This article is a repost from Clark Boyd at Towards Data Science. Clark is a tech/business writer, lecturer (Columbia), and data analyst. With a readership of of >500k views on Medium, Clark has some great insights into how companies can deal with the talent shortage across data and AI.
US companies are raising over $1 billion for the recruitment of AI scientists by 2020. These senior roles have an average annual salary of $314,000, due in part to a global talent shortage. Why are these skills so sought after, what has created the gap between supply and demand, and how can businesses develop their level of AI literacy?
“I actually have a hard time thinking of an industry that I don’t think AI will transform in the next several years.” — Andrew Ng
In describing artificial intelligence (AI) as “the new electricity”, renowned computer scientist Andrew Ng made clear how deeply embedded he believes this field will be in every area of business very soon.
The numbers back up Ng’s prediction: Apple has doubled its number of AI-focused employees since 2014, $5 billion of AI startup funding was made available in 2016, and US companies are harvesting over $1 billion to poach talent in possession of the necessary skills to be an AI scientist.
And yet, this level of investment provides no guarantee of success.
The numbers back up Ng’s prediction: Apple has doubled its number of AI-focused employees since 2014, $5 billion of AI startup funding was made available in 2016, and US companies are harvesting over $1 billion to poach talent in possession of the necessary skills to be an AI scientist.
And yet, this level of investment provides no guarantee of success.
