Trending Articles
Trending Topics
Trending
While AI continues to reshape the ICT job market, new research has found that workers can get ahead if they have the skills to make ethically weighty decisions.
A report from the AI Workforce Consortium, published last week, looked into how the nature of 50 different ICT job roles is changing in the face of growing adoption of artificial intelligence.
The consortium includes Cisco, IBM, Intel, Google and Microsoft, so pretty much all the big hitters. It analysed job vacancies posted to two recruitment sites across the G7 countries between last July and this June, and found that nearly eight out of every ten vacancies now cite AI technical skills as required competencies.
The report states that seven out of ten of the fastest-growing job roles now involve artificial intelligence. The number of natural language processing engineer, AI/ML engineer, AI business consultant and AI infrastructure engineer job vacancies increased over 100% compared to last year, while AI risk and governance specialist vacancies saw a jump of more than 200%.
Growth in AI-related IT jobs has been particularly strong in Silicon Valley, as well as in London, Toronto and Berlin, the research found. It added that Manchester and Lyon are also seeing a notable uptick, with the cities shaping up to be future AI hotspots.
Alongside the growth in AI engineering job postings, companies are also looking for new hires that can be their moral compass during the artificial intelligence boom.
Among the 50 jobs roles analysed for the report, postings are increasingly mentioning the need for AI ethics and governance skills: according to the research, there has been a 150% increase in the number of postings asking for AI governance capabilities, and a 125% jump in requests for AI ethics competencies.
“Additionally, senior-level job postings increasingly require key strategic AI skills, such as AI Strategy and Ethics, with an emphasis on oversight, direction, and the responsible deployment of AI within the organisation”, the report said.
“The demand for AI Governance and AI Ethics skills are growing exponentially, further widening the gap between the supply of qualified professionals and the needs of employers,” the research added.
It notes that the shortage of AI governance and ethics skills is now “critical” – with under 30% of demand being met.
Elsewhere, the report highlights that recruiters are looking for soft skills to wrangle AI technologies responsibly. The report says that leadership and management, problem solving and innovation, and collaboration and communication are the most in demand “human skills” in job postings.
Communication in particular is “consistently ranking among the top three in all G7 countries and appearing in over 30 roles, highlighting its critical need alongside AI adoption”, the report added, but did not give figures comparing the demand for technical and human skills.
