Current Issues in the Artificial Intelligence Industry
How contractors can help solve these issues
The Artificial Intelligence industry, or AI for short, is one of the fastest growing technology sectors in the world. While this is certainly good news for tech companies that want to stay ahead of their competitors, this industry still faces many growing pains as it becomes more widely adopted.
Lack of Skilled Labour
The biggest issue facing this industry right now is the lack of skilled labour. AI has always been at the forefront of technology, but until now computers weren’t sophisticated enough to utilize the technology. With AI now becoming more broadly adopted, there is now a lack of skilled labour. In other words, there simply aren’t enough people with the right skills and qualifications to meet the demand.
Speed of Development
Another major issue is the speed at which AI is developing. Not only is the sector growing in size and scale, the technology itself is also developing at an exponential rate. In fact, AI is developing so fast that it’s difficult for people to keep up with it in terms of their skills and knowledge. This is quickly becoming a major issue for companies who are trying to remain at the forefront of technology, but can’t keep up because it is expensive and difficult to find the right talent.
Acceptance of AI
A third issue that continues to hamper the AI sector is the technology’s acceptance by the general public. Like any new technology, people are often skeptical about it until they learn more. This is the same issue facing AI. While many companies see the benefit of this technology, consumers are still hesitant to fully embrace it, hindering its ability to be adopted more broadly.
Because of these issues, many companies are struggling to find the right talent and losing out on potential business opportunities. To help resolve the skilled labour shortage and keep up with the speed at which this area is developing, many tech companies and senior IT managers are opting to hire contractors instead of trying to find permanent employees.
Hiring a contractor can be extremely helpful because of the speed in which you can hire someone. With a contractor there is no need to go through the cumbersome and inefficient hiring process, which can often take weeks and even months to complete. A contractor can often start working immediately on a project and doesn’t need training other than the procedures and processes unique to your company. They also have specialized skills that can often be difficult to find.
One of the most overlooked benefits of hiring a contractor is that they have had exposure to a variety of other projects and can often offer unique or creative solutions that your company may not have thought of. The contractor may also come from a different background or school of thought and offer new ideas, which can be extremely helpful because often, long-term employees start to think the same. In fact, it’s been scientifically proven that diversity of any kind will breed innovation. Therefore by bringing in a contractor to support or augment a permanent team of employees, it will only lead to more innovative and creative solutions.
In addition to these benefits, hiring a contractor provides a company with flexibility to “test drive” an employee. This type of workforce flexibility can help a company avoid having to add permanent employees to their payroll, which can be very expensive when you include their salary and benefits. It also gives companies the flexibility to hire a temporary contractor for a specific project to ensure it is delivered on time and on budget.
Given the current challenges facing the AI industry and the enormous benefits from hiring a contractor, not only is it easy to hire a contractor, it also makes good business sense too.
We’ve built up decades of expertise in the software contractor space and have processes and systems in place to aid our clients with hiring and keeping the best contractor talent. Contact us today to see how we can share our many years and roster of client success with you and help your next AI project succeed.