Q2 2026 Upwork Inc Earnings Call

August 10, 2026

Operator: Good day. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Upwork's Q2 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. Please note today's conference may be recorded. I will now hand the conference over to your speaker host, Peter Sanborn, Chief Business Officer. Please go ahead.

Operator: Good day. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Upwork's Q2 2026 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. Please note today's conference may be recorded. I will now hand the conference over to your speaker host, Peter Sanborn, Chief Business Officer. Please go ahead.

Speaker #1: Good day. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Upwork's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode.

Speaker #1: After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone.

Speaker #1: You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. Please note today's conference may be recorded. I will now hand the conference over to your speaker host, Peter Senberg, Chief Business Officer.

Speaker #1: Please go ahead.

Speaker #2: Thank you. And welcome to UPWORK's discussion of its second quarter 2026 financial results. Joining me today is Hayden Brown, UPWORK's president and chief executive officer.

Peter Sanborn: Thank you, and welcome to Upwork's discussion of its Q2 2026 financial results. Joining me today is Hayden Brown, Upwork's President and Chief Executive Officer. Following our prepared remarks, we will be happy to take your questions. First, I will review the safe harbor statement. During this call, we may make statements related to our business that are forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements include all statements other than those of historical fact. These statements are not guarantees of future performance, but rather are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Our actual results could differ materially from expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements.

Speaker #2: Following our prepared remarks, we will be happy to take your questions. But first, I'll review the Safe Harbor statement. During this call, we may make statements related to our business that are forward-looking statements under federal securities laws.

Speaker #2: Forward-looking statements include all statements other than those of historical fact. These statements are not guarantees of future performance but rather are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions.

Peter Sanborn: These statements are not guarantees of future performance, but rather are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Our actual results could differ materially from expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements. For a discussion of the material risks and other important factors that could affect our actual results, please refer to our SEC filings available on the SEC website and on our investor relations website, as well as the risks and other important factors discussed in today's earnings press release.

Speaker #2: Our actual results could differ materially from expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements. For a discussion of the material risks and other important factors that could affect our actual results, please refer to our SEC filings available on the SEC website and on our investor relations website, as well as the risks and other important factors discussed in today's earnings press release.

Peter Sanborn: For a discussion of the material risks and other important factors that could affect our actual results, please refer to our SEC filings available on the SEC website and on our investor relations website, as well as the risks and other important factors discussed in today's earnings press release. Additional information is also available in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June 2026, which was filed today. In addition, references will be made to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP operating expense, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP diluted EPS, and free cash flow are non-GAAP financial measures, and all other financial measures are GAAP unless cited as non-GAAP. Information regarding non-GAAP financial measures, including reconciliations to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, can be found in the press release that was issued this afternoon on our investor relations website at investors.upwork.com.

Speaker #2: Additional information is also available in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, which was filed today. In addition, references will be made to certain non-GAAP financial measures.

Peter Sanborn: Additional information is also available in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June 2026, which was filed today. In addition, references will be made to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP operating expense, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP diluted EPS, and free cash flow are non-GAAP financial measures, and all other financial measures are GAAP unless cited as non-GAAP.

Speaker #2: Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP operating expense, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP diluted EPS, and free cash flow are non-GAAP financial measures. All other financial measures are GAAP unless cited as non-GAAP.

Speaker #2: Information regarding non-GAAP financial measures including reconciliations to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in the press release that was issued this afternoon on our investor relations website at investors.upwork.com.

Peter Sanborn: Information regarding non-GAAP financial measures, including reconciliations to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, can be found in the press release that was issued this afternoon on our investor relations website at investors.upwork.com. Unless otherwise noted, reported figures are rounded, and comparisons of Q2 2026 are to Q2 2025. With that, I will now turn the call over to Hayden.

Speaker #2: Unless otherwise noted, reported figures are rounded and comparisons of the second quarter of 2026 are to the second quarter of 2025. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Hayden.

Peter Sanborn: Unless otherwise noted, reported figures are rounded, and comparisons of Q2 2026 are to Q2 2025. With that, I will now turn the call over to Hayden.

Speaker #3: Good afternoon, and welcome to Upwork's second quarter 2026 earnings call. In Q2, Upwork demonstrated strong execution in an operating environment that continues to be challenging.

Hayden Brown: Good afternoon, and welcome to Upwork's Q2 2026 earnings call. In Q2, Upwork demonstrated strong execution in an operating environment that continues to be challenging. We delivered revenue of $191.7 million at the high end of our guidance range, and Adjusted EBITDA of $64.1 million, exceeding the high end of our guidance range. This was driven by disciplined cost management across our entire business. Our growth building blocks of SMB, enterprise, and AI are delivering results. We are driving momentum with larger clients, capturing higher-value projects, and scaling our position as the platform of choice for complex AI-enabled work. In SMB, our prioritization of quality and customer value, not volume, continues to pay off. Business Plus continues to pace ahead of plan, with GSV growing 174% year over year as larger customers utilize Upwork for complex recurring needs.

Speaker #3: We delivered revenue of $191.7 million at the high end of our guidance range, and adjusted EBITDA of $64.1 million exceeding the high end of our guidance range.

Speaker #3: This was driven by disciplined cost management across our entire business. Our growth-building blocks of SMB, enterprise, and AI are delivering results. We're driving momentum with larger clients, capturing higher-value projects, and scaling our position as the platform of choice for complex AI-enabled work.

Hayden Brown: We are driving momentum with larger clients, capturing higher-value projects, and scaling our position as the platform of choice for complex AI-enabled work. In SMB, our prioritization of quality and customer value, not volume, continues to pay off. Business Plus continues to pace ahead of plan, with GSV growing 174% year over year as larger customers utilize Upwork for complex recurring needs. GSV per active client reached another record at $5,230, up 5% year over year, marking our eighth consecutive quarter of sequential growth in this metric.

Speaker #3: In SMB, our prioritization of quality and customer value not volume continues to pay off. Business Plus continues to pace ahead of plan with GSV growing 174% year over year, as larger customers utilize UPWORK for complex recurring needs.

Speaker #3: GSV proactive client reached another record at 5,230, up 5% year over year, marking our eighth consecutive quarter of sequential growth in this metric. A core part of our SMB strategy is helping these businesses tap into AI for practical outcomes.

Hayden Brown: GSV per active client reached another record at $5,230, up 5% year over year, marking our eighth consecutive quarter of sequential growth in this metric. A core part of our SMB strategy is helping these businesses tap into AI for practical outcomes. For many of these customers, the constraint is not access to AI technology, but access to people who understand how to apply it to their specific industry, workflow, or business problem. Upwork is uniquely able to solve this at scale, combining a deep pool of AI skilled talent with the marketplace infrastructure and trust that lets customers confidently tap into the human expertise they need. This is reflected in the 51% year over year growth we saw in our AI strategy and consulting category in Q2.

Hayden Brown: A core part of our SMB strategy is helping these businesses tap into AI for practical outcomes. For many of these customers, the constraint is not access to AI technology, but access to people who understand how to apply it to their specific industry, workflow, or business problem. Upwork is uniquely able to solve this at scale, combining a deep pool of AI skilled talent with the marketplace infrastructure and trust that lets customers confidently tap into the human expertise they need. This is reflected in the 51% year over year growth we saw in our AI strategy and consulting category in Q2.

Speaker #3: For many of these customers, the constraint is not access to AI technology, but access to people who understand how to apply it to their specific industry, workflow, or business problem.

Speaker #3: UPWORK is uniquely able to solve this at AI-skilled talent with the marketplace infrastructure and trust that lets customers confidently tap into the human expertise they need.

Speaker #3: This is reflected in the 51% year-over-year growth we saw in our AI strategy and consulting category in Q2. SMBs are telling us that they're hiring AI experts to guide them in making their businesses more AI-native, so they can grow and scale.

Hayden Brown: SMBs are telling us that they are hiring AI experts to guide them in making their businesses more AI native so they can grow and scale. In enterprise, our goals for Lifted remain on track and demand signals are strong. We initiated customer migrations to the new platform on schedule in June. We also saw positive developments with customers advancing through later stages of the sales process. The thesis around serving larger customers with this differentiated offering is working. Our focus on and expanded ability to support and grow larger customers that fit our ideal customer profile contributed to 7% year over year growth in GSV per enterprise account, the highest level it has been in more than three years. We also saw 29% year over year growth in GSV from employer of record, or EOR solutions, which are made possible due to Lifted's acquisition of Ascen.

Speaker #3: In enterprise, our goals for lifted remain on track and demand signals are strong. We initiated customer migrations to the June. We also saw positive developments with customers advancing through later stages of the sales process.

