As artificial intelligence (AI) technology gains popularity, the information technology (IT) industry is seeing an increase in AI-related jobs, leading to a polarization phenomenon where other job sectors are shrinking, reported The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
According to a WSJ report on February 5th, a study from the University of Maryland showed that in January of this year, job postings related to AI work increased by 42% compared to December 2022 when the market was depressed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while overall IT job postings decreased by 31%.
The research team attributed this phenomenon to the AI boom after the launch of ChatGPT in the second half of 2022. Robert Smith, a professor at the University of Maryland’s graduate business school who led the study, explained, “Even before ChatGPT, machine learning engineers and data experts existed. However, with the emergence of ChatGPT, the industry opened its eyes to incorporating AI into products, which increased the demand in related professions.”
Other statistics related to IT hiring trends also showed a similar trend to the research team’s analysis. According to statistics from the job information site Indeed, job postings related to AI work this year increased by 2.3% compared to last year. On the other hand, job postings related to data analysis and science decreased by 30.5%, and software engineering and development-related job postings decreased by 33.5%.
Major IT companies are focusing on AI business and restructuring other sectors. Amazon has reduced staff in various fields due to changes in the priority of its business, including its AI business. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has also reduced spending in other departments to focus resources on AI development. Apple has decided to abandon its autonomous electric vehicle (EV) business, which it has promoted for the past 10 years, and reassign some employees to AI-related work.
WSJ diagnosed that the IT industry reduced hiring and took cost-cutting measures as the pandemic began, and the AI market proved its resilience afterward.
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