Beijing, May 16 (Xinhua). China’s artificial-intelligence (AI) boom has fueled a fierce talent shortage, with tech firms — from robotics innovators to cloud giants – scrambling to fill millions roles amid soaring demands.
“We are critically short of people. All the positions are understaffed,” Wang Xingxing is the founder and CEO Unitree Robotics – a leading humanoid robots company – and spoke at a recent forum in Shanghai on innovation and entrepreneurship.
Seizing this moment to “recruit on the spot,” he said that the Hangzhou based company had already established a Shanghai office and was actively seeking young professionals. He attributed this hiring frenzy a surge in market demand, and to supportive national policies. Unitree and other robots firms are also experiencing rapid growth.
There is a race for talent across the country. In Hangzhou, an innovative hub in east China, 830 companies advertised 21,000 jobs, half of which were devoted to AI algorithms and large-scale model development. A recruitment event in Guangzhou, the southern metropolis, announced over 50,000 positions, many of which were in electronic, advanced manufacturing and AI-related fields.
“Our company started to launch projects in domain-specific large models and humanoid robots last year, and we urgently need high-level AI talent,” Liu Ziyin is the operations director of a technology firm in Tianjin in north China. He said that he has been attending recruitment events to find skilled candidates. In a report on generative AI, the China Internet Network Information Center stated that China has over 4,500 AI firms, and its core AI industries are valued at about 600 billion yuan. This is approximately 83.41 billion U.S. Dollars. According to the report, AI is a key driver for new industrialization in China, with an industrial chain that spans chips, algorithms and data, platforms, and applications. This has led to an ever-increasing demand for talent.
According to professional networking platform Maimai, AI-related jobs are the most talent-scarce in China. The supply-demand ratio is well below 1. The ratio is even lower for specialized roles such as cloud computing and deep-learning. McKinsey & Company estimates that China could be short 4 million AI professionals in 2030.
Wang Liang is a researcher with the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He said that fundamental research-oriented experts and cross-disciplinary specialists are needed to help pioneer new algorithms and accelerate AI integration in industries. China’s educational institutions, as well as industry leaders, are increasing their efforts to address the growing talent gap.
Over 500 universities offer AI-related majors, or have opened schools dedicated to the field. Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China and Nankai University have included AI in their 2025 enrollment expansion plan. Nankai University has introduced over 130 specialized AI courses as part of its AI talent development program last year.
As talent pools expand, Wang noted that optimizing the quality and structure of training will become even more important. Future demand for AI professionals is expected to be more segmented, and universities will need to tailor their programs in order to keep up with the changing landscape.
Tech companies are also taking steps to cultivate more talent. Peking University and ByteDance set up a joint lab by December 2024. Nanjing University signed a comprehensive collaboration agreement with Alibaba Cloud in March of this year to develop AI talent. Tencent has also committed to strengthening partnerships with universities in order to advance technological innovation and nurture talent.
According to experts, these efforts will foster a fair and open ecosystem for AI talent, boosting the country’s AI workers and enabling its continuous technological progress. #
