Human Cloud Releases 2026 Market Map, The Standard For Navigating The Flexible Workforce

Human Cloud’s annual Market Map maps 3,000+ flexible talent solutions into a visual framework companies can use to find, vet, and engage the right talent solutions at scale.

NEWBURYPORT, MA, September 28, 2026. Today, Human Cloud released its Market Map, an annual framework for visualizing the 3,000+ solutions explicitly serving the flexible workforce.

The flexible workforce is one of the fastest-growing segments of the global workforce. With an 18.6% compound annual growth rate^[1], 72.9 million Americans^[2] already working independently, and 3,000+ solutions explicitly built for it, it is a model no organization can ignore.

Human Cloud CEO Matthew Mottola coined the term “Human Cloud” to describe the technology powering today’s flexible workforce as early as 2020 in his HarperCollins book The Human Cloud. Dan Pink, New York Times bestselling author of Drive, When, and Free Agent Nation, endorsed it by saying, “With the power of the Human Cloud you can create, innovate, and invent whole new products and markets for your ideas.”

What Pink left out was how hard scaling a flexible workforce would be.

Which is where Tony Buffum, Human Cloud’s Chief Strategy Officer, comes in. While Mottola was building what’s now the Human Cloud Platform, Buffum was spearheading Stanley Black & Decker and FLIR’s flexible talent programs as a senior executive and CHRO.

At Human Cloud, Buffum and Mottola have mapped, applied, and set the standards for how companies segment, rank, and engage with flexible workforce solutions. In Market Map, they’ve visualized the top 5% in each segment, giving leaders a starting point to help find, vet, and engage with the relevant flexible talent solutions.

Market Map helps simplify 3,000+ unique solutions into the right starting point

Human Cloud has been at the forefront of the flexible workforce for 10+ years, watching it evolve from gig marketplaces, to freelance marketplaces, to now specialized sourcing and scaling solutions.

While the range of business models, segments, and features can be daunting, the flexible talent industry can be broken into two layers - sourcing and scaling. Sourcing solutions manage everything required to find the right person, while scaling solutions help companies safely scale hundreds to thousands of individuals under flexible talent models.

According to Mottola, “At the end of the day, companies want to get work done, and talent wants to deliver impactful work. That’s it. But before today’s tech, many solutions were needed to make this easier - staffing firms, managed service providers, professional service firms, etc. Now with today’s tech, it’s never been easier for hiring managers and individuals to connect and collaborate directly, reducing the need for these traditional talent solutions. This doesn’t mean the staffing world is going away, but these newer platform-led solutions are able to find the exact right people in under 5 days, manage vetted benches of individuals the customers like, and act as strategic partners rather than recruiters filling one-time reqs.”

Buffum continues, “Yes, there’s a new industry of technology-driven talent solutions, but the biggest impact from my vantage point as a former CHRO is helping leadership modernize their strategy with a talent access vs. a traditional talent acquisition (ownership) mindset. This puts the talent function at the front of the table incorporating all types of resources, including agentic, and unlocks a new wave of speed, agility, and efficiency for all types of organizations.”

Market Map highlights the rise of specialized sourcing and EORs

This year’s Market Map shows a rise in talent platforms and Employer of Record (EOR) solutions.

Talent platforms are specialized sourcing solutions that manage everything from scoping the work, to sourcing the talent, to managing talent pools so that companies can reuse who they like vs. always turning to net-new sourcing.

Employer of Record solutions (EORs) manage the classification, payroll, and increasingly the entire onboarding experience for organizations, in most cases absorbing the risk from local governments.

Human Cloud expects these to further grow, as both segments have seen strong success across the Human Cloud Platform, while its annual study showed compliance as the leading value solutions could help companies with.

On the EOR front, Mellow grew into the gaming industry, working with companies like MY.GAMES and cutting Sumsub’s contractor payouts from three weeks to one day, opening five new hiring markets, and growing the team 300% in two months. Meanwhile, AllWork, an EOR with a strong foothold in retail, welcomed Dolce & Gabbana, then grew into life sciences, healthcare, and professional services. And specialized EORs like Foxhire maintained their foothold across the healthcare industry.

Talent platforms saw similar success.

Design-focused Uncompany welcomed Brother, Alteryx, and Shutterfly this year, while scaling Lenovo’s UX and design benches across the US, LATAM, Europe, and now Asia.

An interesting talent platform segment that grew significantly was developer talent platforms. Scotland-based Gigged.AI’s on-demand business grew 284% with an enterprise account surpassing $1M in statement of work spend. Meanwhile, Brazil-based beecrowd grew their HC Score to 123, with consistent kudos like the CEO of NAUTPLUS saying, “Beyond the technical quality of the professionals presented, the team demonstrated flexibility, speed, closeness, and a genuine interest in contributing to the success of our business.” Both serve US companies looking for global talent.

Next year Human Cloud expects more EOR volume, more specialized sourcing, and new structures

According to Human Cloud, technological and macroeconomic trends will continue rewiring the talent ecosystem to be more flexible, digital, and contractor-led.

In its view, AI will continue accelerating three trends.

1. More scaling through EORs.

EORs solve a massive challenge that remote work and agencies fall victim to - they allow individuals to actually be part of the team, working alongside their peers vs. being intentionally removed. As Mottola described, “EORs are the ‘have your cake and eat it too’ solution. They have the speed and cost savings without the risk.”

2. More specialized sourcing through specialized platforms.

AI rewards specialists and reduces generalists, and specialists aren’t found through traditional recruiting or job boards. They’re found through specialized platforms that combine vetting and community. Not every marketer can be on Wripple. Or every designer on Uncompany. AI is only making this specialization and vetting more valuable.

3. More integration in scaling and sourcing solutions.

As Market Map shows, the flexible workforce is large and fragmented. This isn’t unique to the flexible workforce. MSPs and VMSs have been the backbone for consolidating staffing and professional service firm coordination.

EORs and talent platforms are similarly partnering and integrating to simplify the experience. Some EORs like Deel have built their own sourcing technology called Deel Talent, an ATS that integrates with staffing firms. Likewise, Upwork acquired Bubty and Ascen for a similar offering. Other EORs like Remote People always had an in-house sourcing team.

Could the existing talent supply chain of VMS, to MSP, to staffing firm or professional service firm be disrupted by EOR to talent platform? We will see.

How To Find And Use Market Map

Market Map is available today at https://humancloud.com/market-map.

Alongside downloading it today, companies can request an Executive Briefing from the Human Cloud team at https://humancloud.com/executive-briefing.

About Human Cloud

Human Cloud is where companies come to scale their flexible workforce. Instead of one-off reqs or bloated agencies, buyers come to Human Cloud to find the solutions they build their flexible workforce with. On Human Cloud, companies can find then shortlist the right solutions, launch then aggregate custom quotes through RFPs, and automate needed approvals so hiring managers can fill reqs in less than 5 days.

Media contact

Caitlin McGregor
caitlin@humancloud.com

Sources

[1] Grand View Research, Global Freelance Platforms Market
[2] MBO Partners, State of Independence