Speaker #3: The thesis around serving larger customers with this differentiated offering is working. Our focus on, and expanded ability to support and grow, larger customers that fit our ideal customer profile contributed to 7% year-over-year growth in GSV per enterprise account—the highest level it's been in more than three years.

Hayden Brown: Our focus on and expanded ability to support and grow larger customers that fit our ideal customer profile contributed to 7% year over year growth in GSV per enterprise account, the highest level it has been in more than three years. We also saw 29% year over year growth in GSV from employer of record, or EOR solutions, which are made possible due to Lifted's acquisition of Ascen.

Speaker #3: We also saw 29% year-over-year growth in GSV from employer of record, or EOR, solutions, which are made possible due to lifted's acquisition of Ascend.

Speaker #3: Moving our employment infrastructure in the US and Canada, from third-party partners to Ascend's wholly-owned entities, is garnering the improvement to our value proposition we anticipated.

Hayden Brown: Moving our employment infrastructure in the US and Canada from third-party partners to Ascen's wholly owned entities is garnering the improvement to our value proposition we anticipated, accelerating our sales funnel with the added benefit of improving our gross margins. We continue to expect Lifted to achieve approximately 25% year over year GSV growth in 2026. Our industry is in a period of transition as AI is changing work and transforming our marketplace in real time. The near-term AI and macro headwinds we identified last quarter have persisted in Q2 with an acceleration in the pace of AI-related automation. We now have greater visibility into the work transition underway and are updating our guidance outlook accordingly. Short-term headwinds do not change our confidence in the enduring value proposition of Upwork. While AI automation shrinks demand for some types of work on our platform, AI creates new demand in other areas.

Speaker #3: Accelerating our sales funnel with the added benefit of improving our gross margins we continue to expect lifted to achieve approximately 25% year-over-year GSV growth in 2026.

Speaker #3: Our industry is in a period of transition as AI is changing work and transforming our marketplace in real time. The near-term AI and macro headwinds we identified last quarter have persisted in Q2, with an acceleration in the pace of AI-related automation.

Hayden Brown: The near-term AI and macro headwinds we identified last quarter have persisted in Q2 with an acceleration in the pace of AI-related automation. We now have greater visibility into the work transition underway and are updating our guidance outlook accordingly. Short-term headwinds do not change our confidence in the enduring value proposition of Upwork. While AI automation shrinks demand for some types of work on our platform, AI creates new demand in other areas.

Speaker #3: We now have greater visibility into the work transition underway and are updating our guidance outlook accordingly. Short-term headwinds do not change our confidence in the enduring value proposition of Upwork.

Speaker #3: While AI automation shrinks demand for some types of work on our platform, AI creates new demand in other areas. This is evident in the 22% growth in GSV from AI-related jobs in Q2.

Hayden Brown: This is evident in the 22% growth in GSV from AI-related jobs in Q2, as defined by jobs stating an explicit AI need. These were up 5% quarter-over-quarter to reach an approximate annualized $330 million run rate. This quarter, we saw indications that the quantum of AI-related work on Upwork is actually much greater. Many clients now simply expect the use of AI tools and capabilities without feeling the need to specify this in their job posts. For example, nearly half of talent in a recent survey reported that their most recent jobs were AI related, despite only 16% of such jobs explicitly referencing AI in the post, demonstrating how prevalent AI-related work is becoming on Upwork. AI is also changing search. Our client acquisition strategy is to diversify beyond paid and organic Google search to build a highly durable growth engine spanning emergent channels, including LLM-based search.

Speaker #3: As defined by jobs stating an explicit AI need. These were up 5% quarter over quarter to reach an approximate annualized $330 million run rate.

Speaker #3: This quarter we saw indications that the quantum of AI-related work on UPWORK is actually much greater, many clients now simply expect the use of AI tools and capabilities without feeling the need to specify this in their job posts.

Speaker #3: For example, nearly half of talent in a recent survey reported that their most recent jobs were AI-related, despite only 16% of such jobs explicitly referencing AI in the post.

Hayden Brown: For example, nearly half of talent in a recent survey reported that their most recent jobs were AI related, despite only 16% of such jobs explicitly referencing AI in the post, demonstrating how prevalent AI-related work is becoming on Upwork. AI is also changing search. Our client acquisition strategy is to diversify beyond paid and organic Google search to build a highly durable growth engine spanning emergent channels, including LLM-based search.

Speaker #3: Demonstrating how prevalent AI-related work is becoming on UPWORK. AI is also changing search. Our client acquisition strategy is to diversify beyond paid and organic Google search to build a highly durable growth engine spanning emergent channels, including LLM-based search.

Speaker #3: Google's changes to search have dampened new customer acquisition, with accelerated negative impact in Q2. Our SEO rankings have continued to step up, but the channel overall is smaller, underscoring the importance of the ongoing paid acquisition efficiencies we've been driving.

Hayden Brown: Google's changes to search have dampened new customer acquisition with accelerated negative impact in Q2. Our SEO rankings have continued to step up, but the channel overall is smaller, underscoring the importance of the ongoing paid acquisition efficiencies we have been driving. Paid search has become our largest customer acquisition channel, and we have grown it in both relative and absolute size while increasing efficiency. Cost per new contract start improved 22% quarter-on-quarter. This performance gives us confidence in increasing our paid acquisition investments for the balance of the year. We have also begun tuning our acquisition approaches for new channels that we expect to scale over time, like answer engine optimization, or AEO, and LLM-based referrals. While these channels are still nascent, third-party measures show that our share of AI-based mentions and referrals is 18 percentage points higher than our closest peer.

Speaker #3: Paid search has become our largest customer acquisition channel, and we have grown it in both relative and absolute size while increasing efficiency. Cost per new contract start improved 22% quarter on quarter, and this performance gives us confidence in increasing our paid acquisition investments for the balance of the year.

Hayden Brown: This performance gives us confidence in increasing our paid acquisition investments for the balance of the year. We have also begun tuning our acquisition approaches for new channels that we expect to scale over time, like answer engine optimization, or AEO, and LLM-based referrals. While these channels are still nascent, third-party measures show that our share of AI-based mentions and referrals is 18 percentage points higher than our closest peer.

Speaker #3: We've also begun tuning our acquisition approaches for new channels that we expect to scale over time, like Answer Engine optimization, or AEO, and LLM-based referrals.

Speaker #3: While these channels are still nascent, third-party measures show that our share of AI-based mentions and referrals is 18 percentage points higher than our closest peer.

Speaker #3: Additionally, our AI integrations are beginning to drive AI-based referral traffic and set us up for growth from these channels as OpenAI, Anthropic, and others enhance their approaches.

Hayden Brown: Additionally, our AI integrations are beginning to drive AI-based referral traffic and set us up for growth from these channels as OpenAI, Anthropic, and others enhance their approaches. These levers give us new paths to acquire customers in this unfolding AI and marketing landscape. The expansion of our acquisition channels goes hand-in-hand with how we are expanding our platform capabilities. With the proliferation of AI, we have been seeing clients trying to use AI agents to hire on Upwork for projects. We are also seeing a growing volume of clients come to Upwork to find people who can complete or fix a project they started with AI. Requests like, "Turn my vibe-coded concept into a production website," or, "Humanize the translation output from this AI," are growing, among many others. In the second quarter, we delivered key milestones on our product roadmap to support these use cases at scale.

Speaker #3: These levers give us new paths to acquire customers in this unfolding AI and marketing landscape. The expansion of our acquisition channels goes hand in hand with how we're expanding our platform capabilities.

Speaker #3: With the proliferation of AI, we've been seeing clients trying to use AI agents to hire on UPWORK for projects. We're also seeing a growing volume of clients come to UPWORK to find people who can complete or fix a project they started with AI.

Hayden Brown: We are also seeing a growing volume of clients come to Upwork to find people who can complete or fix a project they started with AI. Requests like, "Turn my vibe-coded concept into a production website," or, "Humanize the translation output from this AI," are growing, among many others. In the second quarter, we delivered key milestones on our product roadmap to support these use cases at scale.

Speaker #3: Requests like "turn my vibe-coded concept into a production website" or "humanize the translation output from this AI" are growing among many others. In the second quarter, we delivered key milestones on our product roadmap to support these use cases at scale, and today we announced the UPWORK MCP server, our next capability for enabling agentic interactions on both sides of the marketplace, backed by the talent and job access, trust, guarantees, and quality that only UPWORK offers.

Hayden Brown: Today, we announced the Upwork MCP Server, our next capability for enabling agentic interactions on both sides of the marketplace, backed by the talent and job access, trust, guarantees, and quality that only Upwork offers. In Q2, we embedded Upwork directly into both ChatGPT and Claude, and with today's launch, Upwork talent and jobs are now accessible inside any AI tool that connects to our MCP. This lets both humans and their AI agents hire and collaborate with Upwork talent without leaving their own environment, while giving freelancers a way to win and deliver work without leaving their preferred AI tool. Demand for human taste, judgment, and quality assessment is increasingly commanding a premium. We are building these capabilities that let clients reach directly into our marketplace from inside the AI tools where they are already working to find the human expert they need the moment they need them.

