Recruiting AI and ML Talent is not just an #EndGame

‘Dread it, run from it, destiny is inevitable’

Yes, 'Destiny is inevitable' if we see the way #ArtificialIntelligence (AI) and #MachineLearning (ML) are changing or are going to change the recruiting landscape gradually and eventually.

Unlike ‘Dr. Stephen Strange’ who predicted 1 out of almost 14 million possibilities to beat ‘Thanos’, for starters, we can talk about 2 possibilities and that too without any ‘Time stone’

Possibility 1 - A tangible shift in pressure towards hiring for AI skills.

Possibility 2 - Increase in hiring volumes / numbers as more and more organization embrace AI and ML to stay afloat and compete.

As per market intelligence/statistics/data, there are more than 3000 jobs in AI and ML in the current domestic sector, and you don’t have to be 'Tony Stark' to predict what this leads to. For starters, this means neck to neck competition by the enterprises as they try to outrun each other to attract and hire the best. How does this impact Talent Acquisition?

Fact 1 - All this is directly proportional to more cost – interviewing costs, panels bandwidth, marketing costs, etc. apart from just the hiring costs. More so, all these efforts do not guarantee a lesser time to fill these roles. In order words, the best time to start recruiting for this skills has already started. 'Destiny arrives'?

Fact 2 - There is already a shortage of AI and ML skills within the talent community and competition is definitely going to get fierce. A direct implication will be of churning out heavy salaries to attract the best of talent. For mid-size to smaller organizations, this may have a direct impact on budgets and margins.

But, wait. This is not just about the next wave of AI and ML or getting beat by ‘Thanos’. Rather how do Recruiters’ bring the ‘End Game’ by mastering these 'Infinity Skills' together as #Avengers and beat the hell out of ‘Thanos’?

Here are some cool ways to pull off the stunt:

First and foremost, before all the talent gets snapped up start assembling your 'Avengers'. Yes, AI is here to stay, and we are going to need Avengers/Talent who can handle/tackle AI. With limited talent available, every organization will have a ‘gauntlet’ of its own to snap out talent from the job market. So, while the industry and educational institutions are going to churn out fresh and experienced talent respectively in the job market, start identifying top talent from your organization / team and gear them with training on the latest tech in AI and ML.

Secondly, know the 'Infinity Skills' – If you wish to hire the skills, you should know about each skill to hold them together in the gauntlet and if you do not have them, start acquiring them respectively (and in no specific order):

? Power Skill – Data Science

? Soul Skill - Machine Learning

? Time Skill - AI Development

? Reality Skill – Robotics

? Mind Skill -Business Intelligence

? Space Skill – Cloud / Research

Third, you need someone like ‘Captain America’ who can lead the team, #whateverittakes – While ‘Tony Stark’ brings the technology and the ‘Hulk’ is the muscle, it was ‘Captain America’ who holds the team together with #whateverittakes. You need one rock solid Project Lead with a ‘Vision’ to lead the mission with an ‘I can do this all day’attitude. And the sooner he is integrated, the stronger is the #Team.

Fourth, build and train Recruiters with the latest in ‘Stark Tech’ – Recruiting Teams are like ‘Peter Parker’, the friendly neighborhood guy. Give them a cool ‘spidey’ outfit from the ‘stark tech’ and you have an 'Avenger' in the making. Adopt technology and ways to automate tasks, free them from the mundane outfit / task of chasing plain numbers, get them the support and intelligence like ‘JARVIS’ through specialized Partners who can source/ create pipeline of potential talent while they differentiate ‘Titans’ like #Hadoop, #Pyspark #SentimentAnalysis and many more. Hire and train the likes of talent – the ‘Falcon’, a ‘Black Panther’, a ‘Thor’, who know where to find the other ‘Guardians in the Galaxy’, how to attract them, get them to sign up for the battle, run the analytics by sifting through each piece of data and work together as #oneteam. Most importantly, you also need a ‘Black Widow’ who can mentor the team and guide them to hold each sector.

Most importantly, we need to keep a close watch on the needle, stay close to hiring sprint in the current wave, but be ready with all the arsenal to recruit talent for the next wave / future threats, more so, as competitors continue their search for talent, new technologies get launched and so on and so forth. #ArtificialIntelligence and #MachineLearning have opened a new portal of #Innovation and even if you beat ‘Thanos’, there will be more and its up to us to stay alert.

I end this with one of my personal favorites –

‘Fate says to the Warrior; a storm is coming. The Warrior says – I am the Storm!’