XPlace survey: freelancers in Israel are largely adopting AI tools in their work

The division into fields is varied, but the majority of respondents stated that they are engaged in the field of website building and software development (22%), finance (10%), design, graphics and branding (10%), architecture and interior design (9%), writing and editing (8%), marketing and social media (4%) and more.

Unlike salaried employees who were asked, in previous surveys by the research department at AllJobs regarding the scope of their use of AI tools in their field of work, which stands at 55% adoption of the technologies, the freelancers in Israel have fully adopted the use of these tools – according to 86% who reported that they use the various AI tools in their work. 57% of survey respondents use it daily.

The maximum use is in tools based on language models and then design and content creation tools. The most popular are ChatGPT with 91% of respondents, 57% in Gemini, 29% in Claude, 25% in Copilot. In the areas of design and creating visual content, 8% indicated the use of MidJourney, and 8% DALL-E and some indicated additional tools but in small percentages.

83% use AI to write code, 76% to create design ideas

How these tools are used is also important. According to the survey respondents who use tools for developing and building websites, the maximum use is for writing code (83%), creating interfaces and designing (58%), testing and fixing bugs (53%), optimizing performance and loading speed (22%) and automating processes (17%).

In contrast, in the design process, the most common use is inspiration and brainstorming (76%), creating sketches and simulations (71%), illustrations (47%), designing graphic elements (35%).

In writing jobs, almost all respondents indicated that they use tools for creating content skeletons and sketches for articles (91%), editing and improving existing content (64%), brainstorming and generating ideas (64%), writing initial drafts of content (55%).

When done correctly, AI tools can improve personal and professional abilities, 86% of respondents agree that these tools have significantly improved their productivity. In addition, the development of freelancers through AI tools leads them to offer services they did not provide before, according to 38% of the respondents.

Improving abilities goes through learning the AI ​​tools. Most users answered that they improve by self-learning through experimenting with the tools (89%), reading articles and guides (40%), online courses (28%), discussions and sharing knowledge with colleagues and peers (24%).

But not everything is simple and there are also difficulties in using these tools. 47% indicated difficulty in formulating sufficiently precise instructions to obtain the desired results, 35% difficulty in receiving deliverables from suppliers in Hebrew, 32% high costs or restrictive commercial models, 29% technical faults or unavailability of the tools and 36% fear of over-reliance on AI tools.

60 percent of respondents: Some tasks will be replaced following the integration of AI

Of the total of those who reported not using AI tools (14% of the total survey), 43% of them stated that they prefer to maintain human involvement and control, 38% explained a lack of familiarity with the existing tools and their capabilities, 33% feared the impact on the creative process or the quality of the work and 29% felt that the tools were not suitable for their needs.

18% believe it will create new opportunities and increase demand for their field, and another 18% explained that their field requires professional expertise that AI tools cannot replace.