Malt introduces AI to help clients assemble better consultant teams
Freelance marketplace Malt has launched and advanced AI search tool, to shorten the process of selecting top freelance talent from days to seconds. The move also aims to make managing freelancers simple and scalable, with users now able to quickly bring together full-time employees and freelancers in ‘superteams’; a mix of internal and external talent that “delivers better and faster results for a true strategic advantage”.
Vincent Huguet, CEO of Malt, “Recently, Malt transformed freelancing by creating an open marketplace — finding talent became as easy as online shopping. Today, powered by the latest AI technologies, we’re taking that simplicity to the next level and offering an effortless search experience for any type of project, no matter how complex. Freelancers are the driving force behind flexible, modern teams.”
Malt was founded in 2013 by Huguet and Hugo Lassiège, as the pair sought to tap into the burgeoning freelance talent market. Their new solution aimed to supply workers with a greater level of choice in who they performed tasks for – while also enabling companies to quickly fill talent gaps on an interim basis.
Over the years, the company has refined its search function in a number of ways to help clients source independent consultants quickly – while also ensuring candidates had the right level of experience and skills for each project. However, according to Huguet, this latest upgrade is primed to “power a new freelancing revolution”, as it helps match clients with a wider range of talent, more rapidly and accurately than ever before.
Huguet added, “Companies that effectively leverage freelancers will shape the future of their industries, while others risk falling behind. At Malt, with our community of 800,000 independent talents and years of substantial technological investments, we’re not just part of this transformation. As industry leaders, we’re at the forefront of this second revolution, setting the new standard for matching freelancers and companies.”
With demand for flexibility in the post-pandemic workplace having seen even more talented professionals go it alone in the consulting sector, freelancing is finally a mainstream phenomenon there. According to a study from the Harvard Business Review, 86% of companies considering freelancing essential to their organisation – while there are now over 6 million highly skilled freelancers in Europe making an impact across various sectors.
In that context, where there is more freelancing choice than ever, Malt’s new AI Search is geared to transform how clients engage with top freelance talent. Instead of relying on keywords, AI Search uses tailored neural models that analyse the full context of a process; something Malt says provides “faster and better matches.”
This, along with Malt's comprehensive Freelance Management System (FMS), makes it easy for companies to find, contract, and manage freelancers globally. It allows businesses to combine highly skilled freelancers with full-time employees to create elite ‘superteams’.
According to Malt, there is a growing demand for superteams, as many leading firms are still struggling to fill vacancies. Eurostat data suggests 75% of European companies struggle to fill vacancies due to a roles of suitable skills, hindering their growth. But while freelancers can be an effective way to address a skills shortage, isolated appointments may miss potential opportunities to combine skill sets.
Malt’s AI system helps match freelance expertise with the capabilities of a client’s full-time employees – who can bring institutional knowledge, a long-term perspective, and commitment to the organisation to a superteam. At the same time, freelancers can bring essential strategic skills, are early adopters of new technologies, and assist with experimentation and change management. Superteams leverage these combined advantages to make companies faster, more flexible, innovative, and scalable.
Ultimately, AI Search can streamline and automate a complex and costly hiring process, acting as the engine behind superteams. Figuratively, Malt says it works “like a sourcing assistant would”, but with the distinction that instead of making calls or holding meetings, “hiring managers can simply input prompts or job descriptions into Malt”. The AI will then use the input to create recommendations for the required skills, experience, and more for freelancers to supplement a firm’s permanent staff – before generating shortlists to evaluate potential matches, crafting compelling briefings to reach freelancers more effectively, and automatically searching for additional profiles – reducing the amount of time such work takes exponentially.
A statement from Malt noted it has made significant investments in custom AI models to deliver the best possible results to its clients. Neural models, semantic search techniques, and machine learning-based analysis have ensured that AI Search is not only fast but also fully understands the context of a project. It also noted importantly that the technology aims to ethical, “minimising unnecessary resource use and ecological footprint” as well as “respecting data privacy”.
“We believe AI should enhance human capabilities, not replace them,” concluded Claire Lebarz, chief data and AI officer at Malt. “With AI Search, AI takes the heavy lifting off hiring managers’ shoulders, while they retain control and can make the right decisions faster.”
