Two years after the arrival of ChatGPT, many startups have ventured into the field of generative AI, even if it means claiming to be revolutionary companies in the sector for abstract reasons. But not everyone wants OpenAI! However, if this technology is popular, does it have negative effects on employment in the tech ecosystem? To answer this question, the Index Ventures fund conducted a study in partnership with Slush, a renowned tech conference currently being held in Helsinki, Finland. In this context, 600 European startups were surveyed.
Unlike other sectors, particularly in industry, tech is not too afraid of job losses due to AI. Indeed, the Index Ventures study ensures that 49% of young startups in the Old Continent plan an increase in their workforce thanks to AI over the next five years and 29% expect stability in their teams. Thus, almost four out of five European startups do not anticipate a negative effect on employment due to AI. Only 10% are pessimistic on the subject.
Engineering crystallizes hopes and fears
In the optimist camp, leaders are confident in the ability of AI to enrich existing roles to gain efficiency and therefore productivity, and even to create new positions. “The efficiencies generated by AI will not result in workforce reductions, but in accelerated growth. Our data challenges the preconceived idea about AI and employment: far from eliminating jobs, AI will stimulate hiring in many sectors. It offers founders the opportunity not only to accelerate their development, but also to realize even bolder ambitions.estimates Hannah Seal, Partner at Index Ventures.
In detail, it is mainly the engineering centers (34%), driven by the need for skills in major language models (LLM), and product (15%), to manage the development strategy until AI integration, which are expected to benefit most from AI workforce growth, according to Index Ventures. Paradoxically, engineering (18%) also tops the list of sectors affected by startups that are pessimistic about the impact of AI on their workforce, at the same level as marketing. Not surprisingly, customer service (15%) is also cited as one of the most impacted services. “These figures underline a strategic reorganization of human resources in the face of the integration of AI, rather than an overall reduction in workforce”underline the Index Ventures and Slush teams.
Salaries increase by 10% for employees who train in AI
If some employees fear the impact of AI and prefer to turn away from it, those who make the effort to learn skills in this area will be rewarded with a salary increase of around 10%. The study also reports that employees dedicate an average of four hours each week to their AI training, most of the time independently for 64% of them. This independent learning, however, results in significant differences in level in the engineering (36%), sales (23%) and product (12%) divisions.
Importantly, 60% of employees believe that the “AI-first” culture supported by their company’s staff is the element that pushes them to acquire skills in AI. “Training developers to create language models (LLM) and master reinforcement learning is relatively simple. On the other hand, large-scale implementation represents a real challenge.observes Julien Launay, co-founder of Adaptive ML. A challenge that should be even more significant in the months and years to come as AI continues to intrude into our daily lives, and even more so into our work. Whether you work in a tech company or not.
