Large European banks are doubling down on hiring AI talent, but UK banks struggle to compete with US rivals, according to Evident’s first industry study
JPMorgan Chase is poised to claim AI dominance within the global banking industry, according to a new survey of AI talent and hiring trends by AI benchmarking and intelligence platform Evident.
JPMorgan Chase hired twice as many AI-related jobs as its competitors in February-April 2023, posting 3,651 jobs, compared with 1,754 jobs for Citigroup, 1,374 jobs for Barclays, and 1,374 jobs for Deutsche Bank. 1,268 positions were recruited.
According to Evident’s AI Talent for Banks report, the market for AI bank talent grew by 4% between October 2022 and April 2023, when many banks were cutting headcount in other sectors.
The 60 largest banks in North America and Europe currently employ approximately 46,000 people in AI development, data engineering, governance and ethics roles, and 100,000 global banking operations are involved in bringing AI to market. there is Interestingly, his 40% of his AI staff within these banks have started their current roles after January 2022.
Many European banks, including ING Group, Barclays and NatWest Group, are stepping up their adoption of AI, according to Evident research. In both cases, AI-related hires make up more than 30% of open positions, making AI strategically important for European banks as the AI gap widens with their North American rivals. has been proven to be A clear AI index for January 2023.
Alexandra Mousavizadeh, co-founder and CEO of Evident, said, “JPMorgan Chase is investing heavily in AI, but it’s the only major bank to step up its hiring efforts. No. Recruitment activity is picking up across the industry AI is one of the growing areas of recruitment in the banking industry and our data is being used by banks in a fierce search for top talent. It shows that we are competing strongly.”
Poaching is rampant among the world’s largest banks
According to Evident, banks are hiring talent from a variety of sources to build their AI talent pipeline, with competing banks hiring more than 22,000 of their total workforce for AI-related roles, followed by IT. followed by consulting/technology firms (18,000) and universities (8,500). ).
Wells Fargo is the most aggressive company when it comes to poaching AI talent, sourcing 5% of its AI staff solely from Bank of America. The net influx of AI talent to US banks is small, but some are at the expense of UK banks. However, most poaching takes place within markets rather than between markets. Wells Fargo, RBC, BNP Paribas and HSBC lead net inflows in their respective markets.
Is AI strengthening the existing banking dynamics?
The Evident report identifies New York as the global center for AI talent, judging by its overall headcount, followed by London, Toronto, Bangalore, and Paris. India, like the United States, has three cities in the top 10, and India’s presence reflects historic offshoring decisions, with banks now looking to add staff to existing locations and hire at scale. Is going.
However, different models have emerged for the placement of AI talent, with banks in the United States hiring globally in all major locations and Canadian banks hiring primarily domestically. There is a striking contrast with markets such as , France and the Netherlands.
Europe’s AI talent pool remains particularly fragmented, with Germany struggling to develop domestic AI centers. While neither Frankfurt nor Berlin are among the top 30 cities for AI talent, Deutsche Bank, one of the leading AI recruiters, employs the majority of its AI staff outside of Germany and is growing in other markets, particularly India. Concentrate on AI recruitment activities.
According to Evident, these adoption trends suggest that AI is replicating traditional banking power structures. For example, the strong presence of US, European and Asian banks in London has historically made it difficult for UK banks to compete for talent. Barclays currently hires as many AI talent as its U.S. peers, but more graduates from top U.K. universities are at JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup than at any other bank in the country. likely to work in AI-related fields. .
Mousavizadeh added: “The UK’s strength as a global financial services powerhouse remains its weakness when it comes to supporting domestic banks’ AI recruitment efforts.” History is repeating itself as AI strengthens the global dynamics seen in the banking industry over the last few decades. ”
Generative AI has not been referenced in banking recruiting efforts… neither has Responsible AI…yet
Despite an explosion of interest in generative AI in the wake of the November 2022 release of ChatGPT, Evident research finds generative AI in recent AI development job descriptions touted by the world’s largest banks. Fewer than 2% explicitly referenced AI, Large Language Models (LLM). Or ChatGPT.
Annabelle Isles, co-founder and COO of Evident, said: To identify and test different use cases across departments, banks need people who truly understand the technology behind generative AI models and how to incorporate them into their products. It may be months, even years, before these tools are in production, so we don’t expect significant adoption in related positions, but eventually we’ll see Prompt Engineers, ML Engineers , expects to see an increase in job openings for product developers and others. ”
We also found little evidence that banks are increasing their investment in responsible AI talent given increased scrutiny of the risks of deploying powerful AI systems. Between February 2022 and April 2023, he was the only two banks to explicitly adopt a responsible AI role.
Ayles added, “What’s less promising is the lack of focus on recruiting talent dedicated to ensuring the safe and responsible use of these powerful new technologies. They are likely to be subject to external scrutiny from policymakers and regulators, and banks may be missing opportunities to stay ahead of the curve.”
