How to use freelance talent in enterprise companies? How Do You Manage Employees, Freelancers and AI Together? What Happens to Careers When Work Becomes Fractional?
In this episode of The Future of Less Work, host Nirit Cohen sits down with Lara Vandenberg, Founder and CEO of Assemble, to explore how marketing teams are combining employees, freelancers, agencies and AI around changing business needs.
They discuss why freelance talent is becoming a strategic capability, which roles companies are keeping inside, why senior creative judgment is gaining value, and how organizations are building trusted external talent benches instead of relying on one-off hires.
The conversation also raises a harder question: if more experienced work moves outside the organization, where will future talent gain the experience, relationships and judgment needed to grow?
Guest Information:
Lara Vandenberg is the Founder & CEO of Assemble, a managed workforce platform that has placed 50,000+ senior freelance marketers inside Fortune 500 organizations like Delta, MassMutual and Colgate.
The best leaders she works with are starting to think less like executives and more like casting directors. Figuring out the right mix of permanent staff, freelancers and agentic AI for every brief, every quarter, every objective.
By 2027 freelancers are projected to outnumber full-time employees in the US for the first time. Most organizations aren’t built for that yet. Lara has the live platform data and the CMO/CEO conversations to show exactly what that transition looks like on the ground.
Chapters:
00:00 How AI Turns Jobs Into Fractional Work
01:40 How Do You Build a Workforce Around Capabilities?
03:15 Why Are Companies Moving Beyond Traditional Headcount?
06:00 Why Freelance Talent Is Becoming a Strategic Workforce Model
08:49 Is Fractional Talent Really About Cost Savings?
10:07 Which Marketing Skills Are Companies Hiring Now?
11:39 Why AI Hasn’t Replaced Copywriters
13:49 Which Capabilities Should Companies Keep In-House?
14:45 Why Enterprise Freelancers Are Becoming Easier to Hire
18:25 How Do You Integrate Freelancers Into the Organization?
21:01 What Happens to Career Development in a Fractional Workforce?
22:05 Where Will Future Experts Gain Experience?
26:03 Why More Professionals Will Become a Business of One
27:52 How Worker Protections Need to Change
28:38 What Does the Future of Work Really Look Like?