Speaker #3: In Q2, we embedded UPWORK directly into both ChatGPT and Claude, and with today's launch, UPWORK talent and jobs are now accessible inside any AI tool that connects to our MCP.

Speaker #3: This lets both humans and their AI agents hire and collaborate with Upwork talent without leaving their own environments, while giving freelancers a way to win and deliver work without leaving their preferred AI tools.

Hayden Brown: This lets both humans and their AI agents hire and collaborate with Upwork talent without leaving their own environment, while giving freelancers a way to win and deliver work without leaving their preferred AI tool. Demand for human taste, judgment, and quality assessment is increasingly commanding a premium. We are building these capabilities that let clients reach directly into our marketplace from inside the AI tools where they are already working to find the human expert they need the moment they need them.

Speaker #3: Demand for human taste, judgment, and quality assessment is increasingly commanding a premium, we're building these capabilities that let clients reach directly into our marketplace from inside the AI tools where they're already working, to find a human expert they need the moment they need them.

Speaker #3: And as agents become a bigger part of how work gets done, we're building toward a marketplace where clients and their agents can hire not just human talent, but can also hire specialized AI agents and human–agent teams. Bringing both sides of this emerging human and agent economy together on one platform is something no other marketplace can do at our scale.

Hayden Brown: As agents become a bigger part of how work gets done, we are building toward a marketplace where clients and their agents can hire not just human talent, but can also hire specialized AI agents and human agent teams. Bringing both sides of this emerging human and agent economy together on one platform is something no other marketplace can do at our scale. These innovations will help position Upwork as a key beneficiary of the AI shift that is underway. Now, I will walk through our financial performance for the Q2 in more detail, as well as our updated guidance. Our financial results in Q2 demonstrate our capability to execute with discipline, driving profit expansion even as top-line volume reflects the transition underway.

Speaker #3: These innovations will help position Upwork as a key beneficiary of the AI shift that is underway. Now I'll walk through our financial performance for the second quarter in more detail, as well as our updated guidance.

Speaker #3: Our financial results in Q2 demonstrate our capability to execute with discipline, driving profit expansion even as top-line volume reflects the transition underway. GSV was $966 million, reflecting the continued burnoff of lower-value, highly automated work, the evolving impact of AI on new client acquisition, and a subdued labor market.

Hayden Brown: Our financial results in Q2 demonstrate our capability to execute with discipline, driving profit expansion even as top-line volume reflects the transition underway. GSV was $966 million, reflecting the continued burn-off of lower-value, highly automatable work, the evolving impact of AI on new client acquisition, and a subdued labor market. Total revenue for the Q2 was $191.7 million, representing the high end of our guidance range, supported by strong, high-margin contributions from our ads and monetization levers, including dynamic pricing, Connects, and Business Plus.

Hayden Brown: GSV was $966 million, reflecting the continued burn-off of lower-value, highly automatable work, the evolving impact of AI on new client acquisition, and a subdued labor market. Total revenue for the Q2 was $191.7 million, representing the high end of our guidance range, supported by strong, high-margin contributions from our ads and monetization levers, including dynamic pricing, Connects, and Business Plus. Revenue from these levers was up 15% year-over-year, and Connects and talent subscriptions now represent 15% of total revenue. This drove a strong take rate of 19.8%, with highly accretive, high-margin revenue streams that also improve high-quality matching. Q2 active client count was 763,000. Active client count continues to be pressured by AI automation and search trends, labor market conditions, and our strategy to focus on client value over volume.

Speaker #3: Total revenue for the second quarter was $191.7 million, representing the high end of our guidance range, supported by strong, high-margin contributions from our ads and monetization levers, including dynamic pricing, Connects, and Business Plus.

Speaker #3: Revenue from these levers was up 15% year over year, and Connects and Talent Subscriptions now represent 15% of total revenue. This drove a strong take rate of 19.8%, with highly accretive, high-margin revenue streams that also improved high-quality matching.

Hayden Brown: Revenue from these levers was up 15% year-over-year, and Connects and talent subscriptions now represent 15% of total revenue. This drove a strong take rate of 19.8%, with highly accretive, high-margin revenue streams that also improve high-quality matching. Q2 active client count was 763,000. Active client count continues to be pressured by AI automation and search trends, labor market conditions, and our strategy to focus on client value over volume.

Speaker #3: Q2 active client count was 763,000, active client count continues to be pressured by AI automation and search trends, labor market conditions, and our strategy to focus on client value over volume.

Speaker #3: Our average spend per contract reached an all-time high over any 12-month period in company history, representing the sixth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth.

Hayden Brown: Our average spend per contract reached an all-time high over any 12-month period in company history, representing the sixth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth. GSV per new client grew year-over-year for another consecutive quarter, confirming that we are attracting clients with larger initial budgets and longer project horizons. Non-GAAP gross margin for the Q2 was 77%, remaining near record levels as we manage infrastructure and support costs efficiently. Non-GAAP operating expenses reflected the early execution of our restructuring actions we announced in May, as the annualized $70 million of OpEx reduction we initiated is expected to generate approximately $40 million in realized savings in fiscal year 2026, allowing us to continuously fund our growth pillars in SMB, enterprise, and AI while expanding operating leverage. Adjusted EBITDA for Q2 was $64.1 million, exceeding the high end of our guidance range and delivering an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 33.4%.

Speaker #3: GSV per new client grew year over year for another consecutive quarter, confirming that we are attracting clients with larger initial budgets and longer project horizons.

Speaker #3: Non-GAAP gross margin for the second quarter was 77%, remaining near record levels as we manage infrastructure, and support costs, efficiently. Non-GAAP operating expenses reflected the early execution of our restructuring actions we announced in May.

Hayden Brown: Non-GAAP operating expenses reflected the early execution of our restructuring actions we announced in May, as the annualized $70 million of OpEx reduction we initiated is expected to generate approximately $40 million in realized savings in fiscal year 2026, allowing us to continuously fund our growth pillars in SMB, enterprise, and AI while expanding operating leverage. Adjusted EBITDA for Q2 was $64.1 million, exceeding the high end of our guidance range and delivering an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 33.4%.

Speaker #3: As the annualized $70 million of OpEx reduction we initiated is expected to generate approximately $40 million in realized savings in fiscal year 2026, allowing us to continuously fund our growth pillars in SMB, enterprise, and AI while expanding operating leverage.

Speaker #3: Adjusted EBITDA for Q2 was $64.1 million, exceeding the high end of our guidance range and delivering an adjusted EBITDA margin of 33.4%. Non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP diluted EPS were similarly strong, while our GAAP metrics reflect the impact of our Q2 restructuring charges.

Hayden Brown: Non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP diluted EPS were similarly strong, while our GAAP metrics reflect the impact of our Q2 restructuring charges. While our capital-light marketplace model consistently yields exceptional free cash flow conversion, this quarter's free cash flow of $35.9 million included the impact of one-time cash payments related to our restructuring. During the quarter, we closed a new $150 million revolving credit facility with a $50 million accordion. This positions us to repay the August 2026 convertible notes at maturity while supporting our disciplined capital allocation strategy, opportunistic M&A, and our share repurchase program. We repurchased approximately 164,000 shares in Q2 while we closed the revolving credit facility. Year-to-date, we have repurchased approximately 8.3 million shares. Turning now to our updated outlook.

Speaker #3: While our capital-light marketplace model consistently yields exceptional free cash flow conversion, this quarter's free cash flow of $35.9 million included the impact of one-time cash payments related to our restructuring.

Speaker #3: During the quarter, we closed a new $150 million revolving credit facility, with a $50 million accordion, dispositions us to repay the August 2026 convertible notes at maturity, while supporting our disciplined capital allocation strategy, opportunistic M&A, and our share repurchase program.

Hayden Brown: This positions us to repay the August 2026 convertible notes at maturity while supporting our disciplined capital allocation strategy, opportunistic M&A, and our share repurchase program. We repurchased approximately 164,000 shares in Q2 while we closed the revolving credit facility. Year-to-date, we have repurchased approximately 8.3 million shares. Turning now to our updated outlook.

Speaker #3: We repurchased approximately $164,000 shares in Q2 while we closed the revolving credit facility. Year-to-date, we have repurchased approximately 8.3 million shares. Turning now to our updated outlook, as I mentioned at the top of this call, the near-term AI and macro headwinds we identified last quarter have persisted throughout Q2 and into Q3, with an uptick in the pace of AI-related automation and impacts from SEO.

