August 3, 2025
5 min read
Rachel Wells
Discover how ChatGPT’s AI Agent mode can help freelancers make money online by automating tasks and optimizing business strategies.
I Tried ChatGPT’s AI Agent To Make Money Online. Here’s What Happened
Agentic AI can save you hours of work because it takes over as your personal assistant, for way less than you'd pay a human assistant, and with reduced barriers to entry for starting your own business. Everyone’s talking about AI agents. But why all the hype? “They’re the new future of work,” IBM’s executive Justina Nixon-Saintil told me back in February when I visited IBM’s headquarters in London. Nixon-Saintil predicted that very soon, AI agents would be so powerfully effective that they would be our new teammates at work. One day, you could be logging into your desktop and be greeted with hybrid team members: not an actual hybrid team in the working-from-home sense, but the kind that is half-human, half-robot, like something out of an eerie sci-fi movie. “These agents can actually execute the work for you," Nixon-Saintil said. "Now, managers will need to know how to lead humans and how to lead a team of AI agents.”- More than half (54%) of skilled freelancers report advanced or expert-level skill in using AI tools for work, compared to 38% of skilled full-time employees.*
- About 62% of skilled freelancers currently use AI tools at least several times per week.
- This is in contrast to January 2024, which showed a mere 20% of freelancers say they regularly use generative AI, according to the World Economic Forum. (*From Upwork’s survey of 3,000 knowledge workers in May 2025)
- Orchestrate complex workflows
- Coordinate activities among multiple agents
- Apply logic to thorny problems
- Evaluate answers to user queries
- MindPal AI
- ChatGPT Agent mode
- Zapier’s AI agents
- Or build your own custom AI agents using a no-code/low-code AI agent builder (even better)
- Logged into my ChatGPT Plus account
- Opened a new chat
- Clicked on the tools button and opened the agent mode
- Gave it this prompt: “Analyze my LinkedIn profile in-depth and list recommendations for me to tweak it to attract high net-worth deals and partnerships and high-paying clients [included my LinkedIn URL].”
- Opened up a new tab on its desktop
- Navigated to my LinkedIn profile
- Combed through the data in each section
- Provided me with about 10 recommendations. I’ll share one below that I found particularly interesting: "Emphasize measurable results in experience entries. For roles at CreatiSphere and Rachel Wells Coaching, spell out metrics that matter to high‑net‑worth clients: revenue growth, client portfolio size, geographies served and notable partnerships. Incorporate achievements such as “grew coaching business to $300K+ revenue in 2024,” “helped 10,000 professionals across eight countries increase income,” or “secured Fortune‑500 clients for corporate training programmes.” Now that was something to think about. I tell my clients all the time to use quantifiable metrics wherever possible, and I did this in my about summary section on LinkedIn, but had never considered including metrics like my coaching business revenue in my experience section. The AI agent gave me tons of actionable steps which I’m currently implementing to take my business to the next level, and even though I already have partnerships and clients, I know for sure that when I apply these tips to my business I’ll be able to secure even more six-figure deals using the leverage I have. This is just one example of how you can use AI agents like ChatGPT’s agent mode to help you make more money, especially as a freelancer. Here’s another powerful example of how to make as much as $10,000 from this simple AI agent trick with ChatGPT. See this screenshot below:
- ChatGPT’s AI agent responded with a list of job titles but said it was unable to view my personal contacts in my LinkedIn network.
- So, I suggested that it allow me to take over and log into my account myself and then it could view my connections and list 10 specific contacts from my network, without me having to search them myself.
- It then browsed through my connections, listed 10 contacts I could reach out to, and even gave me an outreach template. Slight caveat: If you’re using ChatGPT’s agent mode to log into some websites and perform tasks for you, it may not be able to bypass the “I’m not a robot” human verification, even if you take over and control its desktop and perform the verification yourself.
- Research and outlines for freelance writing
- Conducting in-depth market research and creating reports from them
- Creating bespoke and highly effective marketing campaigns including assets like posts, graphics, etc. Here’s how, step-by-step:
- Identify what you need to get done in your business, that you’d delegate to an assistant
- Find the right AI agent for your use case and task
- Upgrade to ChatGPT Plus if you haven’t already
- Prompt the agent with highly specific instructions and goals
- Take control of the agent and step in where necessary
- Use the outputs to transform the processes, ideation, and development, and launch of your freelance business or side hustle
- Bear in mind that even though it saves you tedious hours, you should never blindly trust AI outputs but review its work personally
- How to Make Money Online as a Freelancer with AI Tools
- The Future of Work: How AI is Reshaping Industries
- Understanding AI Agents: Capabilities and Applications
- Upwork's Survey on Freelancers and AI
I was already curious about AI agents and just how useful they could be in this new world of work. But now that OpenAI released its new ChatGPT Agent mode, I decided to put it to the test and see if it could actually help me build a business and make money online as a freelancer. In this article, I share what I discovered.
What Is An AI Agent?
An AI agent is an AI tool (still in early stages) that can perform complex tasks and acts much like an assistant or even as an employee. “AI agents are the tools we use to interact with AI. They can automate and perform complex tasks, such as natural language processing, that would normally require humans,” says McKinsey & Company.What Can Agentic AI Do?
McKinsey further explains that you can organize agents into systems that can:What Are The Best AI Agents?
There are different types of AI agents, some of which you may already use for work, like Copilot and ChatGPT. Then there are more advanced models and software, fantastic for entrepreneurs, freelancers, and professionals launching side hustles (especially when you have limited time because you’re working 9-5), such as:Can ChatGPT’s AI Agent Really Help You Make Money Online?
The short answer is yes. As a well-experienced freelancer with six years under my belt, I decided to give ChatGPT’s new agent mode a go, and see if it could transform my business or be just another hype. What I did:
The results were astounding.
I was able to watch the agent work in real time as it:
I used ChatGPT's Agent mode to help me identify key decision-makers for upcoming speaking engagements.
My prompt: I want you to identify 10 key decision-makers for me to land speaking engagements, who are already in my LinkedIn network, and draft a message to them by way of introduction to build a relationship with them.
How Do You Use AI Agents To Make Money?
AI agents like ChatGPT certainly can transform your ability to make money online through your skills and start/boost your freelance business, if used for tasks like:Will I use ChatGPT Agent mode again?
Absolutely. I’m looking forward to reporting back on how my income and business revenue doubles after using this fantastic tool for the next few months.
AI agents perform complex tasks including browsing the web and performing web-based actions for you, while you work on something else in the background, enabling you to do more in less time.
In the meantime, give agentic AI a try and see what it can do for your career, your money, and your business.
Source: Originally published at Forbes on August 1, 2025.