The Freelance Informer spoke with Runar Reistrup, CEO of freelancer platform YunoJuno, which manages freelance payments and compliance for enterprise companies, including big brands, such as PepsiCo. The platform processed a 50% growth year in a market that is, by every measure, getting tighter.
He spoke about what’s really driving the freelance economy, why AI integration skills are the only growth story, and what every independent contractor needs to hear right now.
Key takeaways:
- What AI skills actually mean professionally (versus recreationally)
- Late payment — and how the best platforms solve it
- The enterprise shifts away from recruiters toward direct contractor infrastructure
- IR35 and on-site work — the nuanced reality
- Why the UK jobs market is underperforming vs other markets
- Honest words of wisdom for freelancers in a tight market
Why the post-COVID boom ended and what replaced it
There is no easy way to say this. The extraordinary post-COVID surge in freelance demand — when UK contractors worked around the clock to keep up — is gone. Runar Reistrup is frank about it.
“The post-Covid boom time for freelancers was unprecedented. We had never seen anything like it. We had freelancers trying to work around the clock to deliver three times as much as they could.”
That era is over. The labour market has tightened considerably, and the UK is feeling it more than most. But here is what makes the current picture complicated: companies are not necessarily doing less work. They are doing it differently.
Reistrup explains that many businesses are quietly rethinking their workforce balance. That has meant moving away from permanent headcount toward a leaner, more flexible model.
The ratio of employee to freelancer is tilting. That should be good news for independent workers. However, those companies are largely going back to contractors they already know.
Companies are moving more towards freelance, but those companies are generally working with a known set of contractors. Breaking into the market as a new contractor is getting harder somehow — the competition is getting steeper.
-Runar Reistrup, CEO Yuno Juno
For experienced freelancers with strong client relationships, the market is manageable. For those trying to get in the door for the first time, it is a different story entirely, according to the YunoJuno CEO.
AI skills are in demand, but using ChatGPT doesn’t count
Ask Reistrup where he sees genuine demand and growth, and the answer is artificial intelligence. Not AI as a vague concept, but as a documented, professional skill set that changes what you deliver.
If you’re a software engineer and you don’t have documentable experience of 2x-ing or 3x-ing your output through AI, there’s just not the demand for you in the marketplace.
This distinction matters. Everyone uses AI tools recreationally. Opening ChatGPT to check a fact or draft an email does not make you an AI-skilled professional. The market is now separating people who have genuinely integrated these tools into their craft from those who use them occasionally.
The demand is spreading well beyond engineering. Reistrup describes seeing requests for AI-native content creators, revenue operations specialists who can work with next-generation tooling, and UX designers who are now expected to code their own designs rather than hand off specs.
Two years ago, you had a UX designer with a Figma portfolio and that was good. Now UX designers are increasingly expected to be able to fully code up their designs.
For product managers, the shift may be even more fundamental. Reistrup’s prediction is pointed: the PM role has moved from prioritiser to first-line builder. The output is no longer a spec document. It is working code.
That is a long way from using AI to write briefs faster. It is a complete reinvention of the job.
Why freelancers get paid late — and how good platforms fix it
One of the most persistent frustrations in freelancing is late payment. A company’s internal approvals slow down, an invoice sits in someone’s inbox, and the contractor is left chasing money they have already earned. It is a power imbalance that damages relationships and, for some freelancers, creates serious financial strain.
Yuno Juno claims its approach is built around removing that uncertainty entirely. When a timesheet is approved, the freelancer is told exactly when they will be paid. That date does not move.
We always pay people on a set date. We tell people as the timesheet gets approved, you’re going to be paid on this date — and then we do that. It doesn’t matter if the client paid us or not.
This model means the platform absorbs the payment timing risk. If the client is slow, that is Yuno Juno’s problem, not the freelancer’s. Reistrup calls it the “cost of doing business”, and it is clearly a deliberate strategic choice — because reliable payment is one of the clearest ways to attract and retain the best contractors.
He claims the complaint resolution process is similarly proactive. At every timesheet submission, both the freelancer and the hiring manager are asked how things are going. If either answer is less than positive, someone reaches out.
The real problems only really happen after it’s left to rot for a while. If you bring them immediately, it might just be a cultural mismatch — the solution might be a different assignment. What we always make sure is that there’s no payment gap.
Why big companies are bypassing recruiters
Something significant is happening at the enterprise level that most freelancers do not see. Large companies are quietly building out their own freelance management infrastructure. These are systems that let them engage, onboard, and pay independent contractors directly, without going through a recruiter every time.
Arguably, the old model for clients with a sizable freelancer workforce was slow and expensive. Reistrup remembers it well from his own corporate career.
