AI-focused roles now make up 27% of all tech jobs being advertised in the UK, says Thomson Reuters, a global content and technology company. An analysis of 6,073 live tech roles advertised online in January 2024* found that 1,652 roles fundamentally required AI skills.
Demand for talent with AI skills has boomed in the last year with the rise of generative AI (Gen AI) tools offering significant boosts to productivity and efficiency in the workplace.
Alongside the creation of new roles, research from Thomson Reuters** shows that business leaders are increasingly embracing the value of Gen AI tools. 91% of C-suite board directors say that their companies now use Gen AI tools or are planning to do so within the next 18 months.
The research also found that nearly 90% of respondents expect basic AI training to become mandatory for all professionals over the next five years.
Sectors slated to most benefit from Gen AI include the legal and tax and accounting professions – of which 75% and 59% respectively cite productivity as their top priority for 2024***.
Novel specialist AI roles that have been recruited in the legal profession in recent months include ‘Head of Large Language Models’ and ‘Global Knowledge Systems Architect’. Such demand for AI skills is only expected to grow in 2024 as businesses race to adapt their workforce and processes to take advantage of the technology’s potential.
Mary Alice Vuicic, Thomson Reuters, says: “Demand for AI skills across professions is accelerating at a remarkable pace. AI-focused jobs requirements have gone from being quite limited to being over a quarter of all new IT roles in a very short time.”
“In 2024, Generative AI will permeate all aspects of work. It will enable augmentation and automation, and lead to the redefinition of roles and organizations and the fostering of new job categories. Our research shows business leaders recognise the immense value the technology presents as both a tool for internal transformation and a competitive advantage.”
“As AI capabilities grow, we will see an unprecedented wave of upskilling and reskilling driving AQ (Adaptability Quotient) to be as or more important than IQ and EQ. Organizations will be required to not just embrace change but to actively participate in shaping and directing it. New roles will emerge such as Integrators - transforming the design of work to integrate technology and elevate human work - and Reskillers - to rapidly train and develop people for the work humans are uniquely positioned to do. The innovative AI roles being created today are set to play a vital role in the growth, innovation and efficiency of tomorrow’s business.”
*This research was carried out on a job aggregator on 4 January 2024, on which 6,073 live job openings in the IT industry were analysed. ‘Roles fundamentally requiring AI skills’ have been defined as roles with AI in their title (i.e. AI Trainer, AI Content Writer), or roles where AI skills are listed as a requirement or one of the role’s primary responsibilities.
** Thomson Reuters ‘Future of Professionals C-Suite Survey’, December 2023
*** Thomson Reuters ‘Future of Professionals Report’, August 2023