More than four in every five (86%) of large firms in Singapore anticipate a surge in demand for artificial intelligence (AI) skills in the next two to three years, especially in customer service, product development as well as sales and marketing.
This is from HR platform Deel’s report on on large enterprises with more than 1,000 employees.
The research was conducted by Rakuten Insight between June to July 2024 to survey 250 Singapore business decision makers.
Findings show that while demand for AI skills is on the rise, more than a third (39%) of survey respondents still face difficulties in finding the right AI talent.
The top challenges these organisations face in hiring AI talent include high salary expectations (63%), accurately assessing a candidate’s AI capabilities (62%) and lack of qualified candidates in the local job market (59%).
To address these challenges, nearly half (49%) of respondents are open to hiring AI talent from both Singapore and abroad. This is in line with Singapore’s National AI Strategy 2.0 to triple its AI workforce to 15,000 by training local talent and attracting global talent.
Karen Ng, Deel’s regional head of expansion and market lead in Singapore, Hong Kong, ASEAN, India, said that global hiring enables companies to find highly specialised skills including AI talent.
“This alleviates the pressure of local skill shortages while ensuring Singapore has the right expertise needed to stay competitive at a global level,” said Ng. “To do so, it requires collective effort between public and private sectors to ensure smooth hiring and managing talent locally and internationally.”
Apart from providing access to a wider talent pool (70%), large Singapore organisations find global hiring enables them to shape a more diverse organisation (62%).
Additionally, 58% of large Singapore organisations also believe that hiring talent outside of Singapore enables the skills-transfer with local employees.
This is particularly important as these international subject matter experts could play a pivotal role in mentoring and transferring their advanced knowledge and skills to local employees.
Findings also show that nine in 10 of Singapore organisations find remote working still relevant to their company’s directions.
Talent retention is the major factor in supporting remote work (80%) and attracting talent (62%). The respondents also believe that remote work helps them to reduce cost (61%).
Further, 98% of Singapore organisations (98%) have already or are considering AI integration to enhance business and attract talent.
Many companies consider making use of new technologies like AI for automation and consolidating technology stack to save costs and eliminate use of multiple vendors.
Also, more than half (54%) of the organisations surveyed are already using AI in their HR practices.
Some of the common types of AI tools being integrated into companies’ HR practices include Generative AI (64%), AI recruitment and screening (63%), as well as virtual assistants and chatbots (60%).
The capability in enhancing accuracy and reducing human error in payroll processing and benefits administration is well received by those with AI integration into HR practices (62%).
