China’s AI talent pool limited amid surging job demand triggered by ChatGPT race, report finds
- The surging job demand is largely driven by increasing competition among China Big Tech to launch their large language models and applications
- Algorithm and natural language processing engineers are most sought after, accounting for 46 per cent and 11 per cent of demand, respectively
For every five new jobs in artificial intelligence (AI) in China, there are only two qualified workers in the labour market, a sign of the serious shortage of talent in the hot sector, according to a newly published report.
The surging demand is largely driven by increasing competition among Chinese Big Tech firms, including TikTok parent ByteDance, e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba Group Holding, video gaming giant Tencent Holdings and telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies, to launch their large language models (LLMs) and AI applications, according to a report by Maimai, a career-focused social network service.
ByteDance had the largest demand among its peers, with the most openings for AI jobseekers over the last three years.
From January through August, the top five Chinese tech firms with the most AI jobs were ByteDance, food delivery giant Meituan, lifestyle social media platform Xiaohongshu, Alibaba and Huawei. Baidu and Tencent, which have both invested heavily in their generative AI services, came in sixth and seventh respectively.
Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
A raft of AI chatbots developed by Chinese tech giants have received government approval for public roll-out. The companies are now racing to infuse their products with AI, as well as the business operations of potential customers, to enhance productivity.
The demand has also pushed average monthly salaries for AI talent to 46,518 yuan (US$6,388), a more than 6 per cent increase from last year. The figure dwarfs the average monthly salary of 18,976 yuan for white collar workers in Beijing, according to information from Chinese headhunting service Liepin.
