# How Upwork's Lean Social Team Boosted Productivity by 75% with an AI Teammate | Enrich Labs > For any major brand, the social media landscape is a 24/7 flood of notifications. At Upwork, the world's largest human and AI-powered work marketplace that conn _Source: https://www.enrichlabs.ai/blog/customer-story/upwork_ --- > "At Upwork, delivering fast, effortless support is essential to helping our members build a healthier financial future. With Enrich Labs' AI Coordinator, we're able to combine high performance and seamless brand customization with cross-channel memory, ensuring every interaction is connected and true to Upwork's member-first values. This is how social moves from a communications channel to an intelligence system for the entire brand." ![Roxanne Kruse](/assets/images/team/roxanne-kruse.jpg) Roxanne Kruse Sr. Manager of Social Media & Influencer at Upwork # How Upwork's Lean Social Team Boosted Productivity by 75% with an AI Teammate ### Moving beyond basic automation, Upwork's social media team transformed their workflow from reactive firefighting to a proactive business intelligence engine. Here's how they did it. ### The Challenge: Drowning in a Sea of Social Noise For any major brand, the social media landscape is a 24/7 flood of notifications. At Upwork, the world's largest human and AI-powered work marketplace that connects businesses with highly skilled, AI-enabled independent talent from across the globe, the challenge was immense. With over **180,000 inbound social messages** a year, their lean community engagement team was in a constant state of reactive firefighting. > "Our days started pretty reactive. We'd open up a dashboard to a flood of notifications... It was time-consuming and emotionally exhausting." > **— Roxanne Kruse, Sr. Manager of Social Media & Influencer at Upwork** The team faced a classic dilemma: - **Massive Volume** — Manually triaging thousands of comments, DMs, and mentions. - **Team Burnout** — A rotating on-call system created anxiety and made it impossible to truly switch off. - **Missed Opportunities** — Strategic, high-value engagement was being sacrificed for the urgent need to simply clear the queue. They knew they needed to evolve beyond basic tools. They needed a true teammate. ### The Solution: Onboarding a Custom AI Coordinator Instead of adopting another rigid software dashboard, Upwork partnered with **Enrich Labs** to deploy a custom-trained **AI Coordinator**—a generative AI system embedded directly into their existing workflow in Slack. > "This wasn't about replacing humans; it was about freeing them up to be more human." > **— Roxanne Kruse** The AI Coordinator was trained on Upwork's specific brand voice and business rules. Its mission was threefold: 1. **Automate the Noise** — Instantly close spam, triage mentions, and handle up to 87% of routine cases without human intervention. 2. **Become a 24/7 Sentinel** — Monitor for brand-relevant trends and sentiment spikes around the clock, protecting the brand even outside of business hours. 3. **Surface Actionable Insights** — Move beyond simple moderation to identify strategic opportunities in real-time. ### The Results: From Reactive Triage to Proactive Strategy The impact of the AI Coordinator was immediate and transformative. #### 1\. Reclaiming Strategic Time & Boosting Productivity by 75% By automating the noise, the team reclaimed **10-15 strategic hours per week**. This shift from low-value tasks to high-value work led to a **75% increase in overall team productivity**. #### 2\. Achieving a Month's Engagement Goal in a Single Post The AI Coordinator's "Trendspotting" feature flagged a relevant TikTok about the future of work. The AI even suggested an initial response. > "Our team refined the comment and posted it. That single, AI-spotted comment ignited over **7,000 engagements**, achieving **155% of our entire monthly engagement benchmark** in one go." > **— Roxanne Kruse** #### 3\. Becoming a Business Intelligence Engine The most significant transformation was strategic. The AI Coordinator began producing a "Social Listening Digest," an automated report that turned thousands of Reddit posts into a clear executive summary for leadership. > "This is how social moves from a communications channel to an **intelligence system for the entire brand**. It informs our content, our creative, and even our product roadmap." > **— Roxanne Kruse** * * * ### The Blueprint for Your Success Upwork's story is a blueprint for any team feeling overwhelmed by the demands of modern social media. The key isn't just adopting AI—it's deploying a smart, custom-configured teammate that works alongside you. #### Ready to see how an AI Coordinator could transform your team? [Schedule your complimentary 1-to-1 AI Roadmap Session with an expert from Enrich Labs »](https://calendly.com/enrich-labs/ai-roadmap) We'll build a custom business case based on your specific challenges and goals. * * * © 2026 Enrich Labs Inc. | [Contact Us](mailto:hello@enrichlabs.ai)