Flexible Talent Is the Future, But It Won’t Happen Automatically

At Human Cloud, we’re dedicated to helping businesses successfully adopt and scale a flexible workforce. The shift toward flexible talent is undeniable—over 30% of the U.S. workforce is independent today, and that number is projected to exceed 50% by 2027. Companies are also increasing their use of fractional, freelance, and gig workers, with demand growing anywhere from 10% to 300% depending on the industry and skillset.

Despite this clear trend, scaling a flexible workforce is complex. It’s not as simple as opening an app and clicking a few buttons. The process is often complicated by four key factors: definitions, the sheer size of the market, a lack of focus among solutions, and a lack of transparency.

The Challenges

Currently flexible talent solutions struggle to scale beyond one-off projects, small teams, and startups. While companies spend $1 to 10 billion a year on external talent, they struggle to spend over $50 million a year on flexible talent. 

Why? We see 4 main reasons. 

Definition: What is flexible talent? Is it gig work? Is it temp-to-hire? Is it independent consulting? We define it simply as a solution that facilitates direct, elastic working relationships focused on skillsets and outcomes rather than full-time employment. Workers can still be in person, and work for the same companies in permanence. 

Size and Fragmentation: The market is vast, with over 2,000 flexible talent solutions available. But there is no Amazon-like everything store. Rather the industry looks like LEGO blocks, with solutions specializing in skillsets, industries, and regions. This creates fragmentation, which combined with definition challenges above, creates analysis paralysis amongst leaders.  

Lack Of Focus: There is an inherent disconnect between what companies want and what makes the best flexible talent solutions. Companies want “one neck to choke”, yet the best flexible talent solutions focus on their niche. For example, on the surface a solution might look like a marketing platform. Yet under the surface this solution might specialize in marketing ad campaigns for apparel enterprises. This disconnect leaves room for solutions to claim they do everything, companies to be disappointed when these solutions don’t deliver, creating a chasm between early success and scalable success. 

Lack Of Transparency: Companies often expect to pay a typical 10-50% take rate, but may not realize they are paying 100-300%, negating the potential for cost savings. Similarly, while a company may expect full indemnification and classification coverage, the fine print in the Master Service Agreement (MSA) may not align with those expectations.

The Solution: Data

Three experiences taught me how data can move the needle for flexible talent success.  

The first was doing expert calls, where I was earning $500-1,000 an hour for conversations that weren’t as simple as what an hour entailed. 

The second was seeing $500k+ vendor analysis engagements from brand name consulting firms. While impressive in how they organized, scoped, and delivered, they heavily weighted 15-20 of these same expert calls (with a $2,000 to $3,000 an hour expert call markup), had an existing template of solutions, and recommendations typically led to the same answers, same vendors, and status quo.   

The third was 10+ years of actually driving flexible talent transformation across 20+ F500’s. They too needed this data, but unless they wanted to integrate  flexible talent under the existing contingent program, they needed fresh use cases, insights, and data that mitigated relevant risks (of which social capital is a huge component).  

In each experience – the data is what moved the conversations, that led to the change, that resulted in approving solutions, opening up budgets, and scaling flexible talent spend to over $100 million annually. 

Our Journey Building The Right Data

For over 10 years, Human Cloud has been building the institutional intelligence layer for the flexible workforce. We began by tracking which solutions were most effective for enterprises, back when the industry was small enough to manage on a simple spreadsheet.

Starting around 2020, the industry began to heat up. Marketplaces evolved into platforms that could handle entire scopes of work, and platforms became highly specialized. A handful of early marketplaces grew into hundreds of specialized talent platforms.

During this time, we noticed that success was driven by leadership, not just technology. The most successful companies and solutions—whether scaling to $100 million in annual spend or growing revenues over $10 million—were led by highly human, change-adept leaders who could personalize the experience to meet their organization’s unique needs. This insight inspired us to launch the Human Cloud Podcast, which has helped us capture the subjective insights from executives and experts about what makes flexible talent work.

Today, we have a robust database of solutions, leaders, and competitive intelligence that is helping to grow the flexible talent industry.

The Science Behind Our Data

Data is most effective when it’s actionable. Our data is optimized for clear use cases, including:

• Companies finding exact solutions that will scale and accelerate the RFP process.
• Investors identifying potential acquisitions while accelerating their due diligence.
• Solutions positioning their differentiation, claiming their merit, and providing low risk opportunities for connection.

The foundation of all our data is the Knowledge Graph, a comprehensive network focused exclusively on flexible talent. Think of it as a brain with a web of neurons and synapses that captures every segment, solution, and data point related to the flexible talent ecosystem.

Our Ranking Algorithm weights three sources:

1. Search to Directory Click-Through Data: We track the volume of clicks from buyers who use our directory weekly.
2. Review Data: We collect three types of reviews from companies—non-verified, verified (from a company email), and detailed. We weight these on a 10-point scale.
3. Public Data: We pull data from all public sources.

Members, Access Your Knowledge Graph >>

What’s Next?!?! The HC Platform

The HC Platform will be the one place to find the best flexible talent solutions. It’s a directory for solutions, not individual talent.

As the only directory focused exclusively on flexible workforce solutions, it is designed to address the unique challenges of the industry. Solutions can capture reviews and merit while maintaining anonymity. Company Executives can give kudos to relevant solutions without getting in trouble, as well as saving, shortlisting, and comparing solutions.    

And what I’m personally most excited about, is that everyone can build personalized data that creates contextual relationships. Think Amazon’s recommendations built on what you like and what your friends like versus trying to find the perfect pair of shoes.  

Want to get involved? Apply to be a member of Human Cloud to own your profile today: https://humancloud.com/membership