The era of AI-related job change has begun. Companies are hiring people with AI-related work experience at high salaries, while AI is replacing existing jobs, resulting in a mass production of people whose jobs are threatened. As these companies move in succession, the job market is being reorganized. In a survey of 56,000 workers in 50 countries by PwC, a global consulting firm, on Monday, 28 percent of the respondents said they are highly likely to change jobs within the next year. The figure is higher than 19 percent in 2022 and 26 percent in 2023 during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was commonly called the "The Great Residency." AI is deepening the "job movement" phenomenon.
The International Monetary Fund forecasts that AI will affect 60 percent of jobs in advanced countries and 40 percent of jobs in the world within the next two years. In job opening and job search markets, people with AI technology are classified as first-tier talent, and those without AI technology are classified as second-tier talent. "If we manage (AI) well, we can increase productivity tremendously, but it could bring more inequality to our society," IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said. "AI is hitting the global labor market like a tsunami."
As AI determines a company's core competitiveness, companies are eager to secure AI talent. Major companies such as Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI hire about 500 Generative AI developers, and if the scope is expanded to AI, the number reaches about 1700. In addition to AI developers, new jobs are emerging that can utilize AI, such as 'AI medical imaging expert', 'AI education consultant', and 'AI content strategist'. Companies offer higher salaries to them, and employees with AI technology move companies to seek higher salaries. According to PwC, AI-related jobs in the United States earn 25% higher wages than similar jobs.
AI-driven job substitution is also becoming a reality. Last year, Indian e-commerce company Dukaan laid off 90 percent of its customer counseling staff and replaced them with AI chatbots. British telecom company BT also announced that it would replace 10,000 people with AI instead of reducing 55,000 jobs by 2030.
The AI craze is also changing the hiring landscape. According to the Wall Street Journal, resumes of people preparing for employment or job change are changing based on AI. The focus is on how much they have dealt with AI and how they can use it in their companies, rather than their strengths. In particular, Big Tech, which develops Generative AI, is absorbing large-scale manpower.
If the latest AI-related experiences are not reflected in their resumes, they are not even able to get a job opportunity. The WSJ analyzed that AI has created a dual structure in the labor market of the tech sector. The "first-tier talent" are those who have technical knowledge of AI with content-generating capabilities like ChatGPT and experience in large language models (LLM). On the other hand, the "second-tier talent" is mostly in development with no AI experience or with a high risk of being fired. They are the targets of job cuts that Big Tech is currently working to reduce costs as it has poured huge costs into AI development. "The second-tier talent cannot even have an interview with the company unless they have their AI-related experiences written on their resumes," the WSJ said. "For this job and re-employment, they are retrained in AI."
Companies prefer people who can handle AI because AI is rapidly changing their work. Unskilled AI workers also receive AI education to build up their AI-related work skills for fear of being eliminated from the job market.
An increasing number of people are receiving short-term AI training to move from the second group to the first group of talent. DeepAtlus, a U.S.-based AI practical training program operator, recently opened an AI boot camp for existing technical personnel who want to enhance their AI capabilities. Wanted Lab, a Korean job search and recruitment platform, has recruited participants in the very short-term program for developers who want to change jobs in the AI field since late last month. "Both job seekers and job seekers have high demand for AI, so we started the process," a source from Wanted Lab said. "I think existing developers need AI capabilities to be treated better in the job change and job search market."
