In the first five months of 2026, the number of assignments for copywriters and content writers on Freelancehunt fell by 51.3% year on year. The sharpest declines were recorded in formats that companies can now most easily prepare on their own with the help of AI: classic copywriting, rewriting and simple articles.
According to Freelancehunt data, the number of copywriting assignments fell by 59.1%, rewriting tasks by 55.3%, article writing by 48.0%, and editing and proofreading by 34.8%. The data do not signal the end of the content market, but rather a change in what clients are willing to pay for. A simple draft, product description, basic SEO text or reworking of existing material is no longer necessarily a standalone assignment.
“AI is not ending the text market. It is ending the cheapest model, in which the client paid mainly for a correctly written draft. The advantage will go to authors who can work with knowledge, facts, sources and information structure, not merely with the number of characters,” says Oleg Topchiy, founder of Freelancehunt.
The shift visible on the platform fits into a broader trend in the use of AI in Poland. According to Eurostat data, in 2025, 22.68% of people in Poland aged 16–74 had used generative AI in the previous three months. In the 16–24 age group, the figure was 49.3%. This does not mean that every such person is looking for services through AI. It does, however, mean that generative tools are becoming part of the everyday way people ask questions, compare information and search for answers.
For brands, this change has practical consequences. Some questions that previously went only to traditional search engines may now be directed to AI systems: which service to choose, how offers differ, whom to trust, and what solution fits a specific problem. In such an environment, simply having text on a website is not enough. A company must know how its offer is described, whether information about the brand is consistent, and whether it can be correctly used in answers generated by language models.
At the same time, companies are still learning how to work with AI. According to Statistics Poland, in 2025, 8.7% of enterprises in Poland employing at least 10 people used artificial intelligence technologies. Eurostat shows a very similar level — 8.4% of enterprises declaring the use of at least one AI technology. This creates a gap: users are becoming familiar with AI tools faster than many companies are learning to manage what answer systems know about their offer.
“Freelance platforms are a sensitive barometer of demand because they do not measure declarations, but real client decisions. If the number of simple text assignments falls by half, this is not a signal that content is no longer needed. It is a signal that the client is no longer buying the text itself, but increasingly needs structured knowledge that can be safely used in sales, customer service, search engines and AI systems,” says Valentyn Ziuzin, CEO of Freelancehunt.
This direction may open a new niche for copywriters, editors and content specialists: working on how a brand is understood and referenced by AI answer systems. In the industry, this is referred to as AEO, or Answer Engine Optimization. In practice, it involves organising definitions, FAQs, comparisons, service descriptions, knowledge bases and expert materials so that they are clear, verifiable and usable by people, search engines and language models.
This is a different service from classic SEO content sold by character count. It requires an understanding of the industry, user intent, sources, information structure and the risk of an incorrect answer about the brand. For this reason, specialised writers may price this work much higher than simple copywriting — not as “writing a text”, but as structuring a company’s knowledge for clients, search engines and AI systems.
Data from the Portrait of a Freelancer 2025 report show that many freelancers are already experiencing this shift in their working methods. AI tools are used by 77.5% of active freelancers surveyed by Freelancehunt, while 38.3% use them regularly. Access to AI alone is therefore no longer a differentiator. What matters is whether a freelancer can combine the tool with knowledge, source selection, responsibility for the final material and an understanding of the client’s goal.
For copywriters, this means a shift from simple writing towards work closer to editing, research and information consulting. For companies, it means the need to check whether knowledge about their offer is organised not only for customers and search engines, but also for AI systems, which are increasingly becoming the place where people ask questions about services, products and brands.
Methodology
Freelancehunt’s analysis covers changes in the number of assignments published on the platform in categories related to copywriting and text work between January and May 2026, compared with the period from January to May 2025. The categories included were copywriting, rewriting, article writing, and text editing and proofreading. The data show changes in the number of assignments on the Freelancehunt platform.
About the report
The research report Portrait of a Freelancer 2025 was prepared on the basis of a study conducted in December 2025. The study used an online survey method on a sample of 1,100 active freelancers. It covered Poland and the aggregated region of Central and Eastern Europe.
Data on the use of generative AI by people aged 16–74 and by the 16–24 age group come from Eurostat for 2025. Data on the use of AI technologies by enterprises come from Statistics Poland and Eurostat for 2025.
Source: CEO.com.pl