Hayden Brown: As I mentioned at the top of this call, the near-term AI and macro headwinds we identified last quarter have persisted throughout Q2 and into Q3, with an uptick in the pace of AI-related automation and impacts from SEO. We are adjusting our full-year guidance on both the top and bottom line accordingly. For the full year 2026, we now expect revenue in the range of $730 to $750 million. This assumes a heightened pace of AI-related automation and no improvements in the labor market. As planned, we will continue to expand take rate this year as part of our overall growth story. We expect full-year 2026 Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $225 to $235 million, which represents an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 31% at the midpoint. This is driven by the flow-through of our reduced revenue outlook alongside planned marketing spend.

Speaker #3: We are adjusting our full-year guidance on both the top and bottom line accordingly. For the full year 2026, we now expect revenue in the range of $730 to $750 million.

Speaker #3: This assumes a heightened pace of AI-related automation and no improvements in the labor market. As planned, we will continue to expand take rate this year, as part of our overall growth story.

Speaker #3: We expect full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDA of approximately $225 million to $235 million, which represents an adjusted EBITDA margin of 31% at the midpoint. This is driven by the flow-through of our reduced revenue outlook, alongside planned marketing spend.

Hayden Brown: We expect full-year 2026 Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $225 to $235 million, which represents an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 31% at the midpoint. This is driven by the flow-through of our reduced revenue outlook alongside planned marketing spend. We expect full-year 2026 non-GAAP diluted EPS to be between $1.38 and $1.43. Our updated guidance also assumes stock-based compensation of approximately $60 to $65 million for the full year 2026.

Speaker #3: We expect full year 2026 non-GAAP diluted EPS to be between $138 and $143, our updated guidance also assumes stock-based compensation of approximately $60 to $65 million, for the full year 2026.

Hayden Brown: We expect full-year 2026 non-GAAP diluted EPS to be between $1.38 and $1.43. Our updated guidance also assumes stock-based compensation of approximately $60 to $65 million for the full year 2026. For the third quarter, we expect to generate revenue in the range of $176 to $184 million, and Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $50 to $54 million, which represents an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 29% at the midpoint. We expect Q3 non-GAAP diluted EPS to be between $0.31 and $0.33. Our underlying metrics, including record GSV per active client and continued Business Plus and AI work growth, confirm Upwork's strong value proposition, even in a changing market. Our product innovations and tailored offerings for larger customers are deepening our moat, and we continue operating with financial discipline.

Speaker #3: For the third quarter, we expect to generate revenue in the range of $176 to $184 million, and adjusted EBITDA in the range of $50 to $54 million, which represents an adjusted EBITDA margin of 29% at the midpoint.

Hayden Brown: For the third quarter, we expect to generate revenue in the range of $176 to $184 million, and Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $50 to $54 million, which represents an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 29% at the midpoint. We expect Q3 non-GAAP diluted EPS to be between $0.31 and $0.33. Our underlying metrics, including record GSV per active client and continued Business Plus and AI work growth, confirm Upwork's strong value proposition, even in a changing market.

Speaker #3: We expect Q3 non-GAAP diluted EPS to be between $0.31 and $0.33. Our underlying metrics, including record GSV per active client and continued Business Plus and AI work growth, confirm our strong value proposition, even in a changing market.

Speaker #3: Our product innovations and tailored offerings for larger customers are deepening our moat, and we continue to operate with financial discipline. We're navigating the near-term impacts of this significant evolution in how work gets done, while continuing to build Upwork to capture the demand, talent, and economic opportunity that this new era of work offers.

Hayden Brown: Our product innovations and tailored offerings for larger customers are deepening our moat, and we continue operating with financial discipline. We are navigating the near-term impacts of this significant evolution in how work gets done while continuing to build Upwork to capture the demand, talent, and economic opportunity that this new era of work offers. Thank you for your continued support. Operator, we are now ready to open the call to questions.

Hayden Brown: We are navigating the near-term impacts of this significant evolution in how work gets done while continuing to build Upwork to capture the demand, talent, and economic opportunity that this new era of work offers. Thank you for your continued support. Operator, we are now ready to open the call to questions.

Speaker #3: Thank you for your continued support. Operator, we are now ready to open the call to questions.

Speaker #1: Thank you. As a reminder to ask your question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again.

Operator: Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. One moment while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Ron Josey of Citi. Your line is open.

Speaker #1: One moment while we compile the Q&A roster. And our first question comes from Ron Josie of City or Line is Open.

Ron Josey: Great. Thanks for taking the question. Hayden, I had two questions, one on operations and you talked about the challenging operating environment continuing. Would love to hear more about the view into visibility and more insights on the SEO challenges that you mentioned. Then, some interesting data came out today, or at least a press release around the MCP server. Wanted to understand directly how that might impact the business going forward, just given the AI benefit. Thank you.

Speaker #2: Great. Thanks for taking the question. Hayden, I had two questions, one on operations and just you talked about the challenging operating environment continuing. Would love to hear more about the view and the visibility, and then more insights on the SEO challenges that you mentioned.

Speaker #2: And then some interesting data came out today, or at least a press release around the MCP server. I wanted to understand directly how that might impact the business going forward, just given the AI benefits.

Speaker #2: Thank you.

Hayden Brown: Thanks, Ron. From a visibility standpoint, we are really in the midst of a transition of work broadly. What we are seeing is that our decisions, including our growth strategy and our effective cost management, are enabling us to navigate this situation from a real position of strength. The trend we saw this quarter is really a continuation of last quarter, but with an acceleration in the AI automation of very low complexity work and further deterioration on Google SEO, especially notable in the non-brand channel. That is understandable given that demand for less complex work is shrinking as customers embrace AI, and this is just flowing through to our platform. The important thing here is, it really is an evolution with a situation that is quite fluid.

Speaker #3: Thanks, Ron. So, from a visibility standpoint, we are really in the midst of a transition of work, broadly, and what we're seeing is that our decisions, including our growth strategy and our effective cost management, are enabling us to navigate this situation from a real position of strength.

Speaker #3: The trend we saw this quarter is really a continuation of last quarter, but with an acceleration in the AI automation of very low complexity work.

Speaker #3: And for their deterioration on Google SEO, especially notable in the non-brand channel. And that's understandable given that demand for less complex work is shrinking as customers embrace AI.

Hayden Brown: That is understandable given that demand for less complex work is shrinking as customers embrace AI, and this is just flowing through to our platform. The important thing here is, it really is an evolution with a situation that is quite fluid. We are already seeing really great green shoots that our strategy is working, and this is showing us what Upwork will look like as this transition unfolds. We can see that Upwork will be home to a lot of new work. AI-relevant work is already a big and enduring part of Upwork. We are seeing this with $330 million of GSV run rate in our AI categories.

Speaker #3: And this is just flowing through to our platform. But the important thing here is it really is an evolution with a situation that's quite fluid.

Speaker #3: We are already seeing really great green shoots that our strategy is working, and this is showing us what UPWORK will look like as this transition unfolds.

Hayden Brown: We are already seeing really great green shoots that our strategy is working, and this is showing us what Upwork will look like as this transition unfolds. We can see that Upwork will be home to a lot of new work. AI-relevant work is already a big and enduring part of Upwork. We are seeing this with $330 million of GSV run rate in our AI categories. As I mentioned a few moments ago, this is really an undercount because there is a lot more AI usage that is de facto across the platform. We can also see that on the other side of this transition, projects are becoming much bigger. This is how we have seen eight consecutive quarters of increased GSV per client.

Speaker #3: We can see that Upwork will be home to a lot of new work. AI-relevant work is already a big and enduring part of Upwork.

Speaker #3: We're seeing this with $330 million of GSV run rate in our AI categories, and as I mentioned a few moments ago, this is really an undercount because there's a lot more AI usage that is de facto across the platform.

Hayden Brown: As I mentioned a few moments ago, this is really an undercount because there is a lot more AI usage that is de facto across the platform. We can also see that on the other side of this transition, projects are becoming much bigger. This is how we have seen eight consecutive quarters of increased GSV per client. It is not just a mix shift, we are actually seeing increases in things like the length of hourly work contracts, which hit a record of 100 hours on average this quarter.

Speaker #3: We can also see that, on the other side of this transition, projects are becoming much bigger. This is how we've seen eight consecutive quarters of increased GSV per client, and it's not just a mix shift.

Hayden Brown: It is not just a mix shift, we are actually seeing increases in things like the length of hourly work contracts, which hit a record of 100 hours on average this quarter. The final thing that is really going to be a hallmark of the new Upwork on the other side of this are these new channels and the new participants in those channels, and that speaks to the MCP part of your question, which I will answer in a moment. With the launch of the MCP, we really are stepping into new AI-first client acquisition strategies, which started working already with the integrations that we made in the last few months with Claude and ChatGPT. But this now opens up Upwork to integrating agents and agent participants on both sides of our marketplace in a very at-scale way.

