Dive Brief:
- The gap in AI skills is accelerating drastically as enterprises rush to deploy the technology, according to the Nash Squared/Harvey Nash Digital Leadership report published in May. The company surveyed more than 2,000 technology leaders.
- More than half of IT leaders say their companies suffered from an undersupply of AI talent, up from 28% in the previous edition of the report, published in 2023. AI know-how went from being the sixth most scarce technology skill to the No. 1 in 16 months, marking the fastest increase in more than 15 years.
- Nine in 10 respondents said their companies were piloting or investing in AI use, up from 59% in the 2023 report. Despite the rise, more than two-thirds of leaders said they had not yet received a measurable return on investment from the technology.
Dive Insight:
Deploying AI has long been an enterprise need, with executives hoping to plug automation into key processes in search of productivity wins. Despite ambitions, a large swath of projects remain stuck in the experimental phase.
Several roadblocks stand in the way of full-fledged adoption, including data deficiencies and financial constraints. A looming skills gap has also dampened enterprise AI plans.
"As AI is so new, there is no ‘playbook’ here," said Bev White, CEO of Nash Squared, in the study announcement. "It’s about a mix of approaches including formal training where available, reskilling IT staff and staff outside of the traditional IT function to widen the pool, on-the-job experimentation and knowledge sharing and transfer. This needs to coincide with the development of a new operating model where AI is stitched in."
The two-year, 23-percentage-point jump for AI skills was the steepest increase for a specific skill recorded by Harvey Nash since it first began tracking this metric 16 years ago. A dearth of AI talent was reported by the majority of leaders across several sectors, including education, logistics, manufacturing, business services and pharmaceuticals.
Enterprise AI ambitions have steadily driven up AI workforce demand, widening talent gaps. Job site Indeed tracked a significant spike in generative AI job postings in January, which nearly tripled year over year, according to a February report.
