AI skills have become so critical to workers that 14% of job seekers would accept lower pay for a job that offers AI training. That number comes from a survey of 1,000 U.S. adults commissioned by ICIMS, and it is evidence of just how important AI skills have become in the workplace.
More broadly, 42% of job seekers say a company offering AI training would be more attractive than a similar employer that did not.
“Companies have a unique opportunity,” said Trent Cotton, head of talent insights at ICIMS. “If they can say, ‘we’ll help you with the AI skills, we’ll do the on-the-job training, you’ll be certified in XYZ within AI,’ that’s how they compete with the companies trying to outspend them on salary.”
The report recommends that employers already offering AI training recognize that it is an important recruiting tool, not just a retention asset.
Workers are not waiting for their employers to reskill. Nearly half (47%) of U.S. adults took steps to build AI skills in the past six months, and 30% of U.S. adults were self-taught, up from 22% a year ago.
Cotton, who was in human resources for more than 20 years, said he has never seen candidates this motivated to acquire new work skills.
“Candidates are taking ownership and closing the AI skills gap. I can’t think of a time in my career when we’ve seen that,” he said. “It’s always been the job seeker saying, ‘If you want me to do this, train me, or I’ll go back to school and do it myself.’ Now we are seeing the workforce say, ‘I own my career path and my own skill development.’”
The demand for AI skills is growing so quickly that Payscale calls it a “looming talent crisis.” In a survey last month, the company found that 40% of organizations say they cannot find candidates with the AI fluency they need, and that 74% of employers plan to invest in AI upskilling in the next year.
The Payscale data shows how rapidly AI skills are becoming a necessary part of work. Today, 58% of employers report paying a premium for AI skills now or plan to within 12 months. That may not last, as 23% say they once did the same, but now treat AI fluency as a baseline requirement.
Ironically, while two-thirds of the workers surveyed feel confident that they have the necessary AI skills today, the majority of them have what the ICIMS report calls a “familiarity” with AI, not a mastery of the skills they need to use it in their jobs. The only AI skill that over 50% of workers report is use of GenAI tools such as ChatGPT or Copilot, not the more specialized skills that employers are looking for. Cotton’s read is that most people are still using these tools “like a very powerful Google,” and that employers are asking for something else.
Cotton also made a case that goes beyond recruiting tactics.
“There is a part of me, as a practitioner, that thinks we owe it to the workforce to try to rethink, reskill, and redeploy, rather than just going ‘you don’t have the skills, you’re out,’ because that’s contributing to a societal problem.”
