Strategies for Attracting and Retaining Top AI Talent in a Competitive Market

According to the Mercer/Gartner IT Jobs & Skills Survey, AI and Machine Learning made the list of the top three new/emerging skills that companies anticipate will be in high demand for their workforce. This isn’t surprising given the rise in use of AI as a tool to streamline and automate processes within organizations. Internal and external stakeholders want an easy, intuitive experience that maximizes their use of time. Overall, the goal is efficiency, and these new technologies can work wonders when it comes to helping expedite processes that had previously been manual.

The Mercer’s Skills Snapshot Survey reported that 89% of organizations believe AI will in some way impact their workforce. This is in line with what recent data shows in terms of the top roles being recruited, with a 5% increase in organizations recruiting and hiring AI talent in 2024 over 2023’s results. Many technology companies have embraced AI wholeheartedly and already have the talent to optimize its use. For these firms, AI jobs have been in the queue for years. They know that the key to paying these employees competitively is a non-negotiable and utilizing tools like Mercer’s Comptryx allows them to formulate competitive total rewards offerings for current and new hires.

However, AI talent is now being sourced beyond just the technology industry. What about the firms who are just now ramping up the use of AI in their internal business strategies or external facing solutions? New roles requiring AI skills are emerging across all industries. Given the newness of the field and the high demand for talent, knowing what to pay AI talent can be difficult.

Those organizations still in the early stages of their AI journey will need to prioritize identifying what talent is needed through workforce planning and efficient skills assessments. Here are three areas to focus on when recruiting AI talent for your organization:

Looking at your current tech talent

Do you have any reliable tech employees who are looking to upskill? Turning to your current workforce may be the simplest answer as they already know your business. Through online courses and certifications these employees may be able to obtain the AI experience needed to fill your organizations needs. Along with being cost effective, upskilling can foster a positive culture of innovation and collaboration.

Checking dedicated job boards and online communities for available AI talent

Checking dedicated job boards opens you up to a pool of people actively looking for opportunities related to your specific needs. AI talent needs may be vast; however, each specific AI job requires a specific set of skills. Active participants within these job boards tend to be more engaged providing you with a pool of motivated candidates. Additionally, dedicated job boards have features like resume databases and search filters that can quickly pinpoint the specific skill set you may be looking for. Here’s a quick list of some of the popular AI talent job boards, beyond your standard like Indeed and LinkedIn:

• AI-Jobs.net
• Braintrust
• Talentprise
• Underdog.io
• Jooble.org
• Untapped.io
• DataScienceJobs.com

Offering a competitive compensation package

This may be the most important piece of recruiting AI talent. The supply of skilled AI talent is lower than the demand for it, so many of the people who are looking to hire are most likely already employed elsewhere. Offering a total rewards package that is competitive, beyond just paying more, is crucial in securing new AI talent at your organization.

Similarly, if you upskill your workforce to meet your AI needs, and do not compensate those individuals appropriately, they could start looking for an organization that better meets their needs, taking their new skills elsewhere.

With Mercer’s new AI and Emerging Technology Survey featured in the Mercer Benchmark Database, compensation leaders can easily see how to position a competitive compensation package based on market norms. When a firm features several emerging technology roles, from entry-level to executive, and uses the (4) key compensation elements, benchmarking where their firm needs to be to secure the right talent is at their fingertips.

Get your hands on these tools

How can you get access to Comptryx and the new AI and Emerging Technologies Survey? First step is to submit your data via Mercer Data Connector. Visit Participation Station for more information or reach out to our survey team at 855-286-5302, or surveys@mercer.com.

About the Authors

Crystyl Swanson has over 20 years of experience serving clients across a wide range of industries and leadership roles. She holds her Master’s in Business Administration and a number of facilitator certifications: DISC Personality, Emotional Intelligence, and Hartman Value Profile. She is also an ICF Certified Associate Coach. Serving Mercer as the Commercial Strategist for the Technology Industry, she brings a new perspective and a wealth of knowledge and experience in the ever-evolving talent landscape.