Trying to hire AI talent? A tech CFO says look for acquisitions

Good morning. A big part of ensuring AI investments boost the bottom line is having the right talent. 

Companies that use artificial intelligence have continued hiring for AI-related roles over the past 12 months, according to the latest report by McKinsey, “The state of AI: How organizations are rewiring to capture value.” The research examines how companies are redesigning workflows, elevating governance, and mitigating more risks.

Several new risk-related roles are becoming part of organizations’ AI deployment processes. For example, 13% of respondents say their companies have hired AI compliance specialists, and 6% report hiring AI ethics specialists.

The survey is based on 1,491 participants in 101 nations representing a range of industries and functional specialties, according to McKinsey. Forty-two percent of work for organizations with more than $500 million in annual revenues. 

Executives at large companies report they’re hiring a broad range of AI-related roles, such as AI data scientists, machine learning engineers, and data engineers. They continue to see these roles as challenging to fill, according to the report. 

Another key finding is that AI data scientists will continue to be in high demand in the year ahead. Half of respondents whose organizations use AI say their employers will need more data scientists than they have now.

CFOs are increasingly involved in steering an organization’s AI strategy. “I own AI transformation here,” Alka Tandan, CFO of tech company Gainsight, Inc., which provides a customer success platform, told me. I asked Tandan if Gainsight is seeking to hire AI data scientists. 

“We bought an AI company called Staircase and created a separate AI division,” she said. “This division has several data scientists and we plan to add more. We found that buying a company was the easiest way to add bulk to our AI team.”

Akash Palkhiwala, CFO and COO of Qualcomm, recently told me that the company’s consistent M&A strategy has been prioritizing smaller technology acquisitions over the last year and a half to bring in talent and AI technologies which get integrated into the company’s portfolio.

On LinkedIn’s list of the 25 fastest-growing jobs, artificial intelligence engineer has been the top job over the past three years. And tech companies are offering the bulk of those jobs. For example, Apple announced last month plans to hire around 20,000 workers over the next four years who will be focused mostly on R&D, silicon engineering, software development, and AI and machine learning. 

McKinsey’s survey also found that many of the executives said their companies have reskilled portions of their workforces as part of their AI deployment over the past year. And in the years ahead plan to undertake more reskilling. 

Sheryl Estrada
[email protected]

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com