A new survey from The Accountancy Partnership reveals that freelance developers and IT professionals are genuinely divided on whether artificial intelligence is a threat or an opportunity. While 43.1% believe AI will have a positive impact on their industry, 36.3% expect it to negatively affect their role — a split that reflects the genuine uncertainty surrounding a technology that is reshaping development workflows faster than most professionals can adapt to. The remaining respondents sit somewhere in the middle, suggesting that for many the honest answer is simply "it depends."

What the survey also reveals is that AI anxiety, while real, may not be the most pressing concern for freelance tech workers right now. A larger share — 54.9% — say client budget cuts have negatively affected their work, pointing to economic pressure as the more immediate threat to income and stability. More than a third identified inconsistent work as the biggest challenge facing their industry, and half of respondents reported increased stress or anxiety. For many freelancers, the day-to-day reality of finding and retaining clients in a tightening market is a more urgent problem than the long-term question of what AI will do to their profession.