Dive Brief:
- Businesses are looking to hire generative AI freelancers to support development and adoption efforts, targeting proficiency in ChatGPT, natural language processing and TensorFlow in the first half of the year, according to Upwork data published Tuesday.
- ChatGPT garnered the highest volume of generative AI-related searches by companies in the first half of 2023, according to the report. ChatGPT first launched at the end of November 2022 and quickly gained enterprise interest. Competitors were quick to follow leading to a deluge of AI-powered tools on the market.
- Content creation, Azure OpenAI and prompt engineering were some of the fastest-growing quarter-over-quarter search terms in the first half of the year.
Dive Insight:
Earlier in the year, companies primarily sought generative AI-powered tools, according to Upwork data. Organizations are now looking for AI-infused applications and services, a change partially credited to higher C-suite awareness of the technology, according to the report.
Enterprises are taking a multistep approach to generative AI, covering everything from ensuring legal compliance to increasing investments and making sure the right talent is in place.
But finding the right skills isn’t easy, which is why businesses are looking at talent holistically through hiring, upskilling and acquisition.
“The search terms companies are using and what they will hire for are evolving to be more sophisticated, and we think we’ll continue to see that understanding deepen over time,” Kelly Monahan, managing director at Upwork Research Institute said in the blog post.
C-suite leaders cite workforce reskilling as one of the major organizational challenges to generative AI adoption, according to an IBM survey of 3,000 C-suite leaders and 21,000 workers published earlier this month.
Large enterprises with the breadth and depth to support generative AI workloads are embarking on initial waves of introducing the tech to employees, and many have tied workforce strategies to product launches and investment plans.
McKinsey is upskilling employees in prompt engineering and content validation as its internal generative AI platform rolls out to the entire firm by this fall. Accenture said it would be doubling its AI talent through hiring, acquisitions and training in June.
