Job market analysis: Companies advertise around 50 percent more AI jobs than five years ago

• In 2023, search for soft skills in job advertisements has almost tripled since 2019 (+ 190 percent)
• AI hype already visible before ChatGPT: 85% more AI-related jobs were advertised in 2021 than in 2019
• Artificial intelligence will continue to significantly change recruitment processes

Artificial intelligence has officially arrived in Germany's companies: The search for employees who are familiar with prompting, machine learning or similar roles, was 46 percent higher in 2023 than in 2019. That is not to say that the human factor is becoming increasingly less important: in fact, the proportion of job advertisements that explicitly emphasize soft skills such as creativity and communication skills has grown even more significantly in the same period (+190 percent). This was the result of an analysis of all Stepstone job advertisements in Germany since January 2019. "This trend will intensify in the coming years. AI will increasingly find its way into our everyday working lives in the future. But humans will never be replaced - they will just take on other tasks," says employment market expert Dr. Tobias Zimmermann from The Stepstone Group.

AI hype arrived at companies even before ChatGPT

The fact that companies are increasingly looking for employees who are familiar with new technologies such as artificial intelligence has been evident for some time: Already in 2021 - a year before the breakthrough of ChatGPT software - 85 percent more people with AI skills were being sought than in 2019. In 2022, the highest level of AI jobs to date was reached (+117 percent compared to 2019). "Many companies - just like The Stepstone Group - recognized the relevance of artificial intelligence several years ago and have increasingly been looking for people to work on and with this technology, with demand peaking in 2022. Demand then leveled off at a constant level in 2023," says Zimmermann. "However, it is also clear that the labor market environment is currently more dynamic than ever before, and jobs will be created in the coming years that we don't even know about yet."

No AI without people: soft skills are becoming more important

Even though artificial intelligence has become an integral part of the job market, not every employee has to become an AI expert or prompt engineer. This is because the importance of skills that robots and machines cannot replicate has also increased enormously: In 2023 alone, the proportion of soft skills in job advertisements has almost tripled compared to 2019 (+190 percent). In particular, flexibility (+38%), communication skills (+35%), willingness to learn (34%) and creativity (+27%) are characteristics that have seen the biggest average increase in job advertisements over the past five years. "These are all skills that we need, especially in the age of ChatGPT & Co. No AI will ever manage entirely without humans. Technologies need to be trained, operated and further developed by people," says Zimmermann. "In the future, social skills and soft factors will become increasingly important on the labor market - because these are the skills that humans will always have over machines. And in times of unemployment, we need them more than ever on the job market. This makes it all the more important that we value and reward the tasks that cannot be automated and are always performed by people more highly across society as a whole - and that also means paying them fairly."

About the analysis
For the analysis, all job advertisements on Stepstone in Germany were analyzed from January 2019 to October 2023. It was determined how often employers mentioned AI skills or AI-related terms (e.g. deep learning, prompting, machine learning) or soft skills (e.g. analytical thinking, creativity, flexibility) in the requirements that applicants must have for a job.