LinkedIn Reveals Latest Talent Trends in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is leading MENA in disruptive technology skills like nanotechnology and material sciences.
LinkedIn, the world's leading professional social network with over a billion users worldwide and over nine million members in Saudi Arabia, released its latest insights on talent trends in Saudi Arabia.
As Saudi Arabia works to become a tech hub, it is increasingly attracting tech talent from across the Middle East. LinkedIn data indicates that, in tandem with the kingdom’s economic development, the workforce is embracing digital skills at a rapid rate.
Saudi Arabia ranks first in MENA in disruptive digital skills linked to developing technologies like development tools, material sciences, and nanotechnology, all of which are expected to have an impact on the labor market in the coming years.
Moreover, the country is second only to the UAE when comparing the MENA region across practical applications of digital skills, and is in the upper percentile in applied digital skills like animation and computer graphics. In fact, the kingdom ranks above the global average for animation skills.
Saudi Arabia ranks high in international cybersecurity standings, at 3.1% compared to a global average of 2.5%.
Saudi Arabia has doubled its AI talent pool since 2016, a trend that appears to be accelerating, with AI talent-hiring compared to overall hiring growing 24% year on year. 79% of the Saudi workforce believes that artificial intelligence will change their jobs within the next 12 months.
In terms of AI skills penetration, Saudi Arabia advanced five positions last year, climbing from 35th to 30th place. This progress is partly due to an influx of AI professionals. LinkedIn data indicates that Saudi Arabia has a positive net flow of AI talent, ranking 15th globally in AI talent attraction relative to population size, up from 24th the previous year.
The insights show that the fastest-growing AI skills in Saudi are reinforcement learning, pattern recognition, predictive modeling, supervised learning, and pytorch. All of these skills support the development of Generative AI.
Saudi Vision 2030 has catapulted the kingdom into a new era of business, attracting investments and talent to Saudi Arabia.
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This article has been edited for accuracy.
