Recruiting companies are looking for competent candidates in a strategic field: artificial intelligence (AI).
Finding experts who can develop AI-based products or use them to boost productivity is a priority for tech companies as the race to harness AI heats up.
“Everyone is looking for people who understand how to use AI,” says Jenny Yang, senior adviser at MarS Innovation Center in Toronto, which helps startups navigate the challenges of growing their businesses and marketing their products.
“Some businesses want to use ChatZip [robot conversationnel] There are companies that are really trying to hire data scientists to build AI products. »
Looking at job postings, for example, Porter Airlines recently sought an AI engineer in Toronto to “solve a wide range of complex problems,” and pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson wanted to hire a data scientist from experience. At the forefront of artificial intelligence.”
Generative AI
Many jobs focus on generative AI, a type of machine learning that can generate text, images and other content. This form of AI has grown in popularity since the November 2022 release of ChatGPT, an OpenAI conversational agent that can quickly convert simple requests into text.
The arrival of ChatGPT started a race between tech giants including Google and Microsoft and inspired other companies to think about how the technology could transform their businesses.
Now, viewed job postings show that many employers, including large corporations, start-ups, universities and law firms, have solicited applications for interns, consultants, engineers, scientists and editors with skills in AI and machine learning.
The impact of AI on hiring has yet to peak. The job search website actually found that generative AI was mentioned in 0.07% of Canadian job postings as of the end of November.
However, 17% of job postings, specifically for machine learning engineers, actually call it the “best AI job,” and 5% of data scientist jobs mention generative AI.
In the jobs of computer engineers and general developers, the term appears more and more, said Brendan Bernard, a senior economist.
“But I wonder [la mention de l’IA générative dans les offres d’emploi] is not more common,” he said.
“The bar is high”
Alik Sokolov, co-founder and CEO of Montreal-based AI investment management company Responsibly, noted that more companies have become interested in AI in the past year, which affects some of the criteria companies need when hiring.
“I think the skills in demand will be very different for those looking for a job in 2024 compared to me who started my career in 2013…” stated Mr. Sokolov.
“If I had looked at my resume when I was hired at Deloitte, I would not be hired today at Deloitte or responsibly. The bar is high. »
Mr. Sokolov and Mr.me While developers are expected to be able to use AI, Yang acknowledges that data scientists with expertise in AI are increasingly sought after these days.
“You don't have to be a specialist with a doctorate anymore,” says Mme Yang I think this was a very common request even five years ago. »
Now you see more and more traditional software engineers creating AI products, and this is due to the availability of more and more capable tools.
Jenny Yang is a senior advisor at the Mars Innovation Center in Toronto
Rob Toews, a partner at AI-focused venture capital firm Radical Ventures, predicts that AI experts will rise to the top management of large companies. Others believe that the writing profession will flourish. These experts are trained to put instructions into AI systems to get the desired and most effective responses.
Mr. Sokolov and Mr.me Yang acknowledges that the copywriting craze may be short-lived, as workers from a wide variety of backgrounds can easily learn to incorporate the skill into their jobs with little training or experimentation.
“We're not looking for a full-time copywriter, but copywriting is something that almost everyone in our company does to varying degrees,” notes Mr. Sokolov.
A September Deloitte study found that Canada ranked third among G7 countries behind the United States and the United Kingdom when analyzing per capita venture capital investments in AI.
Over five years, Canada recorded the highest average growth rate of all G7 countries in AI talent concentration between 2017 and last year, the report said.
However, Mme Yang said he recently saw some of the best data scientists leaving Canada for the United States.
“There's more money, more opportunities, so we're seeing a brain drain of AI talent,” she lamented, noting that Amazon and other big tech companies can pay $500,000 a year to hire the best AI data scientists.
“Big companies must [au Canada] They have ways to recruit talent when demand is high. »
About The Author
