Inside Upwork: Lauren Dycus on AI in Product and Market Differentiation

07/09/24 • 48 min

Lauren Dycus, Director of Product Management at Upwork, details her role and the company's mission. She focuses on work management, which streamlines processes from user onboarding to contract finalization. Upwork, the world's largest work marketplace, supports freelancers with specialized skills, enabling personal and company growth. Dycus emphasizes Upwork's commitment to equity between clients and freelancers, supported by a culture valuing empowerment and fair opportunities. She highlights a new bonus prompt feature designed to enhance freelancer-client relationships and foster long-term partnerships. Additionally, Dycus discusses Upwork's ethical AI approach, stressing human-in-the-loop protocols and data protection to ensure fair treatment for all users.

Lauren Dycus Notable Quotes:
🌐 "Upwork is the world's largest work marketplace, where freelancers can scale companies while growing their own."
💼 "Work management is the heart of Upwork, streamlining everything from onboarding to finalizing contracts."
🤝 "We're dedicated to making the freelancer-client relationship more equitable, ensuring both sides have agency in their work together."
🚀 "Our new bonus feature is designed to strengthen long-term partnerships between freelancers and clients, moving beyond transactional interactions."
📊 "Adopting AI responsibly, we're focused on maintaining human oversight and ensuring data privacy to protect our users' interests."
Resources Mentioned:
Upwork’s AI Principles
Upwork Bonuses
Financial Feminist by Tori Dunlap
About Lauren:
Lauren Dycus has spent the last 15 years shipping features in software and AI product development at Amazon, AWS, DISCO, LTK, Microsoft, Upwork, and more. Focused on building with agile methodologies and user research, she develops teams and products that solve problems while growing global businesses. Dedicated to mentorship and diversity, Lauren's leadership expertise spans games, ecommerce, robotics, legal tech, and cloud computing, to prioritize safe, collaborative environments for product innovation.

Support the show

Learn More
YouTube! Watch the episode live @YourAIRoadmap
Connect with Joan on LinkedIn
✨📘 Buy the Bestselling Wiley Book: Your AI Roadmap: Actions to Expand Your Career, Money, and Joy. Featured in Forbes!
Who is Joan?
Ranked the #4⁠⁠ in Voice AI Influencer, ⁠⁠Dr. Joan Palmiter Bajorek⁠⁠ is the CEO of ⁠⁠Clarity AI⁠⁠, Founder of ⁠⁠Women in Voice⁠⁠, & Host of ⁠⁠Your AI Roadmap⁠⁠. With a decade in software & AI, she has worked at Nuance, VERSA Agency, & OneReach.ai in data & analysis, product, & digital transformation. She's an investor & technical advisor to startup & enterprise. A CES & VentureBeat speaker & Harvard Business Review published author, she has a PhD & is based in Seattle.
Disclaimer: Our links may have affiliate codes. This is an educational podcast and not intended as legal, career, or financial advice. Seek professional gu...

Support the show

Previous Episode

Generative AI for Enterprise with Noelle Russell of AI Leadership Institute

Noelle Russell, founder of the AI Leadership Institute, shares her experience in AI, highlighting responsible AI, challenges in implementation, and the potential of generative AI in customer service. She emphasizes collaboration, flexibility, and aligning values with partners. Russell discusses harnessing team knowledge with LLMs, the role of certifications, AI education programs, and the importance of learning-by-doing and supportive communities.

Noelle Russell Quotes
🚀 "In the realm of AI, the leap from prototype to product is where true innovation takes flight."
🤖 "Deploying AI responsibly is not just an option; it's a necessity for future-proofing our technological advancements."
💡 "Generative AI isn't just about creating content; it's about unlocking new possibilities for human-machine collaboration."
🌐 "Aligning AI projects with core values isn't just good ethics; it's smart business."
Resources
iHeartAI Community: A platform for AI enthusiasts to join, learn, participate in challenges
AI Education Programs: Stanford Foundation Model Scholars Program, MIT CSAIL, Harvard GenAI
edX: An online platform offering accessible learning resources from various universities
LinkedIn Learning: For obtaining certifications and continuous education in AI.
Noelle Russell Bio
Noelle Russell is a multi-award-winning technologist with an entrepreneurial spirit who specializes in helping companies with data, cloud, conversational AI, Generative AI, and LLMs. She has led teams at NPR, Microsoft, IBM, AWS and Amazon Alexa, and is a consistent champion for Data and AI literacy. In the last year, she was awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for Artificial Intelligence (for the 3rd year) as well as VentureBeat’s Women in AI Responsibility and Ethics award. She is the host of the Good Morning, AI Podcast that can be heard on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and IHeartRadio.
Connect with Noelle:
LinkedIn
AI Leadership I

Support the show

Next Episode

Revolutionizing the Legal Field, AI in Law with Peter Geovanes

Peter Geovanes, Chief Innovation and AI Officer at McGuireWoods LLP, discusses AI's transformative impact on the legal sector. He emphasizes AI tools like ChatGPT-4 for enhancing efficiency, competitive advantage, and prompt engineering. Highlighting data privacy and ethical use, he advocates a "trust but verify" approach. Geovanes also stresses the importance of education and a multidisciplinary strategy to harness AI's full potential.
Peter Geovanes Notable Quotes
🚀 "We were one of the first firms in the world to sign up and have access to ChatGPT-4 specifically fine-tuned for legal."
💡 "It's really important that we become masters of prompt engineering and use AI to drive efficiencies and competitive advantages."
🛡️ "For any law firm, the biggest concern is data privacy and always protecting attorney-client privilege."
⚖️ "In the legal community, it's crucial to trust but verify when using AI-assisted legal research."
💼 "AI tools can do the drudgery work, allowing lawyers to focus on more substantive and value-added tasks."
Resources Mentioned
CaseText CoCounsel
RCode
RTutor
Coursera
Udemy
About Peter:
As the Chief Innovation and AI Officer at McGuireWoods LLP, Peter directs the development and implementation of innovative business and legal solutions, leveraging AI-enhanced tools to better serve clients and boost firm performance. His expertise spans data science, advanced analytics, AI/ML, business strategy, innovation, R&D, project management, and management consulting. He has successfully implemented cutting-edge analytics and AI solutions for leading law firms and Fortune 1000 corporations. Peter has been honored with the 2024 OnCon Icon Awards "Top 100 Data & Analytics Professional," CDO Magazine’s "Champions of Data in the Midwest 2024," and Corinium Intelligence's 2022 Data Value Award, and has been a finalist for the "Legal Innovator of the Year" Award. He holds both a J.D. and an MBA and proudly served as an Officer in the U.S. Navy for eight years.
Connect w/ Peter on LinkedIn

Support the show

Your AI Roadmap - Inside Upwork: Lauren Dycus on AI in Product and Market Differentiation

Transcript

00:00:00.334

Hi, my name is Joan Palmiter Bajorek. I'm on a mission to decrease fluffy hype and talk about the people actually building in AI. Anyone can build in AI, including you. Whether you're terrified or excited, there's been no better time than today to dive in. Now is the time to be curious and future -proof your career, and ultimately, your income. This podcast isn't about white dudes patting themselves on the back. This is about you and me. and all the paths into cool pr