Work and AI, the demand for tech talent increases

The advent of artificial intelligence is pushing companies to increase hiring in the technology area, to the point that almost nine out of ten (86%) are expanding their tech workforce. This was revealed by a study conducted by Randstad which, in addition to analyzing around 20 million job advertisements and 100 million profiles in the 'tech' sector, involved a sample of 1,100 IT managers from 11 countries, including Italy.

In order to secure the best talent, almost half of the companies in the non-technological sectors (49%) offer salaries up to 60% higher than those of companies in the IT sector while, to deal with the shortage of specialized managers, almost six out of ten companies (58%) have resorted to fixed-term contracts, freelancers, temporary ones arriving from abroad as well as consultancy companies. This is followed by permanent hiring (34%), retraining interventions for internal staff (6%) and the automation of activities via AI (2%).

“In this phase, we need increasingly specialized professionals capable of combining solid 'hard skills' with humanistic skills, which are essential for transforming technological potential into concrete results - comments Maria Pia Sualdino, senior director of Randstad Digital Italia - These are profiles that are difficult to find and for which there is not a single 'talent acquisition' and 'talent retention' strategy".

The demand for technological skills is supported, moreover, by the economic benefits deriving from AI. In particular, 48% of Italian companies declare that the returns from AI exceed the implementation costs while 45% recognize the added value produced by the technology. Only 7% complain about the lack of significant improvements.