More Attention, Transformation, Acceleration, and Exploration: Freelance Developers' Take on Hypes

Despite growing economic importance, freelance software developers face unfavorable conditions on freelance platforms. Among others, they need to deal with the consequences of elevated expectations emerging during technology hypes. Despite this, the impact of hype on freelancers remains underexplored, limiting our ability to guide them through these intense periods and inform the design of freelance platforms. Through interviews with 52 freelance developers pursuing projects involving generative AI (GenAI), we identify technology hypes as a significant force shaping freelancers’ careers. Based on the interviews, we offer a multifaceted perspective on hype as a phenomenon. We reveal that technological hypes negatively impact the career prospects and well-being of some freelancers while empowering others to advance their careers or transition into new areas. We identify four clusters of freelance developers based on their experiences with and reactions to the GenAI hype. This study positions technology hype as a critical factor shaping the freelance economy.