71% of leaders prefer hiring candidates with AI skills over those with the relevant industry experience

If you’re not upskilling or upskilled in AI, the 2024 Annual Work Trend Index from Microsoft and LinkedIn makes for grim reading.

After surveying 31,000 people in 31 countries, its researchers have discovered a change in employer preferences from seeking AI aptitude over proven track records.

Some 71% of executives said they would rather hire applicants with AI expertise over those with actual experience. This provides an opportunity for entry-level or early-career professionals, and poses a risk for those a few years, or decades, in.

3 jobs to apply for this week

• Data Platform Lead, Vice President, MUFG Bank, Ltd., Jersey City ($130,000-$155,000)
• Director, Technical Program Management – Generative AI, Capital One, San Francisco
• Principal Software Developer, Raytheon, Huntsville

Employer-employee gap

Despite this preference for AI skills, just 25% of employers plan to provide gen AI training this year.

Many knowledge workers have taken upskilling into their own hands. Only 39% of users have received AI training from their company, but three in four knowledge workers (75%) now use AI at work to save time, boost creativity and enable them to focus on their most important work. Additionally, 78% of AI users are bringing their own tools to work, according to the survey.

Leadership needs to catch up, however. Although 79% of leaders say that using AI is essential to maintaining competitiveness, 59% are concerned about measuring the productivity gains of AI, and 60% worry that their organization doesn’t have a clear vision or plan to implement the technology.

According to Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO at Microsoft, “AI is democratizing expertise across the workforce. Our latest research highlights the opportunity for every organization to apply this technology to drive better decision-making, collaboration — and ultimately business outcomes.”

Considering quitting?

If you’re considering leaving your current role, you’re in good company. The survey revealed that 46% of professionals are considering quitting in the year ahead, and this rises to 85% for U.S. workers, according to a separate LinkedIn study.

An almost equal number (45%) of those surveyed by Microsoft worry AI will replace their job, and a recent letter to Klarna’s shareholders from CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski does little to counter such concerns.

In it, he wrote, “Our AI assistant now performs the work of 700 employees, reducing the average resolution time from 11 minutes to just 2, while maintaining the same customer satisfaction scores as human agents.”

Over the past year, the corporation has reduced its employment from 5,000 to 3,800 through natural attrition, and Siemiatkowski anticipates further significant reductions. Tellingingly, the company has begun a hiring freeze, yet is still hiring engineers.

Meanwhile, some tech CEOs have reportedly advised software engineers to upskill and learn new technologies, hinting that AI could replace their coding work.

In leaked recordings from a recent company fireside chat, Matt Garman of Amazon Web Services (AWS) reportedly said, “If you go forward 24 months from now, or some amount of time — I can’t exactly predict where it is — it’s possible that most developers are not coding.”

According to the explanation that follows in the audio, developers would not lose their jobs as a result of the shift. Rather, it would entail a change in skill set towards what he claims would be more useful to the company.

A spokesperson for Amazon later stressed that his words are not indicative of job reductions or layoffs, saying: “Matt articulated a vision for how AWS will continue to remove undifferentiated heavy lifting from the developer experience so that builders can focus more of their skill and energy on the most innovative work.”

Although employees are unlikely to be resting easy as Amazon has already laid off 150 workers this year, according to tracking by Layoffs.fyi.

3 more top tech roles

• Senior Data Science Analyst, Discover Financial Services, Riverwoods
• Sr. Reliability Engineer, Raytheon, Andover
• Test Automation Engineer, ICF, Reston

Future proof your career

Whatever companies have in store, it’s clear that tech professionals who upskill in AI will have the edge. However, with more and more employees both eyeing up a career change and taking upskilling into their own hands, competition is set to be fierce.

Late last year, LinkedIn saw a 160% rise in non-technical professionals taking learning courses to advance their AI skills, and a 142x increase in members adding AI capabilities, like ChatGPT and Copilot, to their profiles.

More technical professionals are looking to Datacamp, Udemy Codecademy, Coursera and edX for online upskilling and certification, as well as more established bricks-and-mortar universities and colleges who are focused on advancing AI education, like Stanford’s Deep Learning program.

As AI continues to reshape the job market, the message for all professionals is clear: adapt or be left behind.

As the gap between employer expectations and employee training widens, individuals taking the initiative to learn AI tools may find themselves at a significant advantage. The message is: don’t wait to be taught by your employer, take upskilling into your own hands.