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The Freelance Opportunity In AI Is Huge: How Experfy Is Leading The Way

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The title of a recent article in Workforce magazine was blunt: “AI is coming and HR is not prepared”.  So was the author’s conclusion:

IBM, PwC and Deloitte (among others) have all done surveys on AI’s impact on HR in the last 18 months, and the message is clear: companies want AI, but they don’t have the talent, leadership or confidence in their human resources team to make it happen.”

That is a worrisome summary.  Industry is betting big on AI and big data, viewing it as a foundational technology that will reset the “S Curve” and propel a transformative era in work.  Here are some recent stats:

  • IDC forecasts that investments in AI will grow from $12 billion dollars in 2017 to almost $60 billion in 2021.
  • Deloitte predicts the number of AI /machine learning implementations will double in 2018 compared to 2017, and double in 2019.
  • A Fortune survey of AI experts estimates that as many as 40% of the jobs as we know them today will be replaced in the next 15 years.
  • 82% of enterprise AI early adopters are seeing a positive ROI from their production-level projects this year.
  • 74% of a recent MemSQL survey respondents see AI to be a game changer that will transform their job and industry.
  • 69% of enterprises are facing a “moderate, major or extreme” skills gap in staffing their new AI-driven business models and projects.
  • 59% of companies use AI-enabled enterprise software purpose to streamline sales processes, and workflows directly and indirectly impacting jobs and skills.

What will it take to bring AI mainstream?  Three things: the technical expertise to develop and innovate, the organizational skills to successfully implement and embed this innovation into our daily work, and the leadership know-how to make best use and wisely invest.

So, however you slice it success in AI depends first on expertise and education.  Workforce reports that 120 million workers in the world’s 10 largest economies will need retraining.  An IBM report, “Unplug from the past found that only a quarter of HR leaders think their organization will meaningfully address the skill gap.

Lots of big companies offer AI expertise: IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, and a host of other big and small organizations and online talent marketplaces like Upwork, Fiverr and Toptal.  But no company I’ve found has the depth and breadth of expertise and experience that Experfy offers.  Led by co-founders Sarabjot Kaur and Harpreet Singh, and incubated in the Harvard Innovation Lab, Experfy has assembled a community of 30,000 global experts working in wide range of disciplines and industry applications.

The company is a Gartner Cool Vendor award winner, which is impressive.  But, lots of online talent marketplaces offer AI talent, and many win awards.  So what’s really interesting about Experfy?

First, the range and depth of Experfy expertise is striking.  They have clearly assembled an impressive community of AI and data science specialists covering broad range of industries, geographies, disciplines and applications.   I also found it interesting that both individual freelancers and small boutique AI agencies sit on the platform.  Co-CEO Singh mentioned that many of these small firm-within-a-firm combinations were the consequence of a successful Experfy collaboration.

Second, Experfy uniquely sees learning and development as key to their vision, reflecting the founders' deep academic roots at Harvard.  It also makes good business sense.  As Singh explained, “We were particularly conscious about naming our startup.  We called it Experfy because if you engage with us, you’ll Experfy yourself.” I’m reminded of the great salesman Sy Syms who said, “An educated consumer is my best customer.”

Experfy is accomplishing its educational mission through tech.  Take the example of AI in the actuarial sciences: Experfy brought together a panel of experts to build self-paced training courses in AI for actuaries.  They are creating equivalent curricula in a variety of other fields, working closely with Harvard’s School of Education.  Singh points out that client organizations can commission highly specialized new mini-courses or arrange for expert mentorships. For example, he says, “One company is creating content on drones and AI, while another has established a mentorship program on algorithmic trading of financial derivatives.” Cigna, for example, uses Experfy faculty to help it develop new data scientists from scratch.

Third, Experfy sees itself as an AI community builder.  By bringing together experts for education and mentoring, and by facilitating collaborations between individual freelancers and teams, Singh sees Experfy as playing its part in creating a global community of AI experts, and contributing to the ongoing development of AI.  As he describes it, “Our mission is to close the skills gap.”

Fourth, Experfy is expanding its educational role by creating certification tracks that define and assess professional competence in AI applications.  It has also begun a new initiative to assess and benchmark employee competence and design learning paths that can be highly personalized for each employee. Their plan is to provide these tools at low or no cost.

Fifth, Experfy is now piloting the creation of Experfy Cloud, a unique “future of work” talent platform, with companies like Deloitte, that combine direct access to its 30,000 AI experts as well as the ability to include other advisors, employees, alumni and retirees on the platform, creating its own flexible blended workforce.

There’s no doubt that AI is a powerful competitive resource for organizations building real capability.  81% of Fortune 500 CEO’s see AI as a crucial area for investment and almost three quarters see the accelerating pace of technology change as a key challenge.

I'm eager to see how Experfy continues to develop.  There are many vertically aligned online talent marketplaces, of course, and I am introduced to a new startup at least weekly.  What makes Experfy interesting is its focus on AI, the broad and deep expertise it represents, and the way its mission fuses commercial and educational goals.  I like the practicality of its educational commitment, and their recognition of the critical role of education in diffusing innovations like AI.  When you really come down to it, AI is as much a cultural and strategic change as it is technological.

How important is AI and therefore Experfy? One Forbes contributor put it this way:  “Call it the CEO's existential challenge: in today's blindingly fast world of digital business, it's no longer enough for every business to become a software business—instead, the new imperative here in our increasingly data-driven economy is that every company must become an AI company.”

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