I’m on a university campus at the start of an academic year, sharing my experience about people with basic AI skills who get much more done during the day than people like me who graduated with the ability to write code with punch cards. And during coffee chats with university lecturers, I share how things have changed dramatically since I started paying to use AI in 2023.
I talk to Honours Degree graduates every week who tell me that their companies are looking for people with basic AI skills. I also hear those conversations from start-ups that have great ideas but not enough time to build them.
As more businesses adopt AI, I expect the talent shortage will grow as well. I review the most advanced syllabi that I used to teach as a university lecturer and I know fourth year students who are on the treadmill that leads to the job market will face a more challenging on-ramp to employment. And they may have to look at jobs that do not involve skills they learned while earning their Honours Degrees. This is why Andrew Ng can share stories of unemployed software development graduates and also anecdotes of rising salaries for in-demand AI engineers.