Speaker #3: We are actually seeing increases in things like the length of hourly work contracts, which hit a record of 100 hours on average this quarter.

Speaker #3: The final thing that's really going to be a hallmark of the new Upwork on the other side of this are these new channels, and the new participants in those channels.

Hayden Brown: The final thing that is really going to be a hallmark of the new Upwork on the other side of this are these new channels and the new participants in those channels, and that speaks to the MCP part of your question, which I will answer in a moment. With the launch of the MCP, we really are stepping into new AI-first client acquisition strategies, which started working already with the integrations that we made in the last few months with Claude and ChatGPT. But this now opens up Upwork to integrating agents and agent participants on both sides of our marketplace in a very at-scale way.

Speaker #3: And that speaks to the MCP part of your question, which I'll answer in a moment. With the launch of the MCP, we really are stepping into new AI-first client acquisition strategies, which started working already with the integrations that we made in the last few months with Claude and ChatGPT, but this now opens up UPWORK to integrating agents and agent participants on both sides of our marketplace in a very at-scale way.

Speaker #3: So for us, the good news is we know how to navigate through these changes in work, and we are very focused on just executing through them and seeing our strategies scale.

Hayden Brown: For us, the good news is we know how to navigate through these changes. It is in the DNA of our company to navigate changes in work, and we are very focused on just executing through them and seeing our strategy scale. To your question about SEO, I would say, these are industry-wide trends that are hitting the business, and so the impact to us is very similar to what we are seeing, I think, across our peer group. Specifically, Google has changed SEO referrals and the layout of the search page so that many fewer searches on Google result in any kind of referral to any kind of business.

Speaker #3: Now, to your question about SEO, I would say these are industry-wide trends that are hitting the business, and so the impact to us is very similar to what we're seeing, I think, across our peer group, specifically Google has changed SEO referrals and the layout of the search page so that many fewer searches on Google result in any kind of referral to any kind of business.

Hayden Brown: To your question about SEO, I would say, these are industry-wide trends that are hitting the business, and so the impact to us is very similar to what we are seeing, I think, across our peer group. Specifically, Google has changed SEO referrals and the layout of the search page so that many fewer searches on Google result in any kind of referral to any kind of business. That is really what is weighing on new client acquisition. Of course, it is coming at a moment that is compounding the impact because the labor market is subdued, AI work is happening, and this is happening all at the same time. The good news is we have done a lot to counter this, and that includes rebuilding our marketing funnels for this new world.

Speaker #3: And that's really what's weighing on new client acquisition. And of course, it's coming at a moment that's kind of compounding the impact because the labor market is subdued.

Hayden Brown: That is really what is weighing on new client acquisition. Of course, it is coming at a moment that is compounding the impact because the labor market is subdued, AI work is happening, and this is happening all at the same time. The good news is we have done a lot to counter this, and that includes rebuilding our marketing funnels for this new world.

Speaker #3: AI work is happening, and this is happening kind of all at the same time. The good news is we've done a lot to counter this, and that includes rebuilding our marketing funnels for this new world.

Speaker #3: As I mentioned earlier, paid acquisition is really doing well for us in Q2, and that's leaving us the confidence to increase our marketing spend by approximately 5 to 10 million dollars incrementally in the back half of the year.

Hayden Brown: As I mentioned earlier, paid acquisition is really doing well for us in Q2, and that is leaving us the confidence to increase our marketing spend by approximately $5 to $10 million incrementally in the back half of the year. These new acquisition channels around AI are the future, really, for organic, low-cost acquisition that really lets us integrate into these endpoints and get customers right where the work is happening. Maybe that is the right transition to answer your MCP question, because the reason we built this is not just to create this new demand channel. It is actually in response to seeing agents already coming to our website trying to do work on behalf of clients. This has been a fascinating phenomenon that started to grow, and previously they could not get very far because of our restrictions on agent activity.

Speaker #3: And these new acquisition channels around AI are the future, really, for organic, low-cost acquisition that really lets us integrate into these endpoints and get customers right where the work is happening.

Speaker #3: And maybe that's the right transition to answer your MCP question, because the reason we built this is not just to create this new demand channel.

Speaker #3: It's actually in response to seeing agents already coming to our website, trying to do work on behalf of clients. This has been a fascinating phenomenon that started to grow, and previously, they couldn't get very far because of our restrictions on agent activity.

Hayden Brown: It is actually in response to seeing agents already coming to our website trying to do work on behalf of clients. This has been a fascinating phenomenon that started to grow, and previously they could not get very far because of our restrictions on agent activity. Now, with the Upwork MCP Server, Upwork can be called by and embedded into any AI tool that a client or a freelancer is using.

Speaker #3: Now, with the MCP server, UPWORK can be called, buy, and embedded into any AI tool that a client or a freelancer is using. So this really lets clients do more in terms of their job posting activity, their hiring activity, getting the benefit of both UPWORK and their favorite AI tools together in one place.

Hayden Brown: Now, with the Upwork MCP Server, Upwork can be called by and embedded into any AI tool that a client or a freelancer is using. So this really lets clients do more in terms of their job posting activity, their hiring activity, getting the benefit of both Upwork and their favorite AI tools together in one place. It also lets freelancers do more in terms of managing their proposals, their projects, client communications inside their own AI tools, and lets them actually operate as human supervisors to trusted AI tools that are integrated into Upwork and give clients and talent the full visibility, auditability, et cetera, of what those tools are being used for.

Hayden Brown: So this really lets clients do more in terms of their job posting activity, their hiring activity, getting the benefit of both Upwork and their favorite AI tools together in one place. It also lets freelancers do more in terms of managing their proposals, their projects, client communications inside their own AI tools, and lets them actually operate as human supervisors to trusted AI tools that are integrated into Upwork and give clients and talent the full visibility, auditability, et cetera, of what those tools are being used for.

Speaker #3: It also lets freelancers do more in terms of managing their proposals, their projects, client communications, inside their own AI tools. And lets them actually operate as human supervisors to trusted AI tools that are integrated into UPWORK and give clients and talent the full visibility auditability, et cetera, of what those tools are being used for.

Speaker #3: So this is a launch that really was about going to where customers already are, and not waiting for that demand to come to us, but really opening it up more broadly by bringing UPWORK into these channels.

Hayden Brown: This is a launch that really was about going to where customers already are and not waiting for that demand to come to us, but really opening it up more broadly by bringing Upwork into these channels. This is something that really is unique to Upwork, because one of the expectations that is coming along with this from clients is as they work in AI tools, they want things instantly. They want human impact. They want people on demand. They expect answers now. Because of our unique scale and talent breadth and quality, we can actually offer humans at scale on demand through these types of solutions, which no one else in the market can do.

Speaker #3: And this is something that really is unique to UPWORK because one of the expectations that is coming along with this from clients is as they work in AI tools, they want things instantly.

Speaker #3: They want human impact. They want people on demand. They expect answers now. And because of our unique scale and talent breadth and quality, we can actually offer humans at scale on demand through these types of solutions, which no one else in the market can do.

Hayden Brown: They want human impact. They want people on demand. They expect answers now. Because of our unique scale and talent breadth and quality, we can actually offer humans at scale on demand through these types of solutions, which no one else in the market can do.

Speaker #1: Thank you, Hayden. Much appreciated.

Ron Josey: Thank you, Hayden. Much appreciated.

Speaker #2: Thank you. And our next question comes from Eric Sheridan of Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Eric Sheridan of Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Speaker #4: Thanks so much for taking the question. Maybe two, if I could. One, I think, is going to sort of dominate the debate around the space for a while is how do you think about the duration to get to the end state?

Eric Sheridan: Thanks so much for taking the question. Maybe two, if I could. One I think is going to sort of dominate the debate around the space for a while is how do you think about the duration to get to the end state? Is the visibility that this transition is a 6-to-12-month transition, or could it be more than a 12-month transition? I am just curious for any framing you think about what the sort of countervailing factors in the business might lead to in terms of a mixture of these headwinds and tailwinds before we get back to some sort of more normalized levels of growth. Second, among the active client base you have today, how many of those active clients do you think will eventually be transitioned into higher-quality, AI-driven work?

Speaker #4: Is the visibility that this transition is a 6 to 12-month transition, or could it be more than a 12-month transition? I'm just curious for any framing you think about what the sort of countervailing factors in the business might lead to in terms of a mixture of these headwinds and tailwinds before we get back to some sort of more normalized levels of growth.

Speaker #4: And second, among the active client base you have today, how many of those active clients do you think will eventually be transitioned into higher-quality, AI-driven work? And how much of it is about rebuilding your active client base to be centered around where the nature of work on your platform is going for the longer term?

