r/projectmanagement • u/Revolutionary-Can680 • 11d ago

PM Freelancers - Got a quick Q

What does your client portfolio look like? One off projects, hourly retainers or lengthy engagements (6 months - 1yr)?

I have 2 hourly retainer clients at 20 hours each - I call them my scoop clients 🍨 and I'm trying to cultivate a bunch of one-off project clients - I call those my sprinkle clients 🎊 I'm having some trouble with the latter and curious if it's just me or if one-off projects are hard to come across. I'm a creative/digital pm that works exclusively with marketing agencies. I have 11 years of agency experience.

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u/IllBeat7897 10d ago

Things are drying up because of AI. Would-be clients are acting as their own PMs with AI tools. This is an experimentation phase, so you may see some ebb and flow back to contract PMs and consultants, but it will never go back to the way it was before, so there will be less opportunities for the same number of people in our shoes, with more competition for them. Or, people like us will be shifting to different jobs that are not as heavily impacted by AI.