The Scramble for AI Talent

The potential economic value of AI tools could be as high as $26 trillion, but its potential is held back by the lack of skilled talent, a picture that is familiar across other hi-tech areas, including quantum and edge computing.

The runaway success of OpenAI's ChatGPT has sparked excitement in investors eager to pour money into AI startups and discover the next overnight success. This influx of startups has intensified the competition for talent.

With high budgets and no shortage of challenging work, businesses are finding themselves in a bidding war for the best minds. Meanwhile, the question of what AI is for is still open-ended. With use cases only beginning to emerge, the fight for talent is as much about the vision and strategy to apply AI effectively as it is about the technological skillset.

While many are keen to push the possibility of an all-encompassing AI tool, others are searching for niche applications with more obvious use cases. To tech analyst Benedict Evans’ point, could it be that we have developed the computing mind but are yet to catch up with the application? That certainly seems to chime with the feeling that the software industry is on the verge of reinvention.

As with digital transformation, AI's potential applications touch every major business. However, with such a small talent pool, organisations need help upskilling and reskilling existing talent while fighting to recruit highly skilled individuals. 

Attracting the best in AI talent is not business as usual. Those at the forefront are a small, highly sought-after group, commanding six-figure salaries, equity, bonuses, flexibility, creative freedom, purpose, innovative culture and impact.

The competition for this level of talent is intense. Some nation-states, including Canada, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, are targeting promising AI start-ups in Europe and tempting them to relocate. Research firm Zeki, which tracks the top 140,000 AI scientists and engineers in 20,000 businesses in more than 90 countries, has found an increasing desire among many to work outside the US.

The good news for established businesses is that talent is moving to more traditional healthcare, banking and manufacturing companies. However, there are still those who want to join a start-up where there is arguably more scope to shape the business and gain equity.

Meanwhile, the big five tech firms (Meta, Alphabet, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft) may look to be hiring at a higher rate, but this is largely due to high turnover. They are facing just as much competition to recruit, with reports of high-profile founders such as Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Open AI’s Sam Altman personally calling candidates to encourage them to join. 

Reward

When it comes to reward, aggressive six-figure salary offers, bonuses and equity are the new normal for senior candidates, with reports that rates are up to 50% above employer expectations. These vast sums mean that some see the opportunity for funding and start-up independently rather than continuing as employees. 

Even tech giants like Salesforce are willing to make bold moves. The Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently offered to match any resignation from OpenAI with full cash and equity.

Reports suggest that relatively junior engineers at leading research companies, including OpenAI, DeepMind and Anthropic, can command seven-figure salaries and are bombarded with job offers whenever they log on to LinkedIn. 

Impact & purpose

While many firms will struggle to meet the salary demands of the most sought-after talent, there are other attractions. The draw of a business that can implement change at pace, allows for creativity and encourages innovation can draw talent away from the big hitters. 

This is one reason why small companies are winning the battle for talent. The ability to implement change quickly, alongside offering creative control and flexibility on hours and location, can trump a slow-moving and inflexible organisation, even where the salary is higher. Reports show small companies hire 47 per cent of the top AI talent in the sector, compared to 34 per cent for large companies and 19 per cent for middle-sized companies.

At a sector level, healthcare is hiring AI talent at the fastest rate. This is at least partly due to the potential for impact. The Harvard School of Public Health concluded that using AI to make diagnoses may reduce treatment costs by up to 50 per cent and improve health outcomes by 40 per cent, a compelling purpose for anyone looking for an opportunity to do good through their work. 

The premium on AI talent forces organisations to think creatively about filling the skills gap. Upskilling and reskilling the existing team has benefits beyond this immediate need. According to a recent LinkedIn report, 8 in 10 people say learning adds purpose to their work, which, in turn, improves retention.

With budgets tight, AI leaders are tasked with developing a team from more junior hires and internal movers rather than looking to recruit a ‘perfect skillset’. This has the benefit of increasing engagement amongst existing employees and attracting those keen to learn whilst reducing the hiring bill. It also allows your organisation to benefit from the institutional knowledge embedded in existing employees, as they are more likely to identify the specific use cases for AI in the organisation.

Upskilling may not be possible for the most senior role, but skills can be nurtured when the right senior AI ‘anchor hire’ is in place to lead the charge.

Any technology built from a narrow perspective will have blind spots. That’s why it’s essential to incorporate a diverse range of experiences. Diversity discourages groupthink and instead encourages thinking to be challenged at every step along the way. You don’t have to look far to find real-world examples of the consequences of a lack of diversity, from hand dryers and soap dispensers not recognising black and brown skin tones to safety tests only carried out with male bodies in mind. AI has enormous potential to play out our biases and blindspots, so involving diverse perspectives is crucial to its development. 

For more background, see our guide to Diversity and Inclusion.

1. Craft a compelling purpose and package to attract AI talent, playing to your organisation's strengths and the role's impact.
2. Encourage diversity in your hiring and upskilling practices.
3. Focus your Talent Acquisition efforts on a senior anchor hire to lead the AI strategy.
4. Task your senior hire with building a team from the ground up, upskilling junior practitioners rather than competing for multiple senior hires and creating an L&D programme to retrain internal people.
5. Engage employees across the organisation through an internal communications initiative to reduce fear of the unknown and promote the opportunities that will be coming.
6. Upskill and reskill existing hires to nurture homegrown AI talent and benefit from increased engagement and institutional knowledge.
7. Avoid the strategic vacuum. Embed your newly skilled AI practitioners across the organisation to encourage AI adoption and cross-functional working methods.