The Labor Department reported this morning that, after a sluggish March, employer recruiting accelerated again in April with 211,000 new jobs created. This caused the unemployment rate to fall to 4.4%, its lowest level in nearly a decade! Unfortunately, the U.S. economy only grew at a 0.7% annual pace and average hourly earnings for private-sector workers only rose 2.5% in April compared with last year. Therefore, much more is needed for growth of both employee wages and the American economy. In this fourth and final segment on artificial intelligence, I will explore how your company can maximize your AI efforts in order to not only create more jobs, but also improve both your company’s bottom line and our economy.
Artificial Intelligence Is One Major Solution!
As I shared in my previous three articles on this topic, artificial intelligence is omnipresent and growing including: a) effecting the entire world around us and permeating more and more of areas our daily lives b) companies are increasingly making AI acquisitions and launching more revolutionary technical, engineering and scientific innovations based upon AI technology and c) artificial intelligence is impacting the workplace.
Because of this growth in artificial intelligence adoption, many technology fields are quickly expanding. This has led to increased recruiting of engineers, scientists and technical talent. As a result, all of our technical, scientific, IT, R&D, manufacturing and engineering recruiting teams have been reporting longer job vacancies for the past year. This is due to talent shortages for many AI related technology jobs impacting not only artificial intelligence specific fields, but also industries on the periphery such as Big Data, robotics and IoT (Internet of Things).
Unfortunately, Few Companies Are Prepared For The AI Boom
The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence scientific, engineering and technical innovation and its impact on other cutting edge technology fields such as IoT (Internet of Things) and robotics, has left many business executives ill prepared. There are many avenues one can take with AI, but many choose the wrong roads!
Recruiting A CAIO Is Imperative For Maximum AI Adoption!
As I shared in a previous article, recruiting a CAIO (Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer) is essential for maximum AI adoption. This process should start with development a thorough job description that takes into account your company’s goals, corporate culture and current recruiting environment.
Because many other companies are also recruiting for a CAIO, there is a shortage of this key talent. Therefore, I recommend that you follow CIO Magazine’s advice for recruiting for a Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer.
Because of the growing importance of artificial intelligence, it is imperative that your company considers the creation of a Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer position and begins recruiting for one to stay one step ahead of your competition. A recent article in CIO magazine can help you in your CAIO job description and recruiting process for this very important position.
Several key recruiting suggestions are:
1. Developing a thorough job summary. For example, your CAIO will work closely with the CTO and CIO to spearhead new innovative solutions or enhancements to existing products by applying machine learning or deep learning technologies across all aspects of the business.
2. Identifying the major AI strategic initiatives, including: a) improving your customer experience across products and solutions with machine learning b) evangelizing an A.I.-first approach to clients, cultivating new business partnerships within our machine learning initiatives c) reducing capital expenditures throughout the business by locating cost centers and minimizing their impact with machine learning d) building a cohesive data strategy that lacks silos and enables deep learning technologies to create new competitive insights and e) locating/acquiring and cultivating strong data science and A.I.-specialized talent in the industry.
3. Identifying the key personal qualifications and attributes that are essential for your recruiting process. This may include: a) must have worked with several technologies related to machine learning, including cloud computing, data analytics and security/threat intelligence b) past experience leading major strategic, cross-functional initiatives within large organizations c) ability to attract and grow talent internally and externally within a company d) established success with implementing emerging technologies into solutions shipped to customers e) direct understanding of the machine learning landscape, including experience-delivering capabilities that leverage deep learning technologies f) strong technical expertise within a data science, cloud computing or other technology-centric role g) experience delivering cloud-based solutions at scale and h) understanding of security and compliance constraints is a plus.
4. Recruiting the proper knowledge and skills for your organization. This may include: a) 5-10 years of experience in the machine-learning field, working with or building A.I.-based products/platforms/solutions b) 5-10 years of experience with cloud computing technologies, including either public or private clouds c) 5-10 years of experience working in a product-oriented role, where data-driven decisions are standard practice d) extensive background in IT disciplines, working with a wide variety of tools and solutions. Contribution to open-source projects a plus and e) Research or academic contributions in the artificial intelligence community a plus, particularly within labs with demonstrated leadership in the space.
4-Part Artificial Intelligence Series To Assist You
In summary, I provided this four part series on AI to help you better understand the proliferation of artificial intelligence and how to best address it. In this fourth and final installment, I shared how to best maximize your company’s adoption of AI by recruiting a Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer.
The proper CAIO can help you more easily adopt and use artificial intelligence, which will create more high paying jobs for your company and the U.S. economy. This can be a benefit to all Americans.
