How to Use AI in Your Marketplace

If you run a marketplace and are not leveraging AI yet, you are missing out. Since the first GPT API was released by OpenAI, I have been experimenting with different ways to improve my freelancer marketplace, Unicorn Factory – and today, I want to share with you three specific examples of how I am using AI today. Here is what I will show you:

1. A workflow for improving the quality of job listings clients post on Unicorn Factory.
2. A system for cutting down the time I spend on customer support by 4 hours per week.
3. A tool I created to make custom recommendations to clients who post jobs on our site.

These are workflows that I am using on my site today, and they are something that can be easily replicated in your marketplace, whether you can code or not. This is something you don't want to miss out on. Let’s get into it:

How to Optimize Listings with AI

One of the first ways I started using AI on Unicorn Factory was to tackle a major issue: low-quality job listings. When clients post vague or incomplete jobs, freelancers are often hesitant to apply, and that creates a frustrating experience on both sides. To address this, I improved the listing process for clients by incorporating AI to my job listing experience.

Here is how it works:

1. Step 1: Clients fill out a simple form with their job details, then they set preferences like budget, timeline, and job requirements.
2. Step 2: The AI transforms these inputs into a polished, long-form job listing that the client can review and edit.
3. Step 3: Once the client approves, the listing is published, and the system automatically notifies suitable freelancers.

This not only saves clients time but also makes it more appealing for freelancers to apply given the client more options.

How to Use AI to Answer Support Tickets

Support has always been a bottleneck for me. It’s enough work to require a few hours of my attention each week but not enough to justify hiring someone to manage it for me. I typically spend a few hours per week (on dedicated days) responding to emails. While this works, it sometimes means that clients don't get immediate replies, which is not great.

To tackle this, I implemented an AI-powered workflow to handle support queries more efficiently:

1. Step 1: Train an AI assistant using a knowledge base. This can be a PDF upload or a database like Airtable linked to a CustomGPT Assistant.
2. Step 2: When a support email comes in, the AI analyzes the query and retrieves relevant information from the knowledge base.
3. Step 3: If an answer is available, the AI drafts a reply email that is added to my draft folder - I still review all emails. If not, it logs the query as a new entry in the knowledge base for future responses.

This setup allows for faster replies to common questions while continuously improving the knowledge base, reducing the time spent on support.

How to Generate AI Recommendations for Customers

This is the announcement video I shared with freelancers on Unicorn Factory sharing how our AI recommendation score works.

For many clients, choosing the right freelancer from dozens of options can feel overwhelming. New buyers often don’t know where to start, making it hard to see which freelancers are the best fit. To simplify this, I introduced an AI recommendation feature that matches clients and freelancers based on their preferences.

Here’s how the system works:

1. Step 1: Both buyers and sellers complete a short questionnaire during sign-up, outlining their preferences and offerings.
2. Step 2: When a match is made, the system evaluates the responses and calculates a compatibility score.
3. Step 3: The recommendation score is displayed on the job listing page, along with tips for how buyers and sellers can best work together.

This helps clients make quicker, more confident hiring decisions, improving their experience and reducing the time spent on choosing the right freelancer.

How to Use AI to Improve Your Marketplace Operations

AI has uses far beyond job listings and support. By integrating AI across multiple areas of your marketplace, you can save time, improve user experience, and standardize operations.

Here are some additional ways AI can improve your platform:

1. Refine User-Generated Content: AI can polish profiles bios, job listings, and case studies pages, making sure they’re professional and engaging.
2. Simplify Decision-Making: Use AI to review new applicants, filter spam inquiries, and prioritize buyer and seller matches.
3. Improve User Experience: Tools like AI-powered recommendation scores, automated workflows for job postings, and smart support systems can make your marketplace easier and more fun to use.

The Best No-Code Tools for Using AI

But how can you use AI with no-code? If you’re building AI workflows in your marketplace, there are some excellent options that make it simple:

1. GPT Integration in Make.com: Make.com allows you to connect OpenAI’s GPT models directly into your workflows. This is perfect for automating processes like drafting responses or generating content.
2. [Glide] (https://www.connorfinlayson.com/a/glide)AI: Glide’s native AI features make it easy to implement AI workflows directly in your apps. I highly recommend checking out their work around agents, which adds powerful AI-driven functionality to your Glide projects.

These tools make it straightforward to start incorporating AI into your platform, even if you don’t have a technical background.

And that’s it! These are just three ideas for using AI that I believe are simple to implement if you are familiar with basic automation and reading API documentation. Let’s recap what we covered:

• You can use tools like Make.com and Glide AI to add AI-powered workflows to your marketplace business.
• You can use AI to improve user-generated content like job listings, profile pages, case study pages, and more.
• You can use AI to streamline daily operations, such as answering support tickets, by teaching an AI knowledge base on your platform.
• You can use AI to improve the overall user experience with streamlined job listing tools, AI recommendation tools, and more.

While using AI may seem intimidating if you’re new to automation and APIs, it’s easier than you think. All you need to do is translate what you’re already doing in ChatGPT into your automation tools.

Tools like Make and Zapier have allowed me to automate large parts of my business, and AI is enabling me to take this even further. Don’t be afraid to jump in and experiment with it!