The people dilemma: How human capital is driving or constraining the achievement of national AI strategies

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic (June 2020), LinkedIn released a report showing that the demand for AI skills had cooled down--but by October 2020, demand had already come roaring back. This is not surprising: according to the 2020 RELX Emerging Tech Executive Report, AI adoption soared during the pandemic, and a staggering 68% of companies increased their AI investment during the year. Further, 81% of companies now report using AI technologies, up 33 percentage points since 2018. Companies are increasingly using AI technologies on mission-critical applications, which has led to an explosion in the need for data scientists and technologists to build and support these applications. Not surprisingly, 39% of companies now cite a lack of technology expertise as a leading stumbling block to AI usage and adoption.