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Hayden Brown

President and Chief Executive Officer, Upwork

Search every verified Hayden Brown interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Hayden Brown, president and chief executive officer of Upwork, discussed the company's second quarter 2026 financial results during an earnings call on August 5, 2026. Brown stated that near-term AI and macro headwinds identified in the previous quarter persisted in Q2, with an acceleration in the pace of AI-related automation, and said the company was updating its guidance outlook accordingly. He attributed pressure on new client acquisition partly to changes in Google's SEO referrals and search page layout, which have reduced referrals to businesses, and noted that a subdued labor market compounded the impact. Brown also described shifts in client behavior related to AI, saying clients have been using AI agents to hire on Upwork for projects and that a growing volume of clients are coming to the platform to find people who can complete or fix projects started with AI. He said the company has rebuilt its marketing funnels in response, with paid acquisition performing well in Q2, and that Upwork plans to increase marketing spend by approximately $5 to $10 million incrementally in the back half of the year. Brown added that the company built its MCP (model context protocol) offering as a new demand channel and in response to agents already coming to the website to do work on behalf of clients, and that Upwork would pull certain pricing levers in the back half of the year to manage marketplace congestion and match quality.

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“the one is the fractionalization of work. This is an emerging thing that started happening I'd say more visibly last year where traditional full-time jobs were starting to be broken apart or um kind of the parts of those jobs were you know part of it was getting done by AI and then there's a residual amount of work that still has to be done by a human but it doesn't look like the full-time job of the past. And more a”

“the good news is where that slowness is it's actually not because of AI. I think there's a misattribution happening a lot of the time where people say look um you know employers aren't hiring it must be that they're using AI instead. That is actually broadly not a trend that we're seeing yet. We're actually seeing AI is creating more job opportunities. Employers are actually coming into the market uh with their limit”

“We are expecting GSV 7 to 9% KGER over the next three years which is awesome. We are seeing the acceleration now and we know it can can go further on revenue. We have confidence in 13 to 15% KGER in the next three years. We know this is possible based on everything we're seeing and doing right now. And margin expansion we are phenomenal at this. We operate a business with incredible discipline, incredible focus. We k”

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