Generative artificial intelligence, demand up 246%.

The most significant growth observed in the labour market concerns the demand for roles and skills related to generative artificial intelligence: in the first six months of 2024, compared to 2023, there was a 246% surge. Much more than that observed for artificial intelligence whose growth was 150%. The figure emerged by analysing the job advertisements published on Linkedin with reference to Generative AI in the job title, which are indicative of a specific demand for skills in this technology: they have increased 2.5 times over 2023, outstripping in terms of growth those relating to AI, which grew by 150%. The figure is contained in the study 'New ways of working: roles and skills in the era of Generative AI', which was carried out by Gi Group Holding in collaboration with Microsoft Italia and will be presented this evening at the Milan headquarters of the American multinational.

The job titles emerging are by no means familiar, at least outside highly specialised contexts. Emerging roles in tech are and will be those of Content and Data Curator/ Maintainer for Generative AI/IA Input and Output Specialist, Database Architect, LLM Developer/GenIA Engineer, Prompt Engineer, Back-end Developer/ Solution Developer/Architect just to name a few. If these are the new roles, for many others there are clear trajectories of evolution, especially in cases where there is a strong component of content and knowledge development activities, such as analysts and consultants, graphic designers and content creators, and software developers, for whom a shift of their tasks towards more value-added activities can already be observed, together with the centrality of the human factor.

Looking at the impact on the workforce, Francesco Baroni, country manager Italy of Gi Group Holding emphasises 'first and foremost the need for companies to invest in training courses capable of creating the skills needed to manage and develop these technologies and their own evolution'. But that is not all. "There is also another fundamental aspect: despite being little involved in Generative AI projects at the moment, the HR function is called upon to play a leading role," explains the manager. This will mean "thinking and designing the change by supporting the management, ICT, Legal and Compliance functions in defining the most appropriate Generative AI strategies, revisiting organisational processes, managing and recording data, as well as selecting the most suitable tools to allow people to face the change with serenity and use the new technologies effectively and efficiently," says Baroni.

The study by Gi group holding and Microsoft combined an in-depth study of the literature, an analysis of the advertisements published in the last year and a half on Linkedin, and listening to the direct voice of companies through an online survey and a series of interviews with the aim of highlighting the actual demand for AI and generative AI-related jobs, showing how the entry of these technologies into the Italian labour market is taking place. Between January 2023 and June 2024, there were 10,795 offers published on Linkedin that mentioned words referring to AI and Generative AI in the description, 1,223 instead those with explicit references in the job title. Of the latter, 132 positions deal with professions that specifically concern Generative AI, which can be traced back to 66 job titles. It should be noted that the demand for profiles in the field of AI and Generative AI is consolidated above all in companies concentrated in Milan and Rome, of medium-large size, which operate mainly in the tech and consultancy spheres.

While the use of artificial intelligence is now well-established in the majority of responding companies, the adoption of generative intelligence is still mainly at an experimental stage (43%). The projects, led in most cases by the technology functions (CTO, CIO), are mainly aimed at understanding the actual potential of this technology and envisage still limited investments, with a prevalence of companies (51%) envisaging rather low budgets, not exceeding EUR 50,000.