Hiring AI Professionals as A Novice Organization

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has grown at a faster rate and is penetrating deep across the organizations at all levels including C-suites. AI success stories are diverse as AI is becoming increasingly adopted in organizations outside the tech space too. AI is being used for operational efficiencies, running industrial equipment, educating, marketing, recruiting, and many more. It is changing the lives and lifestyles of people. In brief, AI has captured the attention of a school student to a boardroom executive.

Though these technologies are changing the business models, IT and business leaders are facing challenges while recruiting AI talent and close the technological gap in their organizations. The main two reasons are:

• AI is still an emerging field and has not yet laid its hands in all sectors to its fullest potential. Many companies are either piloting AI projects or experimenting with AI adoption. AI adoption is poised to spread across the industries, albeit at different rates in different domains.

• The hiring landscape is candidate-driven post automation, new technology adoption, and falling unemployment rates. Job seekers are selective while picking an employment opportunity as they have various options and skillset to drive themselves through the interviews successfully.

A company can succeed in getting the right AI professionals and close the technologic gap depending on their status quo. To elaborate, a professional or a company may be an AI laggard or AI leader. A company may find it easy to hire an AI laggard while finds harder to get an AI leader.

When the company is its nascent stage of AI adoption or is an AI laggard, they might not exactly know the needs of AI. Their advertisement on job postings regarding AI positions will be elaborate on covering all the languages and skills one needs. We may not find any specificity or specialization mentioned in the job ad.

For instance, the job ad goes as…

Sound knowledge in programming like Python, SQL, Scala, PHP, and all the list adds on. They also look for candidates Ph.D. or Masters with industry experience. They further document the job description as experienced professionals in advanced statistics, modern machine learning predictive techniques, agile methodologies, knowledge in graph-based solutions, and excellent communication skills. Further, they mention Artificial Intelligence certification is a plus. They end up in recruiting an AI laggard, where the individual will also have a gentle learning curve.

Likewise, they may hire an AI leader to kick start everything AI can do with a small team. This is also a burden for the company. Because the team will be either small to succeed or the AI professional will be costly as they are generally poached from higher-paying organizations. The AI professional might leave the company owing to overload and overburden while the amateur will leave seeking better opportunities for want of job satisfaction.

As a technology recruiter, it is essential to understand the difference between the job roles like data engineers, AI engineers, Machine learning operations, and more rather than looking into keywords like Python or Machine learning or PHP in the resume.

To overcome this situation, it is recommended to follow these strategies. Companies that are novice or young in terms of AI adoption must focus on talent types and required skill sets.

Gartner predicts that 85% of CIOs will be piloting AI projects by the year 2020. AI is the way of the future. To succeed, it is necessary to –

• Establish a department dedicated to AI. Take initiatives to recruit a variety of different roles rather than one person specialized in AI. A well-rounded approach is key.

• Turn internal. Invest in training and upskilling of the inmates inclining upskilling to produce a higher return on investment and retain the talent as well.

• Tap global talent at an affordable price at the initial stages by recruiting freelancers. Some organizations exhibited tremendous success by doing so.

To summarize, possess a team of talent dedicated to AI initiatives. Give your organization the competitive advantage it needs to thrive in the industry 4.0.