Everyone’s Talking About Tech Layoffs. But Generative AI Talent Is in High Demand

• Tech companies that have generative AI products have significantly increased the number of job postings demanding engineers and scientists, amid the reduction in labor demand in the tech sector in general.

• Generative AI talent have experience in prestigious tech companies, such as Google, Microsoft, and IBM. Notably, a sizable fraction of generative AI developers come from academia - typically from schools that have a strong reputation in AI research, such as Stanford and UC Berkeley.

• The average age range of Generative AI developers is skewed towards younger people in comparison to other AI researchers.

In 2023, artificial intelligence underwent a remarkable transformation, marked by groundbreaking advancements in generative AI technology. ChatGPT, launched in November 2022, quickly amassed 100 million users by November 2023. Following its success, other companies introduced their own AI technologies. In this newsletter, we examine the talent behind developing generative AI technologies. We focus on the talent behind the four major generative AI tools: ChatGPT, Midjourney, Google’s Gemini, and Meta’s Llama.

First, we observe that tech companies that have generative AI products (OpenAI, Midjourney, Google, and Meta) have increased the number of job postings for Engineers and Scientists dramatically in 2023, at the time when other companies in the tech industry were reducing their demand for talent. Currently, the number of job postings for Engineers and Scientists in generative AI companies is four times higher than it was in January 2021, while the number of job postings in the tech sector in general is lower than it was in 2021.

How do generative AI developers differ from other AI developers? Using Revelio Labs’ workforce data, we searched the profiles of thousands of generative AI developers and compared them to the profiles of AI developers. Generative AI developers are particularly skilled in natural language processing, deep learning, and computer vision.

Generative AI developers have had experience in prestigious tech companies, such as Google, Microsoft, and IBM. In addition, a notable fraction of generative AI developers have experience in academic research - typically in schools that have a strong reputation in AI research, such as Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Carnegie Mellon.

Like general AI, generative AI talent suffers from a significant gender gap and underrepresentation of black and Hispanic workers. However, a notable demographic trend that we observe is that the average age of researchers and engineers in generative AI is younger relative to AI researchers in other areas. By tapping into a younger talent pool, generative AI teams can benefit from the vigor and adaptability that fresh perspectives bring. Despite lacking experience, younger minds are more likely to embrace cutting-edge ideas and novel approaches that can be pivotal in pushing the boundaries of the field.