Good morning. A big part of ensuring AI investments boost the bottom line is having the right talent.
Companies that use artificial intelligence have continued hiring for AI-related roles over the past 12 months, according to the latest report by McKinsey, “The state of AI: How organizations are rewiring to capture value.” The research examines how companies are redesigning workflows, elevating governance, and mitigating more risks.
Several new risk-related roles are becoming part of organizations’ AI deployment processes. For example, 13% of respondents say their companies have hired AI compliance specialists, and 6% report hiring AI ethics specialists.
The survey is based on 1,491 participants in 101 nations representing a range of industries and functional specialties, according to McKinsey. Forty-two percent work for organizations with more than $500 million in annual revenues.
Executives at large companies report they’re hiring a broad range of AI-related roles, such as AI data scientists, machine learning engineers, and data engineers. They continue to see these roles as challenging to fill, according to the report.
Another key finding is that AI data scientists will continue to be in high demand in the year ahead. Half of respondents whose organizations use AI say their employers will need more data scientists than they have now.
CFOs are increasingly involved in steering an organization’s AI strategy. “I own AI transformation here,” Alka Tandan, CFO of tech company Gainsight, Inc., which provides a customer success platform, told me. I asked Tandan if Gainsight is seeking to hire AI data scientists.
“We bought an AI company called Staircase and created a separate AI division,” she said. “This division has several data scientists and we plan to add more. We found that buying a company was the easiest way to add bulk to our AI team.”
Akash Palkhiwala, CFO and COO of Qualcomm, recently told me that the company’s consistent M&A strategy has been prioritizing smaller technology acquisitions over the last year and a half to bring in talent and AI technologies which get integrated into the company’s portfolio.
On LinkedIn’s list of the 25 fastest-growing jobs, artificial intelligence engineer has been the top job over the past three years. And tech companies are offering the bulk of those jobs. For example, Apple announced last month plans to hire around 20,000 workers over the next four years who will be focused mostly on R&D, silicon engineering, software development, and AI and machine learning.
McKinsey’s survey also found that many of the executives said their companies have reskilled portions of their workforces as part of their AI deployment over the past year. And in the years ahead plan to undertake more reskilling.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Leaderboard
Sunit Patel was appointed EVP and CFO of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE: CCI), a wireless communication infrastructure provider, effective April 1. Patel left his position on Crown Castle’s board of directors on March 17. He previously served as CFO of Ibotta Inc., a mobile technology platform. In 2000, Patel cofounded Looking Glass Networks Inc., a telecommunication transport services company and served as its CFO until 2003. Before that, he was an EVP and CFO of CenturyLink, now Lumen. Patel also served as EVP of merger and integration at T-Mobile.
John Szczepanski was appointed CFO of The Children’s Place, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCE), a children’s specialty retailer, effective March 31. Szczepanski most recently served as CFO of Vince Holding Corp. Before that, he was the CFO of the global supply chain, brands and lifestyle group at Ralph Lauren Corporation.
Big Deal
“Gen Z: A new economic force,” an analysis by Bank of America Institute, finds Gen Z will have a strong influence on the global economy. In roughly the next five years, this group will have globally amassed $36 trillion in income. Around 2040, that figure is expected to surge to $74 trillion, per BofA Global Research.
“In our view, this means that their consumption decisions and patterns will have a strong influence on the economy,” according to the analysis. Gen Z’s preferences are shifting away from the old economy towards tech-compatibility and e-commerce.
Going deeper
“She never set out to work in AI. Now she’s ensuring the transformative technology is accessible across more than 100 languages,” is a new Fortune article by Sharon Goldman.
A former Google Brain researcher, Sara Hooker believes languages are what truly connect us as humans. Since 2022, she has led Cohere for AI, the nonprofit research lab of Cohere, the Toronto-based AI model company valued at $5.5 billion. “From the beginning, we doubled the number of languages that were covered by generative AI,” Hooker told Goldman.
Overheard
“Having recently marked five years as CEO of Informatica, I can tell you that much of my job isn’t about technology—it’s about people.”
—Amit Walia, the CEO of data management software provider Informatica, writes in a new Fortune opinion piece, “Lessons learned on my journey—from MBA grad to the least experienced person in the boardroom.”