Employers will pay a lot more for AI-savvy workers - AWS
New Zealand employers expect their organisations’ productivity to increase by half with the adoption of artificial intelligence to take care of mundane tasks, and they are willing to pay a premium for staff who can harness AI tools.
The AWS-commissioned report Accelerating AI Skills: Preparing the Workforce in New Zealand for Jobs of the Future, which saw research firm Access Partnership survey 1,600 New Zealand workers and 500 employers, revealed that AI-savvy employees can expect a pay bump of 30% “when AI is fully harnessed”.
The pay premium is highest in IT (41%) and research and development (38%) according to Access Partnership, which makes sense given the shortage of AI specialists are their ability to add value in those roles.
Workers seem to recognise the value of picking up AI skills too, with 90% of those surveyed expecting their AI skills to have “a positive impact on their careers, including increased job efficiency, greater job satisfaction, and higher salaries”. Overall, 79% of workers are interested in upskilling in AI, with a pretty predictable variation based on demographics - 78% for Gen Z, 82% for millennials, 76% for Gen X and 70% for baby boomers.
Still, for the baby boomer category, Kiwis appear to be more engaged in AI than elsewhere access Partnership surveyed - 68% in Asia Pacific, and 55% in Australia.
That 49% productivity increase estimated by employers will mainly come in automating repetitive tasks, improving workflow and outcomes, and enhancing communications, and workers also buy into the idea that AI will make them 46% more productive.
A decade of pent-up AI demand
The survey results track closely with the US survey. While generative AI is all the rage at the moment, the AI wage premium is nothing new. A study analysing hundreds of millions of US job vacancy listings between 2010 and 2019 found rapidly growing demand for AI skills, which attracted a wage premium of “11% within firm and of 5% within job title”.
“Managerial occupations have the highest wage premium for AI skills. Firms demanding AI skills more intensively also offer higher salaries in non-AI jobs,” the Labour Economics paper also found.
But finding people with the requisite skills will be the challenge, with 70% of employers admitting they can’t find the talent they need and 79% indicating they don’t know how to run an AI workforce training programme.
“This research by AWS further reinforces the importance of AI for New Zealand’s future, and the need to invest in skilling our workforce to support the future needs of our country,” says Graeme Muller, Chief Executive of tech industry body, NZTech.
“Huge productivity gains will be available, which will have a positive effect on our economy and GDP, but only if industry and Government work together to prepare Kiwis with AI skills.”
Kiwi Bank is one organisaton that has recognised the importance of AI to future innovation in its banking services.
“By leveraging data and AI we can extend traditional banking services and technology, making banking easier and simpler for our customers. That’s why we’re investing in upskilling our people in modern technologies, including AI and cloud,” says Tim Gardner, Kiwibank General Manager Tech Risk, Security, Data Governance and Architecture.
“We recently held an AI hackathon focused on how AI can be used to create better outcomes for our teams and customers, and we’re proud to be the first organisation in Aotearoa to offer AWS CloudUp for Her for employees.
“Providing technology training and career development opportunities is one of the ways we’re able to retain the great talent we have and attract new people who might not have otherwise considered a career in tech. This helps grow diversity in our digital and technology team to better reflects the diversity of our customers.”
