Dive Brief:
- LLM development and application tops the list of in-demand engineering skills as enterprises continue to adopt AI, according to a LinkedIn report published Wednesday. LinkedIn compared several metrics across multiple engineering skills, including hiring success and demand.
- AI strategy was also among the top five sought-after skills, a sign of enterprises’ need to connect the technical and business worlds, according to Prashanthi Padmanabhan, VP engineering at LinkedIn.
- "AI-related skills dominate this year's rankings, demonstrating just how deeply AI is woven into modern engineering," said Padmanabhan in the report. "As we've watched AI transform our workflows and toolsets over recent years, its prominence on this list simply confirms what we've been experiencing day-to-day.”
Dive Insight:
Amid ambitious plans for digital upgrades and emerging technology adoption, talent questions remain for most businesses. Gaps loom large, especially in niche, high-demand subsets of software engineering.
The push to adopt AI has underscored a mismatch between the available talent and the necessary skills to scale complex technologies, LLMs and generative AI applications included.
IT talent shortages are pervasive. One-third of C-suite executives identified talent retention and recruitment as a top challenge they experience at work, according to a Skillsoft published in March. For nearly 2 in 5 executives, the pace of change in technology exceeds the capacity of skill-development programs, yet most plan to train existing workers to address the gaps.
Drawn by improved operations and cost savings, enterprises have pressed on to tailor LLMs and generative AI tools. Walmart last year announced Wallaby, a suite of LLMs developed to support customer-facing applications. JPMorganChase also rolled out its generative AI tool LLM Suite to 140,000 workers.
Despite the push for automation, organizations moving to deploy AI will need to keep humans in the loop.
Though AI is reshaping the specifics of engineering work, "human leadership remains irreplaceable," said Padmanabhan in the LinkedIn report.
"Organizations need engineers who can build and manage high-performing teams, foster collaboration across disciplines, and navigate change effectively in a rapidly evolving technological landscape," said Padmanabhan.
In addition to core technical capabilities, like expertise in Azure SQL or cloud applications, soft skills also landed in the top 10 — including communication and people management.
