AI and Machine Learning: Top Disruptive Tech Skill
Have you checked out the recent Burning Glass research entitled "Skills of Mass Disruption: Pinpointing the 10 Most Disruptive Skills in Tech"? Burning Glass analyzed over 17,000 unique technology skills across their database of over one billion historical job listings. Leveraging a proprietary methodology called the disruptive skills matrix, the team plotted the skills within one of four quadrants. The upper right hand quadrant of the matrix houses the "Disruptors" which are the skills that are projected to grow most rapidly, are the hardest for employers to find, and provide highest value for organizations looking to innovate and excel. Each skill in the Disruptors quadrant was ranked by summing their normalized projected growth, average salary premiums, and average time to fill such positions in order to select the top 10 most disruptive skills in tech.
Burning Glass Technologies - Disruptive Skills Matrix from Skills of Mass Disruption - December 2020
One of the top disruption skills was a likely suspect - AI and Machine Learning. Burning Glass defines AI and Machine Learning skills as those "related to developing and utilizing programs, tools, and solutions powered by algorithms and other technologies that automatically respond and improve based upon prior experience or data". Some of the most common jobs using these skills would be Data Scientists and Data Engineers.
Here some further highlights about AI and Machine Learning jobs and skills:
In the last 12 months, there were 197,810 job openings requiring AI and Machine Learning skills.
AI and Machine Learning jobs are expected to grow by 71% over the next 5 years.
From 2015 to 2020, the share of organizations commonly requesting AI and Machine Learning skills rose from 37% to 56%.
AI and Machine Learning skills are one of the most dispersed across a range of industry sectors with Professional Services, Finance and Insurance, Manufacturing, Information, and Retail Trade leading the way.
AI and Machine Learning jobs come with a $14,175 average salary premium.
Burning Glass does a nice job of outlining the implications and recommendations for employers, students and job seekers, training providers, and technology vendors. For K-12 students and educators, know that the demand for disruptive tech skills are growing rapidly and can lead to significant career opportunities. Students and job changers who develop these future-ready skills will be poised to enhance their career prospects across a wide range of industry sectors and will ultimately boost their earning potential.
Couragion helps students understand AI and Machine Learning career pathways and helps them build relevant skills like data analysis, critical thinking, and problem solving with virtual work-based learning challenges. When exploring data science careers with Couragion, 70% of students share positive sentiments in their verbatim feedback. Female students express exceptionally positive sentiment regarding this career at a rate of 1.6X as frequently as males. The top reasons why are the security of many job openings, that others perceive the career as challenging, the desire to work with facts and details, the ability to collaborate with other internal departments, and a flexible schedule. Furthermore, because these data science careers result in higher numbers of 'Best Fits' for females and students of color, data analysis curriculum may better engage underrepresented populations in computer science and technology classes.
Read the full report here: Skills-of-Mass-Disruption-Report