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Hourly billing is quietly breaking down for one specific type of work: the kind AI can now do faster.
Demand for AI-adjacent skills has more than doubled in a year. At the same time, routine, easily-automated tasks are seeing rates fall — because the hour it used to take no longer reflects the value delivered.
The freelancers seeing rates rise aren't necessarily more skilled. They're priced differently. They sell an outcome, not a block of time.
Most independent operators already suspect they're underpriced.
The real block usually isn't confidence — it's an unpredictable pipeline that makes changing the pricing model feel too risky to attempt.
Two questions worth sitting with before the next quote goes out:
1. Is this being priced by the hour it takes, or by the result it produces?
2. If the exact same result took half the time next month, should the price actually change?
The hour was never the value. It was just the easiest thing to measure.
Hourly, project-based, or outcome-based — what's the current pricing model, and has it changed in the last year? Drop it below.
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Freelancers, quick poll: how do you price automation work?
A) Hourly
B) Fixed price per project
C) Monthly retainer
I switched away from hourly for automation, and here's why. If I build a workflow that saves a client 20 hours a week, billing for the 6 hours it took me makes no sense. The faster I get, the less I earn.
Fixed price for the build plus a small monthly fee for maintenance has worked better for me and my clients. They know the cost upfront, and I get rewarded for being efficient.
Which one are you, and why? 👇
C or A if the hourly basis is long term
I wanna know the most UNHINGED way you're using AI. And I mean truly unhinged.
I'm trying to seriously level up my AI skills and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of what's possible
I'm not talking about cute little ChatGPT prompts or asking AI to write your emails.
I wanna hear about the crazy workflows, agents, automations, and things you've built that make you go wait you can actually DO that?!
Especially the stuff most people don't even realize is possible.
What tools are you using? What have you automated? What are you making AI do that would've sounded insane two years ago?
And if you know of any good bootcamps, courses, creators you follow, or other resources to learn this stuff, PLEASE share.
Thank you!!
I think the real shift isn't AI replacing designers, it's changing what makes a designer valuable.
When everyone has access to the same tools, taste, creative direction and the ability to build a strong visual identity become the real differentiators.
The tool can generate a logo. Knowing what makes it the Right Logo is a different story.
Has AI taken my job yet? 👀
As a designer, I feel like I constantly need to keep up with new tools and products, if only to keep my "has a computer replaced me already?" anxiety under control
At first, we expected AI to do everything with one click
Then we moved on to writing...
Exactly — taste and direction now matter most.