Companies can now effortlessly blend full-time employees and freelancers to create “Superteams” – a mix of the internal workforce and external talent – to deliver better, faster results for a true strategic advantage.

Malt’s new tool is looking to help close the skills gap, as 75% of European companies struggle to fill jobs due to finding people with the right skills, hampering their growth (Eurostat 2023). More people are choosing to work as freelancers, with the total number growing to 6 million high-skilled freelancers across Europe. Furthermore, 90% of them have no intention of returning to fixed employment (Freelancing in Europe 2024).

With hiring managers stuck in a manual, analogue model of finding and contracting freelancers, AI Search helps streamline and automate this process. It operates just the way a staffing assistant would, replacing phone calls or meetings with simple input of prompts or job descriptions into Malt and translating this by AI into recommendations on the skills, experience, etc., required from freelancers.

AI Search then provides shortlists to gauge potential matches, builds compelling briefs to more effectively pitch to freelancers, and can automatically search for additional profiles to recommend. At the same time, hiring managers always stay in control and can change and edit criteria as they see fit.

Malt uses a combination of large external language models (LLMs) and specialized small language models built in-house, drawing on the knowledge of over 800,000 freelancers on the platform. These models come into play before our deep learning algorithms, which have been trained on millions of client/freelancer pairs evaluated over the past 10 years. Rather than simply focusing on keywords, AI Search can recognise patterns, synonyms, and other factors that generally are associated with any given project. This ensures that real customer needs are met, even when they are described differently by the hiring manager.

"We believe AI should augment human capabilities, not replace them," said Claire Lebarz, Chief Data & AI Officer at Malt. "With AI Search, AI handles the heavy lifting while hiring managers remain in control and make the right decisions faster."

While contracting freelancers is often a key way for companies to address a skills shortage, this Second Freelance Revolution also represents an opportunity to combine freelance skills with those of employees.

Fixed employees have institutional knowledge, a long-term perspective, and an organisational commitment. Freelancers, on the other hand, bring critical strategic skills, are early adopters of new technologies, and can help with experimentation and change management. Their contracts can also be easily scaled up and down based on organisational needs. Superteams leverage these combined advantages to make companies faster, more flexible, innovative and scalable.

“Ten years ago, Malt transformed freelancing by creating an open marketplace – making finding talent as easy as buying something online,” adds Vincent Huguet, the CEO of Malt. “Today, powered by the latest AI technologies, we’re elevating that simplicity, delivering an effortless search experience for every type of project, no matter how complex.

“Freelancers are the driving force behind agile, modern teams. Companies who understand how to harness this talent will drive the future of their industries, while others risk falling behind. With our community of 800,000 independent talent and years of significant tech investments, Malt is not just part of this transformation. As a European leader, we’re at the forefront of this second revolution, setting the new standard for matching freelancers and companies.”

Malt has implemented clear principles to ensure responsible, ethical development of its AI tools:

1. AI to assist and augment humans, not replace them. AI serves as a support tool, enhancing decision-making processes without taking over the critical human element of judgment and personal connection
2. Transparent recommendations. When AI provides guidance, Malt ensures it doesn’t feel like a black box. Managers need to know that the information comes from AI and why AI is presenting that information
3. Responsible use of AI. We aim to use the right technology for the right task, minimising unnecessary resource use and carbon footprint. We respect data privacy
4. 4Using AI is a choice. Malt users will always have the ability to choose to operate things manually and not use AI

Malt’s customers can start using AI Search today to build their Superteams.

For more startup news, check out the other articles on the website, and subscribe to the magazine for free. Listen to The Cereal Entrepreneur podcast for more interviews with entrepreneurs and big-hitters in the startup ecosystem.