapes every decision that matters. “They don't look like they're just made of AI code,” Hannah says, “because it's her expertise and her knowledge — knowing the language, what to ask for, what features and moving parts to include.”

Hannah's own business tells a similar story. She's built an AI-powered coworking check-in tool for her community, and an AI matchmaking system that pairs clients with freelancers, coaches them on rates, and even drafts job listings — work that used to be done entirely by hand. “It's kind of built on all the experience that we've had,” she says. “Every day I'm using it. I don't think there's an area of my business that isn't touched by it.”

Where to Actually Start (Hint: It's Probably Your Inbox)

If all of this sounds like a lot, Hannah's advice for freelancers just getting started is refreshingly simple: don't try to overhaul everything at once.

“It doesn't have to be an all-in situation,” she says. “If you can automate one small thing in your business that's day to day — even just helping you write emails — that already is a huge win.” Her suggestion: open a free ChatGPT or Claude account, feed it a handful of your own past emails so it picks up your voice, and see what it can take off your plate. Struggling with social captions? Same principle applies.

If you can automate one small thing in your business that's day to day, even just helping you write emails, that already is a huge win.

The freelancers getting real value from AI aren't the ones publishing whatever it spits out — they're the ones using it as a first draft, then adding the judgement and polish only they can bring.

AI Hasn't Replaced Anyone on Hannah's Team — And That's the Point

Perhaps the most telling detail in the whole conversation: despite AI touching nearly every part of her business, Hannah hasn't let go of a single team member. She recently hired someone purely to manage her inbox. “Does she use AI? I don't know. I don't care,” she says. “I like working with a person because it feels like a personal thing — I want someone who feels invested, and I don't feel accountable to AI.”

That's the real takeaway for freelancers weighing up what AI means for their future. It's not a replacement for the relationships, judgement, or personal touch that clients are actually paying for — it's a way to free up more time and energy to deliver more of exactly that.