Where Do You Figure In The Ongoing Battle For Top AI Talent?

AI is the future. Forecasted to grow at a staggering rate of 36% annually from 2016 to 2025, the industry is poised to reach a sensational $36.8 billion mark by 2025.

All this has piqued everyone’s interest and stirred up quite a frenzy.

Organizations from Facebook to Microsoft are repositioning themselves around AI. They are hiring aggressively, acquiring resources and developing capabilities that will help them revamp. Labs are sprouting up, involved in cutting-edge AI research and housing talent from all corners of the world. Smaller organizations are being acquired by larger firms. And talent is being poached or whisked away with enticing offers.

With costs of acquiring top AI talent being compared to those of signing NFL players, an interesting commentary has developed on the intrinsically competitive nature of the industry and its players.

Here’s a glimpse at the ongoing battle for top AI talent, and what it means for you as it unfolds.

Fierce Competition

The pool of AI talent is seriously limited. And with bigger firms taking away a larger bite of the AI pie, the smaller organizations are left scampering for measly portions. Studies showed that 54% of all deep learning specialists were employed by just six companies — Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA, IBM, Intel and Samsung.

An article published in Bloomberg estimated the broader talent pool to be in the vicinity of 200,000 to 300,000 people. With Element AI, emphasizing that only about 22,000 PhD-educated researchers were a part of this pool.

Not surprisingly, the demand for AI talent is nowhere near these numbers. And companies are constantly creating a talent bottleneck.

The Battle for Data and Talent

At the core of the AI movement is its dependence on both data as well as talent.

AI technology is developed around hosts of complex mathematical algorithms. These algorithms can be trained through infinite iterations of “learning” and by systematically bombarding them with vast amounts of data, to do virtually anything!

Consider, for example, the AI program developed by Google DeepMind, a London based AI lab. The program was able to beat the world champion at a strategic game of Go. Go is considerably complex and is known to have more moves than there are atoms in the universe!

Needless to say, some specialist talent is required to deliver such a feat. Data scientists, machine learning engineers, programmers, coders and developers are few of the most sought-after positions. They are employed to work on some of the most demanding problems such as deep learning, neural networks, natural language processing, cognitive computing, automation and robotics.

China is in the Race

China is a relatively new entrant in the AI race, but they are prepared to become the leaders by 2030. They have a plan and they are following it to the letter.

The Chinese government has announced an investment of 13.8 billion yuan (US$2.1 billion) towards establishing a brand new 55-hectare AI park. Here it aims to house 400 companies that, it is estimated, could make upwards of 50 billion yuan a year. The products and services niche that will be developed through the park will be centered around big data, deep learning, cloud computing, and biorecognition, among others.

China has already built a fierce reputation by championing state-of-the-art facial recognition and computer vision technologies. And they are building on a robust foundation by introducing AI related education at primary and middle schools, as well as online through online courses.

The country is closing the gap fast, by quickly recognizing the need for AI talent and solutions.

WorkFusion Offers a Solution

It is quite apparent that the battle for AI talent is ferocious. It requires steady focus and constant battling. And it can leave a number of organizations reeling, if not seriously disorientated.

For these organizations, WorkFusion offers a fantastic opportunity. To stay abreast of change. To tackle the challenge. To look beyond task automation and into true digital transformation through workforce orchestration.

Created by MIT researchers, WorkFusion has the finest talent working in collaboration with intelligent technology. So, the best of both worlds is at your service.