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In recent years, China is facing a shortage of millions of AI professionals as generative artificial intelligence (AI) projects are fully launched. "In addition to big tech companies, startups, financial firms and others are also looking for great AI talent," said Angus Chen, director of MGA, a Shanghai-based executive search firm. "The most popular candidates are master's or doctoral degree recipients in their 30s. Skilled AI employees can earn 1 million yuan a year, and some receive invitations with annual salaries of more than 3 million yuan.
Companies are also responding to the Chinese government's call to cultivate AI talent. Despite these efforts, many observers believe that the industry lacks millions of AI technicians.
In recent years, Chinese intelligent technology has developed rapidly around the world. However, with the popularization of AI technology and the continuous expansion of application fields, China is facing a serious shortage of AI talents. This shortage not only limits the further development of AI technology, but also affects the innovation and competitiveness of enterprises. Therefore, strengthening the training and introduction of talents, improving the quality of education and training, and establishing a more perfect talent introduction policy have become key measures to solve this problem.
——The scale of development of the national artificial intelligence industry
Artificial intelligence technology is the product of the cross-integration of computer science technology and other related disciplines since 21 years, including robot system design technology, natural language processing and data mining technology. China is the world's second largest artificial intelligence market, with the continuous advancement of new infrastructure and new economy in the mainland, the application of AI technology in various fields continues to deepen, and the scale of the mainland artificial intelligence market will reach 484.9 billion yuan in 2022. In the case of policy support, market supply and demand both increase, it is expected that the mainland artificial intelligence industry will maintain rapid growth in the future, and it is expected that the market size of the mainland artificial intelligence industry will reach 581.9 billion yuan in 2023, and the market size is expected to exceed 1.4 trillion yuan in 2028, with an average annual compound growth rate of about 20% from 2023 to 2028.
——There is a shortage of technical talents, and universities have opened related majors
According to the relevant data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the ratio of talent supply and demand for different technical positions in artificial intelligence is less than 0.4, indicating that the supply of talents in this technology direction is seriously insufficient. From the perspective of subdivided industries, the supply-demand ratio of intelligent voice and computer vision talents is 0.08 and 0.09 respectively, and related talents are extremely scarce.
Note: The ratio of supply and demand of job talents = the number of talents who intend to enter the post / the number of positions.
Compared with foreign countries, the cultivation of artificial intelligence in mainland universities started late, but in recent years, the disciplines and majors of artificial intelligence in mainland China have accelerated, and a multi-level artificial intelligence talent training system has gradually formed. In April 2018, the Ministry of Education issued the Action Plan for Artificial Intelligence Innovation in Colleges and Universities, which proposed to establish 50 artificial intelligence colleges, research institutes or interdisciplinary research centers by 2020.
In 2019, the Ministry of Education issued the Notice of the Ministry of Education on Announcing the Filing and Approval Results of Undergraduate Majors in Ordinary Colleges and Universities in 2018, and a total of 35 universities across the country were awarded the first batch of "artificial intelligence" undergraduate professional qualifications.
According to the McKinsey & Company report, it is predicted that China's AI talent gap may be as many as 4 million in 2030, and the demand for skilled AI professionals in China is expected to increase sixfold to 6 million in 2022, but the talent supply in 2030 can only reach 2 million, so the shortfall is 4 million. In the report, McKinsey recommends "upskilling existing personnel" and "diversifying the source of talent" by finding external contractors.
Foresight Economist APP Information Group
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