What the jobs report isn't telling you about AI & the workforce, with Upwork’s Hayden Brown

What the jobs report isn't telling you about AI & the workforce, with Upwork’s Hayden Brown

From Masters of Scale by WaitWhat

August 18, 2026 · 30 min

About this episode

Hayden Brown discusses the impact of AI on the workforce and the discrepancies between AI hype and reality.

Few leaders have a better real-time read on how AI is actually reshaping the workforce than Hayden Brown. As CEO of Upwork, the platform where 18 million freelancers meet the businesses that need them, she sees what the monthly jobs report can't: which skills are surging, which jobs are quietly disappearing, and why 23% of businesses that moved work to AI are already bringing humans back. Brown joins Rapid Response to share what she's actually seeing on the ground, why she refused to blame AI when she laid off a quarter of Upwork's staff, and what the data says about the gap between AI hype and AI reality. Visit the Rapid Response website here: https://www.rapidresponseshow.com/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

People in this episode

Guest: Hayden Brown

Topics covered

  • AI
  • workforce
  • freelancing
  • jobs report
  • business
  • layoffs

Keywords

  • AI
  • workforce
  • freelancers
  • jobs report
  • Upwork
  • business
  • layoffs
  • skills
  • data

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Upwork, Rapid Response

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