Randstad CHRO: Demand for gen AI skills grew by 2,000% in 2023

HR headlines are switching from talent shortages to skills shortages.

It isn’t that there isn’t enough workers in the global economy, it is that they don’t possess the most in-demand skills that businesses need to thrive in 2024 and beyond.

Dutch HR tech giant Randstad has analyzed millions of job postings and talent profiles across 23 countries and identified the nine most in-demand skills in 2024.

Sitting at the top is AI and automation – the topic of the moment

Speaking exclusively to UNLEASH, Randstad’s CHRO Myriam Beatove Moreale notes: “AI has the potential to bring huge benefits to businesses across the globe.

“It can reduce talent scarcity through improved productivity, free-up time for more fulfilling tasks and foster better outputs.

‘It can also create opportunities for new types of roles, which will be sought-after and command high salaries.”

Other tech skills, including data science, analytics, cloud and engineering, also make the list – as do softer, people skills like marketing, finance and customer service.

While AI has the lowest number of job postings out of all nine skills, demand is still very high – there was a 2,000% increase in roles requiring generative AI skills in 2023 – yet supply is very low.

Randstad’s research found AI jobs were the hardest to fill. These skills were up to eight times harder to hire for than the market average.

Certain sub-segments of AI are particularly hard to hire for – examples include robotics, natural language processing, and ethics. The final one is particularly concerning because ethics and transparency are key to ensuring that AI is used in a responsible way.

This talent scarcity also explains why AI and automation were the most expensive skill on Randstad’s list – candidates know that these skills are highly valuable to organizations, so their pay expectations are very high.

It’s time to upskill in AI

Clearly, employers are struggling to hire AI expertise into their company.

So, it’s time to change tact – HR teams need to focus more on their existing teams and figuring how to upskill and reskill them in these in-demand AI and automation skills.

The good news is that employees are on board; according to recent data from BCG, 55% of tech workers believe that Gen AI will be critical to career success.

As they do this, HR teams need to fix another trend that Randstad’s research identified – the extreme gender diversity imbalance in AI.

While there are huge benefits of AI, “unfortunately we are currently facing an environment where these opportunities are weighted toward men”, notes Randstad’s Beatove Moreale.

AI has the joint lowest male-female ratio of all nine skills on Randstad’s list.

Women make up just 21% of the talent pool.

The figure is also 21% for cloud, but rises to 26% for data and analytics, and 27% for engineering.

BCG’s data confirms this – women are 40% less likely to adopt new tech, including AI.

Plus, as Coursera’s chief content officer Marni Baker Stein told UNLEASH in a recent interview: “Currently, women are underrepresented in AI-related upskilling, with men being three times more likely to have enrolled in the most popular AI courses on Coursera’s platform.”

Ultimately, according to Baker Stein: “This disparity threatens to widen existing gender gaps in the workplace as AI literacy becomes increasingly necessary for career advancement.”

This is also concerning because organizations are paying a premium for AI skills, so, by having lower AI experience, women may be missing out on higher earnings potential.

By embracing equity around AI upskilling employers are killing two birds with one stone – they are driving their diversity agenda (which is hugely beneficial for business bottom lines) and filling their AI skills gap to reap the productivity rewards.

In conclusion, Beatove Moreale notes: “It is therefore vital that businesses take steps to change this – whether that’s through flexible training offers, clearly-carved career pathways for women and visible female mentors in the AI space.”