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The battle for AI talent is getting crazy. And we’re not just talking about robot recruitment.
These are Elon Musk’s words, who recently described the AI talent war as the ‘craziest’ he’s ever seen. The research appears to support his claims.
A report from the U.S. Vocational Qualifications and Talent Management Center (UVT) concludes that there is “a significant shortage of AI talent in the market,” posing a “significant obstacle for companies looking to leverage AI technologies.” An Amazon Web Services Survey found that nearly 75% of employers prioritizing hiring talent with AI skills have difficulty finding qualified candidates.
And yes, as Musk shows us, even the biggest of the big tech are getting nervous about acquiring and keeping highly-prized AI talent. Writing on X, he claimed that OpenAI has been “aggressively recruiting Tesla engineers with massive compensation offers and have unfortunately been successful in a few cases.” In response, Tesla has offered compensation increases in a bid to retain AI and machine learning talent.
Google has also had to get creative to keep OpenAI from nabbing its best AI talent, with co-founder Sergey Bring personally calling an employee and offering them a pay rise to stay, and Meta has similarly attempted to keep candidates from leaving to join competitors by revoking historic retention policies and counteroffering employees with higher pay packages.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also resorted to unusual recruitment tactics, directly emailing Google DeepMind employees asking them to join the company, and even making lucrative job offers to candidates without conducting any interviews.
And then we have Microsoft, which recently recruited two of Inflection’s three founders – a leading AI start-up in the U.S. – and many of its 70 employees. According to Microsoft, the move is not an acquisition as Inflection still operates as an independent business, meaning it did not need to notify regulators of plans for a merger, saving valuable time.
Zuckerberg has previously stated that Meta acquires start-ups as a valuable source of talent, but it appears in the race for AI skills, speed is of the essence.
The AI talent race – what does it mean for HR at ‘normal’ companies?
Not every company is a Meta, Microsoft, or OpenAI, requiring the absolute elite in AI talent to build foundation models and deliver the kind of product innovation that can deliver billion-dollar returns.
For most, AI talent is a steady but increasing focus as businesses explore how they can use AI, where it can add value or automate tasks, and where it should not be used. However, the AI talent war within big tech does tell us that skills and experience are at a premium.
Jeri Hawthorne, CHRO at Aflac says HR and business leaders need to differentiate themselves when trying to recruit talent with these skills. “Ways to do that include flexible working options like location and schedules, an emphasis on growth and development, opportunities to work on cutting-edge and unique projects,” Hawthorne explains. “To find strong technical talent, recruitment efforts need to be broad to include non-traditional platforms like technical communities.”
And there are certainly some lessons from big tech that can help your organization secure the skills it needs. Defining what skills you need is a major step. Each of the big players, but especially Microsoft, appears to have a clear vision about what they want to achieve with AI, and what resources they will need to achieve it. Whilst the likes of Google have been accused of being reactive, and OpenAI struggles with boardroom leadership drama, Microsoft has clearly identified it needs strong partnerships with start-ups like OpenAI and Inflection.
In fact, over half of employees (54%) admitted they have no idea how their company is using AI, per a survey from UKG, so determining how the business specifically plans to use AI and the skills it will need to do so can give you the edge for acquiring and retaining employees with AI skills.
“First and foremost, understand your business,” proposes Hawthorne. “Evaluate business strategies, define the company’s AI mission, analyze workforce trends, and determine business areas for AI talent and perform an AI skills gap analysis.”
AI skills analysis allows for proactive talent acquisition
This approach will not only help identify the skills you need but will also help with the communication you put in place. Zuckerberg, for example, has conducted interviews with publications such as The Verge, trusted amongst the engineering community, to solidly Meta’s and signal why it is an employer of choice for AI talent.
“We’ve come to this view that, in order to build the products that we want to build, we need to build for general intelligence,” he said in an interview. “I think that’s important to convey because a lot of the best researchers want to work on the more ambitious problems.”
He also added that Meta plans to acquire over 340,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs – the chip of choice among big tech companies used to power AI models – by the end of 2024. Why? Employees with top AI skills and capabilities want to know how and why the company is investing in AI. Aravind Srinivas, the Founder and CEO of Perplexity AI, recently revealed he was told ‘Come back to me when you have 10,000 H1 GPUs’ when trying to hire a senior AI researcher from Meta.
Reskilling can help circumvent talent wars
Of course, recruitment may not be the answer for your organization yet, and many other employers are seeking to fill AI skills gaps through reskilling. Colgate Palmolive, for example, has put more than 16,000 Colgate employees who work in company offices through a digital training program, including modules on AI.
“For those who are newer to using AI, HR leaders should provide training programs designed to focus on technical skillsets to ensure continuous learning, growth, and development of their AI workforce,” explains Hawthorne. “Employers need to focus on continuing to grow and develop technical and human skills as business processes are streamlined and automated.”
Indeed, Aflac offers a range of AI growth and development initiatives including ‘Career Success Centers,’ job shadowing programs, on-the-job training through rotations and project work, mentor programs, and partnerships with universities.
“Like most organizations, we are continuing to assess and understand what our AI needs are now and into the future,” notes Hawthorne. “By having a clear vision of how we intend to use AI, it helps us best support employees in their growth and identify external candidates.”
Whether you’re prioritizing AI skills acquisition now, or expect to do so in the future, remember that whilst the race for talent may be hard fought, there are steps you can take to get a healthy head start.
