Imagine a scenario in which your company must 迅速重新设计 它的移动应用程序 整合人工智能功能 就像 图像识别，客户服务 聊天机器人, and home screens tailored to user preferences. However, your budget is tight, and your in-house designer hasn’t worked with AI features. Training will be expensive and time-consuming, and will distract your designer from their core duties.

Given your timeline and limited budget, you decide to hire a freelance designer who 专攻人工智能 and has extensive experience implementing the features you need. 当自由职业者加入你的团队时, they apply learnings from previous projects and quickly deliver a research-informed 原型. 经过一个简短的过程 测试 迭代，新功能上线，项目按进度和预算完成. This isn’t a dream—I’ve seen scenarios 就像 this play out for 15 years as a freelance UI / UX的设计师, during which I’ve partnered with diverse clients such as 加拿大皇家银行, Xello, 以及Rocket Homes房地产公司. I’ve also been part of multiple time-sensitive, cash-strapped projects requiring specialized skills and insights. 当我的工作对客户的产品和他们的内部设计师产生积极影响时，我总是感到鼓舞和欣慰.

因为他们的技能更高 工人们转向自由职业在美国，商界领袖已经看到了这一点 生产力和创造力 increase when they work with independent talent. 让我们来看看自由设计师能为你的公司带来的三个最大的好处.

1. Access to Emerging and Specialized Skills

自由设计师倾向于参与许多项目，并且经常获得新技能来解决客户的超特定设计问题. 斯图尔特Pressney, Toptal的设计匹配团队领导, 说获得专业技能是雇佣自由设计师的主要好处之一. Pressney说, 当公司聘请独立专家负责不同阶段的工作时，他们的效率会特别高 设计过程. “你可以让擅长构思和提出概念的人将他们的想法传递给擅长执行和创造的人 像素级的设计他说。.

自由职业者也是探索前沿趋势和技术的绝佳选择. 例如，你可能会雇佣一个 自由插画师 谁专门从事3D建模和渲染，以创建图像，使您的数字内容更引人注目，更容易理解. 或者你可以加入 自由用户体验设计师 添加 基于“增大化现实”技术/虚拟现实功能 到你的 电子商务应用.

想想OpenAI的ChatGPT这样的生成式人工智能代理:这些技术具有巨大的潜力，可以让数字产品和服务变得更好, but if you’re at a startup or small company, you may struggle to attract design talent with AI skills. 在这种情况下, independent talent would be a terrific way to fill the skills gap and reap the speed, 效率, 以及人工智能提供的定制.

2. 增加创新和创造力

For companies of any size, diverse perspectives are essential in 寻找有效的解决方案. 作为Toptal产品设计师 埃里克·米勒·莫雷诺 说, outsiders have “more freedom and openness to talk about harsh truths,补充说，独立专家可以发现组织效率低下的问题，这些问题可能会阻碍之前的设计工作. Having consulted on product development and 设计策略 环球音乐集团, 德勤, 和联合国, 作为一个与各种规模的组织合作过的行业资深人士，他拥有罕见的视角.

例如, 莫雷诺受雇于一家知名媒体品牌的子公司，负责完善其用于购买股票和etf的机器人投资应用程序的实时测试版. The app charges users based on the 投资工具 they choose. 当莫雷诺来到这个项目时, there was an MVP and a small user 社区, 但是屏幕的组织很笨拙, and the app offered limited choices for investing. Most of all, it didn’t reflect the maturity and distinction of the parent brand.

In some ways, the solution was hidden in plain view. 莫雷诺说:“我决定做的，就是按照母公司的品牌指南去做。. “工作做得很好. It was pretty concise … we just needed to elevate it.”

To do that, the team developed subscription-based 投资工具. Users could pick from several investment strategies, spread their investments across sectors and fund types, and decide what percentage of their portfolio they wanted allocated to each. The app’s algorithms then monitored and managed the portfolio, leveraging an AI agent to ensure diversification and protection against downside risks.

The project began as a cosmetic intervention, 但莫雷诺对金融科技行业以外的SaaS产品订阅模式的洞察，将其提升到了一个新的水平. His wide-ranging design experiences informed new features, 包括主题交易选项, 投资仪表板, 财务目标设定, 以及改进的入职流程. 和, 提高付费模式透明度的决定使每用户收益增加了144%, a 275% increase in assets under management growth, and a 40% increase in overall product growth.

3. 节约成本

One reason companies might hesitate to hire freelance designers is perceived cost. At face value, an independent talent’s hourly rate appears higher than an employee’s. But companies hiring freelancers don’t have to pay for 401(k) plans, 健康和伤残保险, 育儿假和病假, 股票期权, 或者绩效奖金. 另外, most freelance designers work remotely on a per-project basis, meaning companies can theoretically also save money by using 小办公室 在产品开发过程的间歇期不支付未充分利用的全职员工.

企业也可以聘请独立的专家来填补通常由高收入员工担任的短期职位. 例如, 杰克发起的, Toptal品牌设计师, 最近，我与一家房地产公司合作，完成了一个需要快速完成的应用程序设计项目. The agency lacked the funds for a full-time creative director, 但卡哈纳以符合公司预算的速度，为公司提供了所需的战略领导视角. 管理初级设计师团队, 他指导了一项快速的工作，使应用程序启动并运行，同时在该机构的客户中建立了信任，使他们相信设计愿景是基于商业目标的. 卡哈纳凭借经过审查的专业知识进入了这个角色，并有效地提供了一个解决方案，否则该机构将无法负担得起.

Choose the Right 自由 设计er for Your Next Project

你是否需要 平面设计师, 用户体验研究员, or 人工智能专家, 雇佣自由设计师的好处是显而易见的:这样做的企业能够利用设计专业人士的微妙技能，他们为项目带来新的视角，同时控制成本. 设计师, 与此同时, get to be more intentional in forging their career paths, 获得多样化和有意义的机会，加速他们的专业成长. 这是一个双赢的局面.

“作为一名独立设计师, you get opportunities to see different companies, 不同的组织, 以及不同的做事方式. You’re able to be reactive in a way an in-house person might not be. 专业, I’ve had access to projects I never imagined I would have had,莫雷诺说, pointing to his recent work on an AI-powered database for the United Nations. “When you do something 就像 that, it really gives you a sense of purpose.”