Eric Sheridan: Second, among the active client base you have today, how many of those active clients do you think will eventually be transitioned into higher-quality, AI-driven work? And how much of it is about rebuilding your active client base to be centered around where the nature of work on your platform is going for the longer term? Thanks so much.

Eric Sheridan: And how much of it is about rebuilding your active client base to be centered around where the nature of work on your platform is going for the longer term? Thanks so much.

Speaker #4: Thanks so much.

Speaker #3: Yeah, thanks, Eric. So in terms of your question around timing, I think these things are incredibly hard to predict, and it would be probably a disingenuous for me to say that I know exactly how long this is going to take.

Hayden Brown: Yeah, thanks, Eric. So in terms of your question around timing, I think these things are incredibly hard to predict, and it would be probably disingenuous for me to say that I know exactly how long this is going to take. But the important thing is it really is an evolution, and it is a situation where on the other side of these changes, Upwork is actually emerging structurally as a beneficiary because it is unique to our platform, as I was just mentioning on the MCP side, for us to serve the market where it is going and really displace legacy and other solutions that can not do what we can do here.

Speaker #3: But the important thing is, it really is an evolution, and it's a situation where, on the other side of these changes, Upwork is actually emerging structurally as a beneficiary because it's unique to our platform.

Speaker #3: As I was just mentioning, on the MCP side, for us to serve the market where it's going and really displace legacy and other solutions that can't do what we can do here.

Speaker #3: So we are staying laser-focused just on our execution, on these strategies that are working, and we see everything from enterprise growing, our business-plus offering up 174% year over year, and AI tailwinds in the parts of our business that really speak to AI work.

Hayden Brown: So we are staying laser-focused just on our execution, on these strategies that are working, and we see everything from our enterprise growing, our Business Plus offering up 174% year over year, and AI tailwinds in the parts of our business that really speak to AI work. All of those things will continue to scale and compound as we work through this, and that makes me incredibly optimistic about where we will land. To your second part of your question, which was, sorry-

Speaker #3: All of those things will continue to scale and compound as we work through this, and that makes me incredibly optimistic about where we'll land.

Speaker #3: To the second part of your question—which was, sorry.

Speaker #4: When you think about the active client base today, relative to where the active client base needs to evolve, how much of your active client base do you think are along this journey towards higher quality work, as opposed to rebuilding the client base around higher quality, AI-driven work when we think about over the next 12 to 24 months?

Eric Sheridan: When you think about the active client base today relative to where the active client base needs to evolve, how much of your active client stay do you think are along this journey towards higher-quality work as opposed to rebuilding the client base around higher-quality AI-driven work when we think about over the next 12, 24 months?

Speaker #3: Got it. Yeah, I'd say on that front, this is really an expansion, not a replacement. We do see, with very small business customers that we have today—those that are active in the Marketplace Basic plan—they are shifting their workloads to be more AI-oriented.

Hayden Brown: Got it. Yeah. I would say on that front, this is really an expansion, not a replacement. We do see with very small business customers that we have today, those that are active in the Marketplace Basic Plan, they are shifting their workloads to be more AI-oriented, and we see huge resonance with SMBs and larger customers who want the combination of both features and functionality of Business Plus and the AI transformation that our business can offer. This is why we saw our AI strategy consulting practice or categories up significantly in the quarter, and I think this is just an example of how customers are using these new tools to do different types of work than they were doing a few months ago.

Speaker #3: And we see huge resonance with SMBs and larger customers who want the combination of both the features and functionality of Business Plus, and the AI kind of transformation that our business can offer.

Speaker #3: This is why we saw our AI strategy and consulting practice, or categories, up significantly in the quarter. And I think this is just an example of how customers are using these new tools to do different types of work than they were doing a few months ago.

Hayden Brown: This is why we saw our AI strategy consulting practice or categories up significantly in the quarter, and I think this is just an example of how customers are using these new tools to do different types of work than they were doing a few months ago. We really see it across all of our customer segments, that they are leaning in more on these AI workloads and just they are changing what they do, and so that changes what they come to Upwork to do.

Speaker #3: So we really see it across all of our customer segments that they're leaning in more on these AI workloads, and they're just changing what they do, so that changes what they come to Upwork to do.

Hayden Brown: We really see it across all of our customer segments, that they are leaning in more on these AI workloads and just they are changing what they do, and so that changes what they come to Upwork to do.

Speaker #4: Thank you.

Josh Chan: Thank you.

Eric Sheridan: Thank you.

Speaker #2: Thank you. And our next question comes from Bernie McTernan of Needham & Company. Your line is open.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Bernie McTernan of Needham & Company. Your line is open.

Bernie McTernan: Great. Thanks for taking the question. Two for me. First, just on the AI category work. We have seen a slowdown over the past two quarters, growing 50% year-over-year in Q4, then 40% last quarter, then 22% now. I know there are some caveats you gave, Hayden Brown, in your prepared remarks. Just anything you could dig in deeper there. Second, the marketplace take rate, we were expecting it to be down sequentially, and I think some pressure on Connects and more ancillary revenue, but it came in actually higher sequentially. I am assuming that is just Business Plus, but was there anything else to call out in the quarter and how to think about the marketplace take rate for the rest of the year? Thank you.

Speaker #1: Great, thanks for taking the question. Two for me. First, just on the AI category work, we've seen a slowdown over the past two quarters—growing 50% year over year in the fourth quarter, then 40% last quarter, and now 22%.

Speaker #1: I know there are some caveats you gave, Hayden, in your prepared remarks. Is there anything you could dig into deeper there? And then second, on the marketplace take rate, we were expecting it to be down sequentially, with some pressure on Connects and more ancillary revenue, but it actually came in higher sequentially.

Speaker #1: I'm assuming that's just Business Plus, but was there anything else to call out in the quarter, and how should we think about the marketplace take rate for the rest of the year?

Bernie McTernan: I am assuming that is just Business Plus, but was there anything else to call out in the quarter and how to think about the marketplace take rate for the rest of the year? Thank you.

Speaker #1: Thank you.

Speaker #3: Sure. So on the AI category, this is pacing now at a $330 million run rate, as I mentioned. And I want to emphasize this is really an undercount of AI work on Upwork, because what we're seeing is customer behavior is changing.

Hayden Brown: Sure. On the AI category, this is pacing now at a $330 million run rate, as I mentioned. I want to emphasize, this is really an undercount of AI work on Upwork, because what we are seeing is customer behavior is changing. Customers who previously felt they needed to specify, "Hey, this is an AI job," or, "I really need help with this AI project," now they just assume that that is expected, and they do not even talk about it in their job posts. That is why in a survey we did just in the last few weeks, when we talked to talent, almost half of them said their most recent project was an AI-related effort, whereas when we looked at the job posts and what we would capture in this AI category metric, only 16% of jobs specifically mentioned from clients that they wanted AI help.

Speaker #3: Customers who previously felt they needed to specify, "Hey, this is an AI job," or "I really need help with this AI project," now just assume that is expected, and they don't even talk about it in their job post.

Speaker #3: That's why, in a survey we did just in the last few weeks, when we talked to talent, almost half of them said their most recent project was an AI-related effort. Whereas, when we looked at the job posts and what we would capture in this AI category metric, only 16% of jobs specifically mentioned from clients that they wanted AI help.

Hayden Brown: That is why in a survey we did just in the last few weeks, when we talked to talent, almost half of them said their most recent project was an AI-related effort, whereas when we looked at the job posts and what we would capture in this AI category metric, only 16% of jobs specifically mentioned from clients that they wanted AI help.

Speaker #3: So there's just a transition happening in the ecosystem broadly where AI is now permeating all types of work, and I think that is what's reflected more than anything in the metric here.

Hayden Brown: There is just a transition happening in the ecosystem broadly, where AI is now permeating all types of work, and I think that is what is reflected more than anything in the metric here. In terms of the marketplace take rate trends, we did have some success with our ad monetization efforts in Q2, and we will continue to expand on those in Q3 and Q4. The expansion of things like dynamic pricing on freelancer fees and some other things were some of the big contributors to the over-performance in take rate, and our outlook is for take rate to continue to step up in the back of the year.

Speaker #3: Now, in terms of the marketplace take rate trends, we did have some success with our admin monetization efforts in Q2, and we will continue to expand on those in Q3 and Q4.

Speaker #3: So the expansion of things like dynamic pricing on freelancer fees and some other things were some of the big contributors to the overperformance in take rate, and our outlook is for take rate to continue to step up in the back half of the year.

Speaker #2: Thank you. And our next question comes from John Bayan of Jefferies. Your line is open.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from John Byun of Jefferies. Your line is open.

Speaker #5: Hi, thank you. This is John Bayan on behalf of Brenthill. A question on Lifted—you mentioned that it's on track and still growing GSV 25%. I guess the employer of record category did very well.

