Upwork Enterprise Plus introduces Uma Recruiter alongside entry to the highest 1% of expertise on the Upwork Market, enabling quicker, smarter hiring
Upwork, the world’s human and AI-powered work market, launched a examine by the Upwork Analysis Institute revealing how small and medium-sized companies (SMBs) endured the geopolitical, labor market, and macroeconomic shocks of 2025, and, in doing so, ignited innovation and development. To assist SMBs by means of these challenges, the Upwork Market launched new options to its Enterprise Plus providing, together with unique entry to Uma Recruiter, a brand new always-on, AI-powered hiring agent that critiques expertise profiles and delivers high matches in below six hours, enabling quicker, smarter hiring choices for SMBs.
The analysis examine, The Key to Development: How Small Companies Flip Disruption into an Edge, surveyed practically 500 SMB C-level executives, vice presidents, and administrators to look at how SMBs–these using between 10 and 499 individuals–navigated the identical market volatility as their bigger friends.
“SMBs discovered defensive methods alone weren’t sufficient to face up to disruption,” mentioned Dr. Gabby Burlacu, senior analysis supervisor of the Upwork Analysis Institute. “Our analysis reveals the SMBs that performed offense by embracing versatile expertise, AI instruments, and steady experimentation have positioned themselves for adaptability and long-term development within the face of no matter uncertainty and disruption comes subsequent.”
Additionally Learn: AiThority Interview with Jonathan Kershaw, Director of Product Administration, Vonage
Key findings from the report present that extremely assured SMBs are:
- Innovating by means of disruption: Confidence amongst SMB leaders extra sharply fluctuated all year long in comparison with leaders of different firm sizes, dropping from 51% in Q1 2025 to 47% in Q2, then rebounding to 58% in Q3, mirroring related swings of their willingness to innovate throughout expertise fashions and know-how. But for the 47% of leaders that maintained regular confidence all year long, dedication to AI, versatile expertise, and daring experimentation by no means wavered.
- Harnessing AI to drive operational agility: SMBs that prevented the Q2 confidence dip have been twice as more likely to have totally applied AI throughout front-office (27%) and back-office (23%) features to optimize gross sales, advertising, finance, and operations. Thirty p.c retooled working fashions for AI, adopting an AI-first mindset when designing processes.
- Leveraging versatile, expert expertise: Thirty-one p.c of SMB leaders relied on versatile expertise to faucet into specialised expertise. Job posts from SMBs in search of AI experience rose 44% on the Upwork Market between January and July 2025, indicating sturdy demand for AI-proficient expertise.
- Unlocking tangible worth with AI: Supplemental analysis performed in collaboration with Zoom discovered that when SMBs use AI to scale, 93% report a rise in income—in reality, 41% report will increase exceeding 10%. Eighty-two p.c report AI-related value reductions, and 91% noticed year-over-year ROI from their AI investments.
- Embedding experimentation: Twenty-three p.c of SMB leaders designated innovation and experimentation as core organizational capabilities, approaching disruption and alter as alternatives to attempt one thing new.
The analysis arrives alongside a refreshed model of Upwork Enterprise Plus, the Upwork Market’s premium providing designed to assist SMBs scale quicker. With Enterprise Plus, shoppers now achieve on the spot entry to the highest 1% of expertise on the Upwork Market throughout greater than 125 classes of labor, in addition to built-in instruments for efficiency monitoring, contract administration, and staff collaboration. Enterprise Plus shoppers additionally achieve entry to Uma Recruiter, an always-on hiring agent that understands enterprise wants and supplies AI-powered shortlisting to match shoppers with high knowledgeable expertise.
“Most homeowners and operators at SMBs put on many hats, from strategist to marketer to the doer, to construct and develop their companies,” mentioned Dave Bottoms, basic supervisor of the Upwork Market. “For rising groups, it’s no completely different—leaders are juggling priorities, patching course of gaps, and attempting to convey the proper expertise to bear on their enterprise challenges. Enterprise Plus provides them on the spot entry to pre-vetted expertise and an AI-guided hiring expertise that matches high expertise on the Upwork Market with a consumer’s enterprise targets, so SMBs can rent quicker and concentrate on innovating to drive enterprise influence.”
Additionally Learn: A Pulse Test on AI within the Boardroom: Balancing Innovation and Threat in an Period of Regulatory Scrutiny
[To share your insights with us as part of editorial or sponsored content, please write to psen@itechseries.com]
