Dive Brief:
- 3 out of 4 tech hiring managers at companies using artificial intelligence say they’re hiring AI talent too quickly and not taking the time to build a viable and enduring pipeline of qualified and high-potential candidates, according to General Assembly’s State of Tech Talent 2025 report.
- As recruiting leaders scramble to hire candidates with AI skills — a goal that’s become more challenging than hiring for nontech roles — 68% reported that during negotiations, they typically agree to give AI-skilled candidates higher salaries, the talent and upskilling firm noted.
- At the same time, pressure on companies to deprioritize diversity, equity and inclusion practices puts them at odds with what 61% of organizations say is a heightened need for inclusiveness when sourcing talent with AI skills, the March 11 report found.
Dive Insight:
With 72% of organizations using AI in at least one business function, according to McKinsey and Co., employers have reached a critical point: To remain competitive, they must now fill gaps in AI hiring, training, understanding of AI usage policies and overall AI knowledge, the General Assembly report stressed.
Its findings are based on a survey of 500 HR talent acquisition professionals in the U.S., U.K., and Singapore, the report said.
Two factors highlight how immediate these challenges are.
First, “AI moves fast,” Chiara Di Sclafani, talent leader with MINT, emphasized in the report. “You can’t just implement [AI] and walk away. You always need to be updating AI plans and efforts,” Di Sclafani said.
Second, AI has become integrated into finance, sales, marketing, HR and other positions not traditionally considered tech roles, the report pointed out. This creates an urgent need for all employees to possess AI know-how, it said.
Despite potentially negative consequences, the urgency is driving too many companies to approach AI “with the same old playbook: layoffs and rapid hiring sprees with no sustainable talent strategy,” General Assembly CEO Daniele Grassi warned.
Instead, companies should consider both “a broad pool of external talent to fill open roles and invest to build skills across their full existing workforce,” Hannah Calhoon, vice president of AI for Indeed, added.
To expand their pool of external candidates, General Assembly recommended companies reach into untapped talent pools by embracing skills-based hiring and seek “individuals with AI skills and aptitudes or the eagerness and ability to develop them.”
Skills-based hiring can also add diverse insights to the workforce and potentially bridge the AI talent gap, according to the co-author of a study released earlier this month from the University of Oxford.
The Oxford study found that degree requirements for AI roles are on the decline. It also found that jobs specifying AI skills earned a 23% wage premium, which is generally greater than for roles requiring a degree and echoes the General Assembly report’s implication that candidates with AI skills can command higher salaries.
Upskilling existing employees may be a way to counter the higher cost of hiring externally, the General Assembly report suggested. Even so, the percentage of companies that use this approach to fill new tech roles has stagnated at 27% since 2023, General Assembly found.
It may be a necessary strategy, according to the firm’s CEO. The pool of skilled candidates is “ever-shrinking,” and firms should invest in “developing their own qualified talent,” Grassi stressed.
One challenge in particular stands out: 95% of the HR professionals surveyed noted that it’s harder today than three years ago to find qualified candidates with both the technical and soft skills to succeed.
Hiring managers in the U.S. pointed to communication, problem-solving and teamwork skills as the soft skills they find lacking.
This data may also account for the emergence of the new job title: generative AI management consultant. More than 12% of job postings now mention the position, according to a February report from Indeed’s Hiring Lab.
The increase in these new roles signals that companies have progressed beyond AI development to AI implementation, a Hiring Lab economist said.
