Companies hiring for AI roles as adoption grows
MASSACHUSETTS, UNITED STATES — Businesses across industries are actively recruiting for a range of artificial intelligence roles, seeking to capitalize on the technology’s potential, according to a recent survey of senior IT professionals.
The “AI Priorities Study 2023” from Foundry polled over 500 IT leaders on their hiring plans for AI talent.
The survey found that adoption of AI and generative AI grew by 42% from 2021 to 2022 and is expected to rise another 36% this year.
With this growth, demand is high for roles that can help develop, implement and manage AI systems, including:
- Data scientists, who extract insights from large datasets and build predictive models. 28% of companies have already hired data scientists focused on AI, with 30% planning to do so.
- Machine learning engineers, who are responsible for developing and deploying AI projects based on business needs. 22% have hired them, with 28% planning to.
- AI researchers, who discover new applications for AI and improve existing ones. 31% have hired researchers, while 19% intend to.
- Algorithm engineers, who design and implement algorithms for specific tasks like computer vision or speech recognition. 16% have hired algorithm engineers, and 31% plan to do so.
Other in-demand roles include deep learning engineers, natural language processing (NLP) engineers, AI chatbot developers, and prompt engineers. Companies are also hiring chief AI officers to oversee their AI strategy and data management.
AI is anticipated to be used for many applications in the coming years, including content creation, data analytics, predictive modeling, personalized recommendations, process automation, and more.
Most organizations see AI as having the potential to increase productivity, improve outcomes, and allow employees to focus on higher-value work. However, the majority of companies have yet to implement AI tools broadly.
Marketing, sales, and customer experience teams currently see the most potential, but adoption is expected to accelerate and spread across business functions, with over 50% of IT leaders planning investment in AI.
McKinsey & Company forecasts generative AI could add up to $4.4 trillion annually to the global economy by 2040.
