Over the years, nearly 3.5 lakh tech-savvy youths have been earning more than $1 billion annually for Bangladesh, according to unofficial estimates, but their reliance on routine digital work now faces a serious test from artificial intelligence. Many freelancers sell skills in simple, repetitive tasks such as data entry, translation, transcription and basic photo editing to foreign clients through digital marketplaces, competing mainly on cheap rates. As AI becomes capable of producing designs, writing code, editing images and performing other digital tasks within minutes and way cheaper, local freelancers are seeing incomes fall by up to 80 percent, with foreign clients contacting them less frequently and projects requiring fewer hours. Experts say AI is changing the freelancing market altogether, citing a $10 logo-design job from a US firm that may not arrive again while a client may instead pay a human $100 to edit and customise an AI-generated multimedia campaign. Freelancers including Emrazina Islam, freelancing since January 2011, reported income falling by more than 80 percent after losing a major business, and photographer Yousuf Tushar said AI-generated images have taken away part of commercial photography demand.