AI is the keyboard of the modern workplace. And, employers are desperate for people who can type.
An exaggeration?
Consider this: According to National University, 60 percent of current U.S. jobs will see significant task-level changes due to AI integration within the next four years. Just as significant, Datarefs reports that this impact won’t be narrowly focused on a select set of technology jobs, but will instead affect occupations ranging from manufacturing and transportation to retail and customer service.
But, here’s the rub: According to Deloitte, more than two-thirds (68 percent) of companies are already unable to get the AI-ready talent they need. And according to The HR Digest, that shortfall is only going to get worse; just 14% of graduates report high proficiency in applying AI tools to professional workflows. (Ironically, their professors think they’re doing a fine job thank you very much; 78 percent say they’re producing students who do in fact meet employers’ needs.)
The bottom line: Demand for AI-ready talent is already high and it’s only going to get more intense. At the same time, the supply of that AI-ready talent isn’t sufficient and won’t be for at least another generation (and only then if the educational establishment wakes up). That mismatch creates a new kind of market conflict.
For the last 30 years, the War for Talent has been the sine quo non metaphor for recruiting. Ironically, however, the book that gave us that term never explicitly defines talent. In fact, the authors actually say, “You simply know it when you see it.”
That ambiguous definition of the problem enabled corporate c-suites to fund and staff the recruiting function as if nothing had changed. Many, probably most companies, continued to recruit as they had in the 1950s. But, as the loud howls from employers now signal, that approach no longer works.
The market described by the War for Talent – whatever it was – no longer exists. It’s been replaced by a new kind of competitive environment where talent is actually defined. I call it the War for AI-Ready Talent Hegemony.
AI readiness is now table stakes in determining candidate qualifications and quality in a large and growing number of professions, crafts and trades. And as the data show, demand for such candidates is up – way up – and the supply is low and will remain so for years. That’s what makes today’s situation a hegemonic market.
How is this market different from the so-called War for Talent? In a hegemonic market, there are only two kinds of organizations: winners and losers. The definition of victory, therefore, is capturing an unfair share of AI-ready talent AND holding that position. In other words, an organization must both hire all of the AI-ready talent it needs now and in the future AND retain those hires as long as they’re making a contribution to the mission.
To achieve that kind of victory, employers must budget and staff BOTH the talent acquisition team and the HR team adequately for their wartime roles. Doing one or the other sets the organization up for defeat. That’s not hyperbole; it’s fact. You can’t manage the AI-ready talent you don’t have and you can’t recruit the AI-ready talent you don’t captivate.
Food for Thought,
Peter
Peter Weddle is the Founder & CEO of TAtech: The Network for Talent Technology Solutions. The author or editor of over two dozen books, he has also been a columnist for The Wall Street Journal and chaired major human-machine and leadership studies for select Federal Science Boards.
