Kenneth Glad
Automated tools can produce material in seconds, but getting that material ready for public use may require considerably more work. A growing category of freelance assignments now begins where machine generation stops.
Extra fingers, distorted objects, unnatural narration and inconsistent branding are among the problems creative professionals are being hired to correct after businesses use generative AI. What may begin as a quick automated draft can still require substantial human attention before it is polished enough for commercial or public use.
According to The Guardian, companies and entrepreneurs are increasingly turning to designers, writers and video specialists after discovering that machine-produced material often needs further refinement.
Instead of commissioning an entire project from the beginning, some clients are now asking freelancers to repair, reshape or complete work initially produced by AI, shifting part of the creative process from original production to correction and quality control.
Mistakes create more work
Freelancer.com chief executive Matt Barrie told the British newspaper that AI can help businesses get a first version done quickly, but that is often only the beginning. Once problems start to appear, companies may find they do not have the technical or creative skills needed to fix them properly.
Figures from Freelancer.com showed that listings mentioning AI-related mistakes rose 87% between August 2025 and June 2026. Upwork recorded a 70% year-on-year increase in remediation work, while Fiverr said searches for AI cleanup services grew more than twentyfold between 2023 and 2026.
That rise points to a change in the kind of work freelancers are being asked to do. Rather than starting with an empty page, a rough sketch or raw footage, they are increasingly handed something AI has already produced and told to make it usable. In some cases, that means a few corrections. In others, the material needs to be reworked so heavily that the job is not far removed from creating it from scratch.
Repairs demand real time
Florida illustrator Todd Van Linda told The Guardian that repair assignments can consume hours or even days. He has rejected offers when clients expected extensive corrections to be completed quickly and cheaply.
Multimedia editor Nathan McConnell has dealt with faulty 3D models, unnatural voiceovers, incorrect reflections and visual inconsistencies in generated videos and images. He told the publication that some material is too defective to repair realistically.
Spain-based graphic designer Lisa said AI-related corrections accounted for 60% to 70% of her annual income by 2025. Low offers, extensive reconstruction work and copyright concerns eventually persuaded her to reject many such commissions. “It was just so soulless,” she said.
Creative roles keep shifting
Australian writer and editor Kym Dunbar said to The Guardian that roughly 60% of her workload now involves revising AI-generated material, a notable change as more traditional writing assignments have become harder to find. Editing AI-generated copy now makes up a far greater share of her work than it once did.
Dunbar believes the demand may not last indefinitely. As generative systems improve, she expects some businesses will eventually need less help polishing their output. McConnell, however, takes a different view and argues that experienced professionals will still be needed to catch problems that automated tools and less-trained users can easily miss.
That leaves freelancers in an uncertain position. AI-generated material is creating work for them now, but the same technology could reduce that need over time if the quality of its output continues to improve.
No one knows yet whether this kind of work will become a permanent part of freelancing. For now, businesses are still paying people to catch the mistakes AI leaves behind and turn rough output into something they can actually use.
Source: The Guardian, Freelancer.com, Fiverr, Upwork
