Information Systems & BSRM joint Seminar: Yixuan Liu
Yixuan Liu
China Europe International Business School (CEIBS)
AI and Independent Career Moves: Evidence from Creative Workers
Date: Monday, December 15, 2025
Time: 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM EST
Location: Bronfman Building, Room 245
All are cordially invited to attend.
Abstract
This paper examines how firm adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) affects independent careers among creative employees, a non-technical and understudied group widely present across firms. We focus on two interrelated margins of career moves beyond the firm: moonlighting (freelancing while employed) and entrepreneurship (leaving to found new ventures). Using LinkedIn-based career histories covering the top 500 U.S. employers of creative talent between 2010 and 2022, we document three main findings. First, AI adoption reduces moonlighting by about one percentage point for a one-standard-deviation increase in AI intensity, driven by higher retention of existing staff. Second, overall entrepreneurship is unchanged, but AI-related ventures increase modestly, suggesting that employees exposed to AI within firms carry this experience into new business formation. Third, the decline in freelancing is concentrated in firms and roles where AI is directly embedded into creative functions, particularly in product-oriented applications. Together, these results extend research on AI and labor markets beyond technical workers and show how the organizational locus of AI adoption shapes whether human capital is retained within firms or redeployed through independent careers.