John Byun: Hi. Thank you. This is John Byun on behalf of Brent Thill. Question on Lifted. You mentioned that it is on track to still grow GSV 25%, and I guess the employer of record category did very well. I am wondering if there is anything more you could share about the migration there, the different project categories that it is able to achieve in the pipeline, how that is building. Thank you.

Speaker #5: I'm wondering if there's anything more you could share about the migration there, the different project categories that it's able to achieve, and the pipeline—how that's building.

Speaker #5: Thank you.

Hayden Brown: John, in Q2, we did see really great progress with both customer migrations and pipeline building for Lifted, and that is what gives us confidence that we are on track for the approximate 25% GSV growth in full year 2026. June was when we really started the customer migrations, and that activity will be ramping up because it is going very well. Customers are giving us very positive feedback. As we are running these customers through the new systems and workflows, things are going very well. So we feel good about that. From a pipeline perspective, the pipeline continues to be incredibly healthy, and customers are converting. We talked about pipeline expansion last quarter. Now we are seeing those customers continue to move through our funnel.

Speaker #3: John, in Q2 we did see really great progress with both customer migrations and pipeline building for Lifted, and that's what gives us confidence that we're on track for the approximate 25% GSV growth in full year '26.

Speaker #3: June was when we really started the customer migrations, and that activity will be ramping up because it's going very well. Customers are giving us very positive feedback.

Speaker #3: As we're running these customers through the new systems and workflows, things are going very well. So we feel good about that. From a pipeline perspective, the pipeline continues to be incredibly healthy.

Hayden Brown: From a pipeline perspective, the pipeline continues to be incredibly healthy, and customers are converting. We talked about pipeline expansion last quarter. Now we are seeing those customers continue to move through our funnel. One example is we recently won a multimillion-dollar RFP with a very large global company for a staff augmentation contract that we would never have been invited to participate in before Lifted and before everything we have done to round out that set of capabilities.

Speaker #3: And customers are converting. We talked about pipeline expansion last quarter. Now, we're seeing those customers continue to move through our funnel. One example is we recently won a multi-million dollar RFP with a very large global company for a staff augmentation contract that we would never have been invited to participate in before Lifted, and before everything we've done to round out that set of capabilities.

Hayden Brown: One example is we recently won a multimillion-dollar RFP with a very large global company for a staff augmentation contract that we would never have been invited to participate in before Lifted and before everything we have done to round out that set of capabilities. So we are really seeing the proof points between that, between the EOR data I shared earlier, that these new capabilities are helping us close deals and also improve our margins versus what we were doing before with third parties. So we are very excited about what is going to happen here through the rest of the year and in 2027.

Speaker #3: So we're really seeing the proof points between that, between the EOR data I shared earlier, that these new capabilities are helping us close deals and also improve our margins, versus what we were doing before with third parties.

Hayden Brown: So we are really seeing the proof points between that, between the EOR data I shared earlier, that these new capabilities are helping us close deals and also improve our margins versus what we were doing before with third parties. So we are very excited about what is going to happen here through the rest of the year and in 2027.

Speaker #3: So we're very excited about what's going to happen here through the rest of the year and in 2027.

Speaker #5: Thank you. And then maybe a quick follow-up on the SEO change. In terms of what you're seeing there, I mean, does it look like it's stabilizing, or is it still kind of ongoing in terms of what the impact could be from the search changes?

John Byun: Thank you. Then maybe a quick follow-up on the SEO change. In terms of what you are seeing there, does it look like it is stabilizing, or is it still kind of ongoing in terms of what the impact could be from the search changes? That is it for me. Thank you.

Speaker #5: That's it for me. Thank you.

Speaker #3: Sure. We started seeing these impacts accelerate in Q2, and because there is some volatility in the industry around this, our outlook is that they will continue to get worse through Q3 and Q4.

Hayden Brown: Sure. We started seeing these impacts accelerate in Q2, and because there is some volatility in the industry around this, our outlook is that they will continue to get worse through Q3 and Q4. That is what is baked into our current guide. We haven't seen them stabilize yet, but certainly to the extent they do, that would be better than our current outlook, which is for further deceleration.

Speaker #3: So that's what's baked into our current guide. We haven't seen them stabilize yet, but certainly to the extent they do, that would be better than our current outlook, which is for further deceleration.

Speaker #5: Thank you.

John Byun: Thank you.

Speaker #2: Thank you. And our next question comes from Josh Chan of UBS. Your line is open.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Josh Chan of UBS. Your line is open.

Speaker #6: Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe just two quick ones. Could you give us some sense, in terms of monthly cadence, on when things start to weaken?

Josh Chan: Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe just two quick ones. Could you give us some sense in terms of monthly cadence on when things started to weaken? I think you said that they are not stabilizing yet at the moment, but when did that start happening? Then maybe secondly, I think previously there was some thought that only a portion of Upwork's GSV may be susceptible to AI. I was wondering if there is a change in that thinking there. Thank you.

Speaker #6: And I think you said that they're not kind of stabilizing yet at the moment, but when did that kind of start happening? And then maybe secondly, I think previously there was some thought that only a portion of Upwork's GSV may be susceptible to AI.

Speaker #6: So I was wondering if there's a change in that thinking there. Thank you.

Speaker #3: So at the time of our last earnings call, we had seen some of these trends, particularly around the pace of AI automation stabilize. Subsequent to that, in this past quarter over the last few months, we've seen those trends accelerate.

Hayden Brown: At the time of our last earnings call, we had seen some of these trends, particularly around the pace of AI automation stabilize. Subsequent to that, in this past quarter, over the last few months, we have seen those trends accelerate. One thing that is super important here to your question about the 10%, this really is an acceleration of erosion in the part of the business we had already identified as being more exposed to AI automation. It is kind of a pull forward in that activity versus what we had previously expected.

Speaker #3: One thing that's super important here, to your question about the kind of 10%, this really is an acceleration of erosion in the part of the business we had already identified as being more exposed to AI automation.

Speaker #3: So it's kind of a pull-forward in that activity versus what we had previously expected.

Speaker #6: Okay, that's great. Thank you for the color.

Josh Chan: Okay. That is great. Thank you for the color.

Speaker #2: Thank you. And our next question comes from Matt Condon of Citizens Bank. Your line is open.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Matt Condron of Citizens Bank. Your line is open.

Speaker #7: Thank you for taking the questions. Hayden, I just wanted to ask about the enterprise opportunity. We're hearing more and more from enterprise clients, or enterprise-type clients, that they're leaning more and more into AI, and that's reducing their full-time employee workforce.

Matt Condron: Thank you for taking the questions. Hayden, I just wanted to ask on the enterprise opportunity. We are hearing more and more from enterprise clients, or enterprise-type clients, that they are leaning more and more into AI, and that is reducing their full-time employee workforce. I just wanted to get your thoughts and see what you think about the potential of AI maybe impacting freelancer work in that segment as well.

Matt Condon: Thank you for taking the questions. Hayden, I just wanted to ask on the enterprise opportunity. We are hearing more and more from enterprise clients, or enterprise-type clients, that they are leaning more and more into AI, and that is reducing their full-time employee workforce. I just wanted to get your thoughts and see what you think about the potential of AI maybe impacting freelancer work in that segment as well.

Speaker #7: But I just wanted to get your thoughts and see what you think about the potential of AI maybe impacting freelancer work in that segment as well.

Speaker #3: Yeah, it's a good question. I'd say the whole reason that we built out Lifted the way we did, to enable us to tap into not just freelancer budgets but into the full $650 billion enterprise market, was predicated on the idea that enterprises spend all this money on contingent labor, but only 10% historically has gone to freelancers, and that's the part that we were eligible for before.

Hayden Brown: Yeah. It is a good question. I would say the whole reason that we built out Lifted the way we did to enable us to tap into not just freelancer budgets, but into the full $650 billion enterprise market, was predicated on the idea that enterprises spend all this money on contingent labor, but only 10% historically has gone to freelancers, and that is the part that we were eligible for before. Now we can serve customers across all of these different work types, and I think that is yet another reason why this business is moving towards more and more insulation from AI-related risk. Not to say that freelancing is going to be highly automated, but it is just that now we can diversify how we serve customers across every type of work.

Speaker #3: Now we can serve customers across all of these different work types, and I think that's yet another reason why this business is moving towards more and more insulation from AI-related risk.

Speaker #3: Not to say that freelancing is going to be highly automated, but it's just that now we can diversify how we serve customers across every type of work.

Hayden Brown: Not to say that freelancing is going to be highly automated, but it is just that now we can diversify how we serve customers across every type of work. If they are changing their workloads and bringing AI into different parts of the business, this just gives us more opportunity to both bring AI talent to bear across those things and help them lean into those strategies, as well as insulates us from any one part of their business where they might be automating at a faster rate.