“If I needed a contractor, I couldn’t just go to the marketplace and find them, even if I knew who I wanted to work with. There was quite an elaborate process — it could take about six weeks to onboard this person as a vendor.”
Now that same process can happen in hours. Profiles are populated by AI. Right-to-work checks and IR35 assessments are automated. Companies, according to Reistrup, are structuring their freelance engagements through platforms such as Yuno Juno as an intermediary, which handles compliance, contracts, and payment in one place.
The practical effect, according to the CEO? The recruiter in the middle is no longer necessary for every hire. Companies can work directly with contractors they find through their own networks, refer them to the platform, and have everything handled compliantly from there. Yuno Juno grew 50% last year in a flat market, largely because of this change in hiring strategy.
For freelancers, this cuts both ways. The infrastructure is better than it has ever been. But the gatekeeping role of recruiters — who once surfaced new talent to clients — is diminishing. If you are not already in a company’s network, getting discovered is harder.
IR35 and on-site work: What freelancers need to prepare for
The trend toward requiring freelancers to work on-site is real and growing. After years of remote-first culture, companies are increasingly asking contractors to come in. Many freelancers worry that this automatically pushes them inside IR35. Reistrup says it is more nuanced than that.
Going on-site doesn’t massively make you inside IR35. Not at all.
He says, what matters is the totality of the contract — particularly around substitution, supervision, direction, and control. Can you send someone else in your place? Do you operate under close supervision? These questions shape the determination far more than physical location.
Highly specialised AI contractors face a particular challenge here. If no one else can realistically replace you because of your skill set, that cuts against the substitution argument. But Reistrup says being in demand does not automatically mean you are outside IR35.
You might be highly skilled, but if you’re under close supervision, direction and control, you might still be inside IR35. It is entirely dependent on the other context of that contract.
Blanket bans still exist
The blanket bans that some industries — particularly banking and financial services — imposed on contractors after the IR35 reform show little sign of lifting. Reistrup notes that platforms like his see less engagement from that sector, likely because those companies remain cautious. There is no fundamental reason for that caution if contracting is done correctly and the audit trail is solid.
Why is the UK freelancer jobs market lagging behind others?
The UK freelance market is not just flat. It is sitting at the bottom of Yuno Juno’s growth tables across all its markets. The US is different. Parts of Europe are different. The Middle East is different. The UK is not.
Reistrup does not sugarcoat it. The macroeconomic picture is the main driver. A shrinking economy puts pressure on every part of the labour market, permanent and freelance alike.
It does feel a little bit stagnant in the UK at the moment, whether you’re an employee or a freelancer. People are not getting new jobs. They’re not leaving their existing jobs. They’re holding on to what they have, and companies are holding on because they’re not really under enough pressure to cut.
That last point is important. Companies are not growing, but they are not collapsing either. They are in a wait-and-see mode — hoping something changes while managing costs carefully. It is not a recession, but it does not feel like growth.
For AI engineers and other top-end technical talent, however, Reistrup does not believe location is driving a price difference. A highly skilled AI contractor in London commands broadly the same rate as one in Barcelona or Warsaw, because the global demand for that skill is high enough to equalise rates across markets. He says the arbitrage that drove offshoring in areas like customer service does not apply at the top of the knowledge economy.
Words of wisdom when looking for work in a tough market
The honest message is not entirely comfortable. This is not a temporary downturn waiting to flip back to 2021-style boom conditions. This is, in Reistrup’s view, the new normal, at least for now.
The knowledge-based worker labour market is facing some unprecedented insecurities. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Part of our skill sets has been replaced. To that there’s no question.
But he is not pessimistic about the long-term. Throughout history, technology has displaced certain jobs while creating demand for new ones. He believes the people who struggled were those who refused to adapt, much like the weavers who kept weaving when the machines arrived.
There is an unprecedented requirement for us all to adapt at a pace that hasn’t been there before. Luckily, freelancers should be well-placed — because they never have the luxury of standing still.
That is the argument for freelancing as a mindset, not just a work arrangement. Contractors are, by necessity, constantly keeping their skills current. The ones who thrive in this market are not those waiting for conditions to improve — they are the ones already building the next version of themselves.
As the interview comes to a close, Reistrup has some parting words of wisdom.
For those who have been made redundant and are entering freelancing for the first time, the path is harder but not closed. Build direct client relationships. Document your output, not just your effort. If AI is not yet a professional part of your practice, it needs to become one.
The freelance market rewards people who move first.
As a company we take our own medicine. About 20% of our workforce is freelance. And that’s the strategic workforce. We bring freelancers in because they bring unique skills and advanced skills, and they help us advance faster.
–-Runar Reistrup, CEO Yuno Juno
