28 Feb China lures AI talent with hefty salary premium as demand far exceeds supply, report finds
Computer vision engineers with GenAI skills are being offered an average annual salary of more than 480,000 yuan (US$66,700), about two-thirds higher than the 290,000 yuan earned by their peers without such knowledge, according to a recent report published by Chinese recruitment agency Liepin.
Similar pay discrepancies exist in other tech roles, ranging from software architects to algorithm engineers and programmers.
Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
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The number of jobs listings on Liepin demanding GenAI skills increased by more than 179 per cent year on year in the first 10 months of 2023, the platform said. Almost 60 per cent of the companies surveyed said that they preferred candidates with higher GenAI literacy.
Jobseekers taking on less technical roles – such as account sales, content and social media operations, as well as graphics and visual design – are better paid if they have GenAI skills, Liepin found.
While the demand for AI talent is high, there is a lack of suitable candidates.
For every five new jobs in AI in China, there are only two qualified workers in the market, according to a report published late last year by Maimai, a career social network.
Some of the top Chinese AI talent have chosen to work overseas.
At OpenAI, two of the 13 members on the Sora development team have been identified as coming from China. Jing Li studied at Wuhan No 2 High School in central Hubei province, while Ricky Wang Yu went to NSFZ, the high school affiliated with Nanjing Normal University in eastern Jiangsu province, according to local media reports.