How AI Is Disrupting the Workforce in Europe and APAC

In today’s quest for productivity, AI could be our right-hand man. Though it might pain us to admit this, no amount of sleep and meditation can make humans as fast as an AI tool can be. And that’s not as bad news as it seems: AI technologies are being leveraged to complement human capabilities, enabling us to become faster and better workers. 

Generative AI could improve labour productivity by 0.1 to 0.6% annually through 2040. Though McKinsey suggests it will require further efforts from businesses in reskilling and upskilling their employees, the figures are indicative of the power that is yet to be harvested from AI technologies. 

Employers have a long and transformative journey ahead, but they aren’t the only ones on the AI train. Educational institutions play a leading role in ensuring that the very skills businesses seek are available within their talent pools. AI technologies are only worth so much without humans being able to leverage them - and it all starts at the educational level. 

AI has been a strong focus for the Lightcast team this year, and we have shared numerous blogs on this topic - including a comprehensive Global AI report. But we have been out and about too. In early November, our VP of APAC Operations, Daniel Leadbeater, presented a session on AI disruption at the EduTech conference in Singapore. This blog gathers some of the data Daniel shared. 

Why use real-time data to track AI disruption?

Though AI has been thriving since the 1950s, the widespread advancements of big data took it to a whole new level. The smarter computers get, the faster AI progresses - and, as a society, we are going through a period of constant technological change. Consequently, if educators are to be agile enough to keep up with business needs, they need to be able to track changes in demand for AI-related skills as they emerge. 

Real-time labour market data enables education providers to do just this, by giving an up-to-date view of the what, who, and where of the AI story: what skills are currently being sought? Who is currently looking for them? Where are they currently needed?

It is this level of up-to-date granularity that educators can lean on to plan courses that target the exact needs of local employers - not their needs five years ago, nor the broader AI needs across the country. This data also enables them to establish and strengthen partnerships with relevant businesses, potentially increasing student employability for AI-based roles. 

The Demand for AI in APAC

As of 2022, the US was leading the AI race, but the growth of AI in the job market is visible across continents. Australia has seen a significant increase in AI-related employer demand since 2016, with the share of AI job postings reaching 1.23% in 2022. Australia’s National AI Centre (NAIC) even launched an AI month, which takes place between the 15th of November and the 15th of December and aims to highlight the country’s achievements in boosting the AI sector. 

New Zealand shows slower progress, with its AI job postings accounting for 0.45% of all postings in the  country, but still a steady upward trend. Lastly, Singapore’s AI job postings accounted for 0.81% of its total job postings over the last year, showing the continuous efforts to adopt this technology. Even Singapore’s president, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, recently noted that AI can help solve talent shortages in the country and expects it to drastically disrupt the workforce within the next 10 to 15 years. 

AI skills are being requested across sectors. For instance, in Singapore, Education has the highest demand for AI, followed by Financial Service Activities and Public Administration and Defense. The National University of Singapore had the highest number of job postings requesting AI skills over the last year (711 postings between November 2022 and October 2023). 

Australia and New Zealand show a similar trend, with Tertiary Education requesting AI in job postings the most and Finance and Public Administration up there as the third and fourth sectors with the highest AI skills demand. 

AI skills have been in the spotlight, but there’s a whole crew of supporting actors that deserve our attention, too. Knowing what other skills are requested alongside AI-specific skills can help educators understand how to best support learners in getting into AI roles. 

In Australia and New Zealand, Python, software development, and SQL are the most sought-after technical skills requested in conjunction with AI skills, while in Singapore, languages like Python, Java, and C++ are the most popular. Common skills like communication, research, and problem-solving are highly requested alongside AI skills, too - showing that, despite the highly specialised nature of AI, human capabilities are just as important. 

The Demand for AI in Europe and the UK

The European Commission is investing heavily in AI research and development, focusing on ensuring safety and fundamental rights and addressing the risks that this new technology may bring. Various European countries have seen an impressive uptake of AI skills, at least doubling their share of AI between 2015 and 2021. In Italy, AI demand has grown particularly since 2018. By 2021, 0.31% of Italian job postings requested machine learning skills, making it the most sought-after skill within the AI technologies category. 

Some of the biggest AI growth happened in Spain, with AI job postings accounting for 1.33% of all Spanish postings in 2022; Sweden, with an AI share of 1.20%; and the United Kingdom, with an AI share of 1.14%. Just this year, there were 18,659 unique job postings requiring AI skills in the UK. Similar to what we have seen in APAC, AI skills are mostly required in the Education sector (the industry with the second highest demand for AI skills in the UK), Financial Service Activities, and Computer Programming.

Europe has been on the hunt for digital skills this year. Aside from naming 2023 the Year of Skills, the European Commission focused on boosting digital skills to meet business needs and continue powering innovation. Looking into the broader AI skills category, we can see some key differences between countries. 

Autonomous driving, despite averaging a share of 0.05% in postings across the 14 countries we studied for our Global AI report, accounted for a notable 19% of all AI-related job postings in France and 17% in Sweden. Robotics was particularly popular in the Netherlands, appearing in 13% of Dutch job postings. This data shows us that despite the global uptake of AI skills and jobs, there are key differences in priorities and initiatives even across Europe. 

Measuring AI trends with Lightcast 

If you’re an educational institution looking to understand AI trends in your region and take the next step into incorporating AI into your curriculum, our data can help. Lightcast gathers and scans data from millions of job postings across 65,000 sources daily. We then synthesize and organise it based on our taxonomies - such as our Skills taxonomy which includes over 32,000 skills from our Open Skills Library - making data more digestible so you can easily extract insights from it. 

Our proprietary data can complement the traditional labour market data shared by government sources, which is useful for big-picture trends but lacks the granularity and timeliness needed to track ever-changing trends like AI. If you want to discuss your challenges and explore how our data may help, contact us below.