The excitement over the many uses for artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI notwithstanding, the demand for active AI-focused specialist talent isn’t exactly living up to the hype.
Confirming the trend, Prasadh MS, head-workforce research, Xpheno, observed that amidst the overall slowdown in tech hiring, the demand for AI-focused specialist talent in the country has shrunk by over 60% over the last 4 quarters. As per a report by the specialist staffing company, the number of openings for AI specialists is just around 1,100. “There is a visible hiatus in hiring of high-end skillsets in the AI by global firms in India,” he noted.
One reason for the falling demand in the AI market, according to Sunil C, CEO of TeamLease Digital, is that many of these requirements are being fulfilled by internal upskilling with companies not resorting to lateral hiring.
“Many companies are willing to start a new practice for AI and to list their job openings on different portals to get a sense of the talent cost and talent availability in the market. Eventually though, these jobs are getting fulfilled through internal hiring,” Sunil said.
Prasadh pointed out that the demand in September 2022, when the slowdown was setting in, had already trended down to one-tenth of the levels seen a year earlier. “In the quarter ended September 2022, the numbers required were about 2,600 while at the start of January 2022, there were over 25,000 active job openings in India for AI engineering & associated roles and functions,” he said.
Experts have noted that the drop in demand for AI talent in the second half of 2022 coincided with the the extended funding winter, and also Big Tech and other global players going slow on hiring and capacity creation.
Data from TeamLease shows some 27,000-30,000 job openings listed currently across job sites compared to around 45,000 open jobs listed in March this year. The numbers includes postings that are five to six months old.
As per the Naukri JobSpeak Report, the aggregate AI-related job postings fell by 7% in August. While a steep fall was noticed in the category of data analysts, where it was down 48% month-on month, the demand for machine learning engineers saw an uptick of 21%.
For Xpheno, the active demand represents the number of active job openings listed on various portals for the last four weeks. The listings that are more than four weeks old are not considered active by Xpheno, as they consider it as lapsed or positions already filled.