Where is the demand for AI talent?

Source: iStock/metamorworks 

Artificial intelligence is driving the digital transformation of societies and economies across the world. Adopted by most industries, it enhances the workforce's speed, efficiency, and precision of human efforts.

It’s essential to know where the demand for talent is for your expertise. Read on to find out which jobs are most in-demand, the key regions producing AI talent and more. 

AI jobs in demand

AI covers a wide range of areas, including machine learning, expert systems, data mining and more. Today, AI capabilities are highly sought after across many industries, including:

• Automotive
• Fintech
• Energy
• Robotics
• Defence
• Space technology
• Semiconductors

Looking at LinkedIn data for the UK, the most in-demand AI jobs are:

1. Data scientist - 11,326 listings on LinkedIn*
2. Machine learning engineer - 10,132 listings
3. Research scientist - 2,269 listings
4. Software engineer - 965 listings
5. Robotics scientist - 610 listings

*Figures are representative of the UK only

Key regions producing AI talent

Although AI is growing on a worldwide scale, there are some regions that are key for producing AI talent pools. 

The USA, China and the European Union all have a strong standing in the AI field, with China leading the way in research paper citations.

The European labour market is also seeing a rise in AI talent, although the presence of AI workers varies widely across EU member states.

Most European AI workers are located in Western Europe, with half of all of Europe’s AI employees based across the UK, Germany and France. The UK has the most AI workers, with almost a quarter of Europe’s AI workforce based there. 

Educational AI talent production

There are also many colleges and universities contributing to producing AI talent across the world. One of these is Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, whose researchers are set to contribute to four of the 11 new National Artificial Intelligence Institutes planned by the National Science Foundation.

The new institutes will receive $20 million each in funding across five years and will advance technology across a wide range of fields. 

There are also a number of courses and programmes that budding professionals can study in order to become a machine learning engineer. To become an engineer in AI, you will typically need a bachelor’s degree in either computer science, information technology, mathematics, statistics, economics or finance. 

There are also programmes professionals can take to enhance their skills, such as the IBM AI Engineering Professional Certificate. 

Which industries are seeing a lot of hiring demand?

AI and machine learning demand is expanding rapidly as more and more companies look to enhance their technological capabilities. 

The industries seeing the highest AI demand are the technical, professional and scientific services, as well as finance, insurance, information and manufacturing. 

Source: CompTIA

Currently, the top uses for AI across businesses include marketing automation, predictive lead scoring, cybersecurity threat detection, CRM optimisation and chatbots.

These areas all require the correct skills, and the more organisations in these industries look to improve their AI capabilities, the higher the demand for these skills gets. 

According to a recent report by OECD, skills related to AI seem to be in demand across most sectors of the economy, to varying degrees. The information and communication, finance and insurance and professional, scientific and technical activities sectors ranked the highest in terms of AI job intensive sectors in their report. 

Which companies are hiring for AI jobs at the moment?

Many large companies around the world currently hire professionals in AI positions. The top 5 largest employers in the US are:

1. Amazon
2. Google
3. Microsoft 
4. Facebook 
5. IBM

As well as the largest tech companies, there is a range of fast-growing scaleups to consider.

According to Pitchbook, the fastest-growing firms that are most likely to fundraise (and hire) in the near future are Robin Healthcare, ModelOp, Cognoa, CognitiveScale and Another Brain.

Find your next machine learning job with Airswift

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With our unrivalled global presence, understanding of tax regulations, labour and payroll, we can support you at every stage of the recruitment process. 

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