96% of software engineers' skills could be augmented with AI, report

The rate at which LinkedIn members incorporated AI skills into their profiles nearly doubled after the introduction of ChatGPT

96% of software engineers' skills could be augmented with AI, report

Image:
96% of software engineers' skills could be augmented with AI, report

A global report by LinkedIn that examined the potential influence of AI technologies on the future of work has found that AI could enhance up to 96% of software engineer's skills.

The 2023 Future of Work report [pdf] from LinkedIn is founded on an evaluation of the diffusion of AI skills across 25 nations. The report incorporates LinkedIn's data pertaining to the perspectives of almost 1 billion professionals worldwide concerning the adoption of AI.

As per the report, there is not only a surge in job postings, but also a noticeable trend of a larger number of global members adding AI skills to their profiles compared to previous periods.

ChatGPT has ignited a fresh wave of curiosity in generative AI (GAI) technologies over the last year. Consequently, major technology companies such as Google and Microsoft have been actively integrating AI into various aspects of their operations.

LinkedIn says the percentage of LinkedIn members with AI skills experienced a notable expansion of nine times from January 2016 to June 2023 across the 25 countries analysed in the study.

Global English-language job postings referencing AI technologies like ChatGPT have surged by a factor of 21 since November 2022.

Additionally, the rate at which LinkedIn members added AI skills to their profiles nearly doubled after the introduction of ChatGPT, increasing from 7.7% between May and November 2022 to 13% from November 2022 to June 2023.

As of June 2023, among the 25 countries studied, Singapore, Finland, Ireland, India and Canada demonstrated the fastest rates of adoption for AI skills based on users advertising these skills on their profiles.

The percentage of members in Singapore who have included AI skills on their profiles has increased by 20 times compared to January 2016, according to LinkedIn data.

Sixteen times more Finnish members' profiles mentioned AI skills, while Ireland saw a rise of 15 times. Meanwhile, India saw a 14-fold surge, with Canadian profiles 13 times more likely to include AI skills than in the period to November 2022.

During 2022, the AI skills that saw the most significant growth on LinkedIn member profiles were Question Answering (up by 332%), Classification (up by 43%), Recommender Systems (up by 40%), Computer Vision (up by 32%), and Natural Language Processing (up by 19%). These trends align with the popularity of prevailing generative AI technologies in popular use.

Software engineers, customer service reps, salespeople - prepare to be enhanced

LinkedIn's analysis of common occupations on the platform revealed that 96% of the skills associated with software engineers could potentially be enhanced through generative AI, with only 3% of their skills requiring "people skills and specialised skills."

The study highlights that a substantial portion of software engineers' activities involves coding across various programming languages. This is the basis for the potential augmentation of 96% of their skills through GAI, resulting in noteworthy productivity enhancements.

GAI's assistance could notably aid software engineers in effectively communicating with both technical and non-technical audiences, representing a key area of advantage.

Other job skills that have the potential to be enhanced through generative AI are:

"New GAI tools present an opportunity to potentially lighten workloads and help professionals, like teachers, focus on the most important parts of their job," LinkedIn wrote.

Jobs with the smallest proportion of potentially augmentable skills include oil field operator (1%), environmental health safety specialist (3%), nurse (6%) and medical doctor (7%), as per the study.