With search engine optimization losing ground to artificial intelligence assistants, the freelance marketplace is shifting focus from traditional web discovery toward direct integrations with AI platforms like ChatGPT and Claude, CEO Micha Kaufman said Thursday (Oct. 29.).
“We’re witnessing something that is no less than an earthquake on the internet or the web as we know it,” Kaufman said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call. “The internet as we’ve known it for the past 20-plus years is going away.”
Kaufman warned that traditional search traffic faces multi-year compression as user journeys increasingly begin and end with AI assistants.
To capture demand in an “agentic world,” Fiverr launched Mira, an AI-powered headhunting tool, alongside public APIs that allow AI agents to match, scope, and execute orders directly. First-time buyer volume sourced through AI channels jumped 64% quarter-over-quarter.
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The technological shift is in keeping with an evolving customer profile, management said, with buyers shifting away from low-cost transactional gigs toward complex enterprise engagements, such as private real estate firms seeking end-to-end operational software or manufacturers building real-time 3D design engines. Projects valued at $1,000 or more now account for 16% of completed order value.
“Agents don’t have brand loyalty,” Kaufman said, adding that autonomous AI tools select platforms based strictly on who maximizes output quality rather than traditional search advertising.
Despite top-of-funnel search drag, Fiverr beat quarterly expectations. The company’s third-quarter revenue reached $90.9 million, exceeding company guidance. While core marketplace revenue fell 24.7% year over year to $55.4 million amid a 25.8% drop in active buyers to 2.4 million, average spend per buyer rose 12.9% to $373.
In related news, research in the recent PYMNTS Intelligence report “From Prompt to Purchase: Who Wins the AI Shopper?” indicates consumers are rapidly adopting artificial intelligence tools to carry out their product research.
That October report argues that this shift has opened up a major commercial opportunity for merchants to win over first-time shoppers long before they visit traditional search bars. The research shows that nearly 61 million U.S. consumers now begin their online retail research with AI assistants.
“A consumer who welcomes AI’s advice can keep control of checkout, return to a trusted marketplace or delegate the purchase,” the report said.
“The central finding is that AI is displacing established research habits faster than it is displacing established buying relationships. Advertising and product visibility face a different competitive challenge from the accounts, saved cards and delivery services that help secure the sale.”
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