Job postings mentioning A.I. more than doubled since 2021: LinkedIn

Since artificial intelligence began booming late last year, a steady stream of questions and concerns have come up. Will my job be impacted, will I be laid off, will my day-to-day change because of generative AI?

There isn’t an answer to many of these questions yet, but it is already clear that AI will have an immense impact on the labor market. And that impact has already begun.

Job postings on LinkedIn that mention either AI or generative AI more than doubled globally between July 2021 and July 2023, according to new data from the jobs and networking platform.

Some countries saw an even bigger increase compared to the 2.2x global average — the U.K. saw a 2.3x rise, while Germany and France saw jumps of 2.6x and 2.8x, respectively.

The change is happening across industries, Olivier Sabella, vice president of LinkedIn Talent Solutions for EMEA and LATAM, told CNBC Make It.

“We’re seeing demand for AI skills increasingly appear across a wide range of industries and geographies,” he said.

“These job posts vary from roles where professionals will directly work on AI development, such as AI engineer, to job postings where AI is listed as a required skill — for example a digital product manager or cyber security consultant,” Sabella explained.

Prospective employees are responding to this shift towards AI becoming a bigger part of jobs.

“LinkedIn job posts that mention artificial intelligence or generative AI have seen 17% greater application growth over the past two years than job posts with no such mentions,” the platform’s Global Talent Trends report, published this month, said.

And even among those who may not be applying to AI-related jobs just yet, the appetite to use the latest technology is clear, a LinkedIn survey of close to 30,000 professionals from countries around the world showed.

Eighty-nine percent of professionals surveyed globally said they were excited to use AI. Not all countries are as keen though — for example, just 76% of U.K. professionals agreed.

Fifty-seven percent of professionals globally said they want to learn more about AI. This is reflected in the rise of AI skills, with more and more LinkedIn users saying they know how to work with AI-based tools and products.

“The pace at which LinkedIn members added AI skills to their profiles has nearly doubled since the launch of ChatGPT alone,” Sabella said. Since early 2016, the amount of people who say they have AI skills has increased ninefold, he added.

As both employers and employees have been trying to adjust to a future of work that includes AI, skills have become a hot topic. Questions over which skills are needed and how developed they have to be have emerged, with some saying even basic knowledge can be beneficial.

Building AI skills is important as work environments are changing and expectations and requirements for jobs are shifting, Sabella said.

“Evolving skill sets are a long-term shift, and something that is already front of mind for many business leaders,” he explained.

So as it is becoming highly obvious that AI will impact jobs and work for everyone in the future, expanding your skills seen as increasingly important when it comes to future proofing careers.