As corporations race to include AI into their workflows, it’s not solely fashions and instruments they’re counting on for a aggressive benefit however, more and more, folks. Throughout industries, 66% of enterprise leaders mentioned they might not rent somebody with out AI expertise, in accordance with the 2024 Work Pattern Index Annual Report by Microsoft and LinkedIn.
Firm leaders and professionals within the hiring house say they’re now particularly contemplating candidates’ proficiency with AI instruments and generally even prioritizing these expertise over skilled expertise. They’re additionally reimagining their hiring processes, growing new methods to display for candidates’ familiarity with and talent to make use of AI instruments. Their approaches vary from focusing interview conversations on AI—offering a chance to gauge an individual’s familiarity with and perspective towards the know-how—to having candidates full duties with AI instruments and observing how they use them.
“Every organization is—no matter what the skill set might be—looking to see if they can find someone that potentially has some experience with AI, and specifically generative AI, and now you’ve got agentic AI on the horizon, so they’re definitely looking for people who have experience in those areas,” mentioned Thomas Vick, senior regional director for know-how at expertise and consulting agency Robert Half.
Abilities take heart stage
Vick mentioned he observed the emphasis on AI expertise in hiring emerge a few 12 months in the past and proceed to speed up ever since. The clear pattern is that AI expertise at the moment are deemed as essential as expertise and training.
Within the LinkedIn and Microsoft report, which included insights from a survey of 31,000 folks from 31 international locations, 71% mentioned they might rent a much less skilled candidate with AI expertise over a extra skilled candidate with out them. PwC’s 2024 AI Jobs Barometer states that expertise sought by employers are altering at a 25% larger charge in occupations most ready to make use of AI, resembling builders, statisticians, and judges. Moreover, a examine on hiring traits within the U.Ok. discovered that candidates with AI expertise are touchdown wages 23% larger in comparison with these with out, making a higher distinction than larger levels up till the PhD stage.
Alyssa Cook dinner, a senior managing marketing consultant at hiring and staffing agency Beacon Hill, has additionally noticed that hiring groups are extra prepared to rent candidates with AI expertise. What’s extra, she mentioned, expertise with particular AI instruments an organization is utilizing or needs to undertake may even take priority over an total higher depth of expertise with AI.
“Companies would rather hire a candidate who has hands-on experience with a particular tool they are implementing if they have the ability and interest to train up on other skills,” she mentioned
The newfound deal with AI expertise in hiring is going on throughout the assorted departments of corporations. Vick mentioned he’s seen it throughout accounting, finance, artistic roles, and particularly technical roles. Based on job itemizing information cited by the Wall Road Journal, one in 4 U.S. tech jobs posted to this point this 12 months are searching for folks with AI expertise.
The AI check
Automation agency Caddi is one firm the place that is taking part in out throughout the group. CEO Alejandro Castellano mentioned interviewers often ask candidates about their expertise utilizing AI instruments; for technical candidates, the agency encourages people to make use of AI coding assistants like Cursor, Claude Code, or Copilot throughout code evaluation and technical workout routines.
“We want to see how they work in real conditions,” mentioned Castellano.
The method flips on its head the best way corporations have historically examined candidates for software program engineering jobs. Sometimes, coding exams have been designed to isolate candidates from their actual workflows to be able to assess their elementary information. In a world the place AI instruments are more and more used to assist workers accomplish explicit duties, nevertheless, this outdated method hardly is smart. Of their day-to-day duties, builders and engineers should be capable of work successfully with these methods to reinforce their very own productiveness—not delve into the realm of concept and ideas.
“We’re moving toward exercises that reflect how engineers actually work, how they search, use AI suggestions, and debug. We care as much about how they solve a problem as we do about the end result,” Castellano mentioned.
Ehsan Mokhtari, CTO of ChargeLab, an organization that creates software program for electric-vehicle charging, mentioned encouraging candidates to make use of AI instruments has turn into a proper a part of the agency’s hiring course of. The hassle began a 12 months in the past after it was observed that candidates had been avoiding utilizing AI instruments, assuming they might be penalized for it. So the corporate revamped its hiring course of and its broader operations to embrace AI instruments, beginning with restructuring take-home challenges for technical candidates after which rolling out the trouble for positions throughout the corporate.
“We started with engineering, but we’re now pushing it org-wide. Sales came next—they were surprisingly fast to adopt AI. Tools like ChatGPT are now common for them for research and outbound comms. We’ve made AI literacy part of departmental OKRs,” Mokhtari mentioned. “That means every function—support, product, sales, engineering, operations—is expected to include it in their hiring considerations.”
In working with purchasers on their hiring, Robert Half’s Vick has seen quite a lot of approaches to display candidates for AI expertise. Some corporations are turning to their contractors, Vick says, asking these with AI expertise to assist them consider candidates throughout the interview course of. One of the vital widespread methods he’s seen is bringing job candidates right into a “sandbox” setting and having them truly present how they might make the most of AI inside that setting to finish varied duties. It’s the identical concept because the reimagined coding assessments, however relevant to any position within the group.
Angle goes a great distance
Whereas firm leaders usually say they might rent a candidate who’s proficient with AI over one who isn’t, in addition they stress that there’s extra to it than expertise: Angle additionally performs a major position.
ChargeLab’s Mokhtari defined that he seems at AI proficiency in two layers: ability set and mindset. Whereas ability set is very fascinating, it can be simply taught. Mindset, nevertheless—being proactive in utilizing AI, interested in the place it could add worth, and never being combative towards it—“is harder to coach and more important long-term,” he mentioned.
Castellano echoes this concept. He’s discovered that understanding how somebody thinks about and works with AI is likely one of the strongest indicators the corporate has discovered to gauge that particular person’s capability to maintain delivering worth in a fast-changing setting.
“We’re not just looking for people who know the tools,” he mentioned. “We’re looking for those who are curious, adaptable, and thoughtful about how they use AI. That mindset makes the biggest difference.”
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