Published on the 26/03/2025 | Written by Heather Wright

AI hype hits recruitment…

Employers are scrambling to hire AI skills, but the unsustainable rapid hiring sprees come with some major caveats according to a new report.

Talent company General Assembly’s State of Tech Talent 2025 report warns that in the rush to find AI talent – ‘turning over every proverbial stone to find qualified candidates with the right tech skills, and paying almost any price to secure it’ – they’re moving so rapidly, that they’re failing to take the time to build sustainable pipelines to produce talent needed for the future.

“Too many companies are approaching AI with the same old playbook: layoffs and rapid hiring sprees with no sustainable talent strategy.”

The company surveyed 500 HR leaders globally, and found 75 percent of technologies hiring leaders at companies using AI say they’re hiring talent too quickly and are not taking the time to build a viable pipeline of candidates.

The demand for AI skills isn’t just for those in tech roles either, with 99 percent of the HR professionals surveyed at companies using AI reporting increases in requests to add AI skills to job requirements for non-AI focused roles.

Hiring candidates with AI skills is already proving more challenging than hiring for other tech roles according to 63 percent of hiring leaders.

Both Australia and New Zealand are facing AI skills gaps, with employers struggling to find talent and paying a premium for that talent if they can find it.

Reports show while 63 percent of Kiwi employers were prioritising hiring AI-skilled talent, 70 percent were having difficulties, while in Australia, 75 percent of employers say they’re having difficulties finding the necessary AI talent.

Australian technology sector peak industry body, the Tech Council of Australia, has forecast that up to 200,000 AI jobs will be needed in Australia by 2030, up from 33,000 in 2023.

Daniele Grassie, General Assembly CEO, says too many companies are approaching AI with ‘the same old playbook: layoffs and rapid hiring sprees with no sustainable talent strategy’.

“Firms are competing for an ever-shrinking pool of skilled candidates when they should be investing in developing their own qualified talent,” Grassi says.

Companies need to tap both a broad pool of external talent to fill open roles, while investing to build skills across their full existing workforce, the report says.

But the data from AWS reports also highlights a key issue when it comes to creating those talent pipelines, with 79 percent of Kiwi companies and 73 percent of Australian companies unsure how to implement AI workforce training programs. Workers, however, are champing at the bit to develop those AI skills, with 79 percent of Kiwis and 77 percent of Aussies keen to enrol in AI upskilling if offered.

In December the federal government unveiled its AI Plan, which includes a focus on AI skills and training, including identifying new skills and training and retraining approaches and ensuring workers can reskill.

Royal Bank of Canada, which is showcased in General Assembly’s report, says AI is a ubiquitous skill it has needed to develop across its leadership, middle management and specialist level teams and is now expanding to its wider team.

“We’re engaging in several different layers and levels of training, like online learning opportunities and alternative pathways, with opportunities for the layperson, technologist and the leaders with differing levels of intervention,” Erin Muir, VP of HR, technology and operations for the bank, says.

The bank is also focusing on more speaker circuits, internal podcasts and town halls, putting its own AI experts ‘out their’ with business leader partners.

The report advocates recruiting ‘non-traditional talent’ – bypassing ‘outdated’ degree requirements and recruiting instead for specific skills and aptitudes to gain access to vaster talent pools.

“Skills-based hiring flips the script by asking ‘can this individual solve a real-world problem, learn on the fly and keep growing as technology evolves?’ says  Todd Weneck, VP of technology at LHH Recruitment solutions.

“We’ve found that focusing on these deeper, more human qualities naturally opens your pipeline and uncovers hidden gems who can truly innovate even as the landscape changes,” he says.

Eighteen percent of those surveyed said they’re increasingly likely to look first at certifications and non-degree education when hiring for remote software engineering, data analytics, data science and UX design roles, however the majority (53 percent) continue to have eyes first on the candidate’s degree.

Those candidates may also come with a cost advantage: The report suggests those with AI skills can just about name their own price. Ninety-four percent say the AI skilled candidates ask for higher salaries and 68 percent say they agree to those requests.

The AI spree comes as 24 percent of respondents not a scaling back – or complete elimination – of focus on diversity, equity and inclusion in tech hiring over the past year, with many saying they’re worried about downstream effects – particularly potential for raising costs per hire, resulting in higher staff turnover and causing the business to be seen as a less desirable place to work.

That depriorisation is at odds with what 61 percent say is an increased need for inclusiveness when sourcing talent with AI skills.

“AI moves fast,” Chiara Di Sclafani, Mint talent leader says. “You can’t just implement and walk away. You always need to be updating AI plans and efforts.”