Speaker #3: And so if they're changing their workloads and bringing in AI into different parts of the business, this just gives us more opportunity to both bring AI talent to bear across those things and help them lean into those strategies, as well as insulate us from any one part of their business where they might be automating at a faster rate.

Hayden Brown: If they are changing their workloads and bringing AI into different parts of the business, this just gives us more opportunity to both bring AI talent to bear across those things and help them lean into those strategies, as well as insulates us from any one part of their business where they might be automating at a faster rate. So this is definitely a really healthy expansion for us that just has multiple benefits for the business and is why we are very leaned in on driving this growth here in the back of the year and in 2027.

Speaker #3: So this is definitely a really healthy expansion for us that just has multiple benefits for the business and is why we're very leaned in on driving this growth here in the back of the year and in 2027.

Hayden Brown: So this is definitely a really healthy expansion for us that just has multiple benefits for the business and is why we are very leaned in on driving this growth here in the back of the year and in 2027.

Speaker #7: That's very helpful. And then just a follow-up on go-to-market. Obviously, you have the SEO changes, and those don't seem to have stabilized yet. And I understand the LLM investments, but those remain nascent today.

Matt Condron: That is very helpful. Then just to follow up on go-to-market, obviously you have the SEO changes and those do not seem to have stabilized yet. I understand the LLM investments, but those remain nascent today. As we think about the back half of the year and the increased investment in customer acquisition, are there different channels that you are leaning into in finding success here near term? Thank you so much.

Matt Condon: That is very helpful. Then just to follow up on go-to-market, obviously you have the SEO changes and those do not seem to have stabilized yet. I understand the LLM investments, but those remain nascent today. As we think about the back half of the year and the increased investment in customer acquisition, are there different channels that you are leaning into in finding success here near term? Thank you so much.

Speaker #7: As we think about the back half of the year and the increased investment in customer acquisition, are there different channels that you're leaning into and finding success in here near term?

Speaker #7: Thank you so much.

Speaker #3: Yeah, there are. So, certainly on the paid side, we're seeing strength in international SEM. That's one area where we're relatively underpenetrated and have seen really good returns with some of the testing we did in Q2.

Hayden Brown: Yeah, there are. So certainly on the paid side, we are seeing strength on international SEM. That is one area where we are relatively under-penetrated and have seen really good returns with some of the testing we did in Q2. There is also a bunch of other channels where we see that we have headroom. That includes Meta, Reddit. We have seen some great results with podcasts and Connected TV, and that is just a few of them. So I would say overall, when we look at our paid acquisition channels, we are seeing the paid part from SEM grow on a relative basis, but we are also seeing a really good mix shift across other more nascent channels that we have been ramping over the last few quarters, and they are getting more sizable.

Speaker #3: There's also a bunch of other channels where we see that we have headroom. That includes Meta, Reddit, we've seen some great results with podcasts and connected TV, and that's just a few of them.

Speaker #3: So I'd say, overall, when we look at our paid acquisition channels, we're seeing the paid part from SEM grow on a relative basis, but we're also seeing a really good mix shift across other, more nascent channels that we've been ramping over the last few quarters, and they're getting more sizable.

Hayden Brown: So I would say overall, when we look at our paid acquisition channels, we are seeing the paid part from SEM grow on a relative basis, but we are also seeing a really good mix shift across other more nascent channels that we have been ramping over the last few quarters, and they are getting more sizable. That's one of the reasons we now have the confidence, seeing that scaling, seeing the ROI. We know we can put more money into those channels with room for it to be very efficient spend in the back half of the year, and we think that's the right thing to do.

Speaker #3: That's one of the reasons we now have the confidence—kind of seeing that scaling, seeing the ROI. We know we can put more money into those channels, with room for it to be very efficient spend in the back half of the year, and we think that's the right thing to do.

Hayden Brown: That's one of the reasons we now have the confidence, seeing that scaling, seeing the ROI. We know we can put more money into those channels with room for it to be very efficient spend in the back half of the year, and we think that's the right thing to do.

Speaker #2: Thank you. And as a reminder, if you have a question, please press star 11. And our next question comes from Marvin Fong of BTIG, your line is open.

Operator: Thank you. As a reminder, if you have a question, please press star 1-1. Our next question comes from Marvin Fong of BTIG. Your line is open.

Speaker #8: Hi, good evening, Hayden. Thanks for taking the questions. Yeah, I just wanted to follow up on that point you made about investing more in marketing.

Marvin Fong: Hi. Good evening, Hayden. Thanks for taking the questions. I just wanted to follow up on that point you made about investing more in marketing. How did you arrive at $5 to $10 million? Is there potential you could do even more than that to drive more growth there? My second question, on the monetization levers, growing, connecting, you cited Business Plus and dynamic pricing. On pricing and Connects specifically, how are you managing that in this environment? It's clearly growing faster than the overall marketplace. Just comment on how you think about pulling those levers to drive revenue growth, and that'd be great. Thank you.

Speaker #8: How did you arrive at five to ten million? Is there potential you could do even more than that and drive more growth there? And then, second question—on the monetization levers, growing Connects, you cited Business Plus and dynamic pricing, but on pricing and Connects specifically, how are you managing that in this environment?

Speaker #8: It's clearly kind of growing faster than the overall marketplace. But just comment on how you think about pulling those levers to drive revenue growth.

Marvin Fong: Just comment on how you think about pulling those levers to drive revenue growth, and that'd be great. Thank you.

Speaker #8: And that would be great. Thank you.

Speaker #3: Sure. So, on your first question, we've done a lot of testing in the first half of the year around these varied channels that I mentioned.

Hayden Brown: Sure. On your first question, we've done a lot of testing in the H1 of the year around these varied channels that I mentioned. Through that testing, we really arrived at this optimal $5 to $10 million of incremental spend based on where we're seeing performance and the degradation curves in those different channels. Obviously it's a dynamic space, but we feel pretty confident based on all the work we did in Q2, that this is a place where we can deploy capital very efficiently and start to get some of that benefit even in Q4 of this year. We'll be hard at work doing that.

Speaker #3: And through that testing, we really arrived at this optimal $5 to $10 million of incremental spend, based on where we're seeing performance and kind of the degradation curves in those different channels.

Speaker #3: So, obviously, it's a dynamic space, but we feel pretty confident based on all of the work we did in Q2 that this is a place where we can deploy capital very efficiently and start to get some of that benefit even in Q4 of this year.

Speaker #3: So we'll be hard at work doing that. To your other question about monetization levers, it's a really good one, because as we've seen our shift from customer volume to value, and with all of these ecosystem changes happening, of course, the marketplace is becoming even more competitive for these jobs.

Hayden Brown: To your other question about monetization levers, it is a really good one because as we have seen our shift from customer volume to value and all of these ecosystem changes happening, of course, the marketplace is becoming even more competitive for these jobs. That has good and bad factors, and we are trying to always balance how much we charge on the talent side, for example, for job access, while still really focusing on using these levers to drive match quality and fill rate. That is always our North Star with these changes. The reality is, in places where the marketplace is more congested and has a lot more talent than client demand at the moment, we have the ability to do some things with pricing that are beneficial to both take rate, but also beneficial to matching and keeping the marketplace super high quality in terms of those signals.

Speaker #3: That has good and bad factors, and we're always trying to balance how much we charge on the talent side, for example, for job access, while still really focusing on using these levers to drive match quality and fill rate.

Speaker #3: And that is always our North Star with these changes. The reality is, in places where the marketplace is more congested and has a lot more talent than client demand at the moment, we have the ability to do something with pricing that is beneficial to both take rate, but also beneficial to matching and keeping the marketplace super high-quality in terms of those signals.

Hayden Brown: The reality is, in places where the marketplace is more congested and has a lot more talent than client demand at the moment, we have the ability to do some things with pricing that are beneficial to both take rate, but also beneficial to matching and keeping the marketplace super high quality in terms of those signals. That is where we are always performing the balance, and I would say in the H2 of this year, we will be pulling some of those levers as we see these marketplace dynamics play out, as well as ensuring that we are always working within our guardrails around match quality, et cetera.

Speaker #3: So that's where we're always performing the balance. And I'd say in the back half of this year, we will be pulling some of those levers as we see these marketplace dynamics play out.

Hayden Brown: That is where we are always performing the balance, and I would say in the H2 of this year, we will be pulling some of those levers as we see these marketplace dynamics play out, as well as ensuring that we are always working within our guardrails around match quality, et cetera.

Speaker #3: As well as ensuring that we're always working within our guardrails around match quality, etc.

Speaker #8: Got it. Thanks so much.

Marvin Fong: Got it. Thanks so much.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session and also today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.

Q2 2026 Upwork Inc Earnings Call

Request DemoDemo

Upwork

Earnings