HR trends and what they mean: AI talent

How strong is your AI talent pool? According to some of the latest data from General Assembly’s The State of Tech Talent 2025 report, around 63% of hiring leaders say it’s become more challenging to source candidates with AI skills — with 18% stating that it’s become ‘significantly’ more challenging.

The soaring demand for roles that require AI skills (including a 250x increase between 2022 and 2024) highlights the need for talent pools that are deep and wide enough to keep up. Early indicators may be a sign that today’s approach to talent pools aren’t exactly meeting the moment.

We spoke to Barbara Matthews, Chief People Officer from the global HR platform Remote who offered the following insight: 

"Talent is everywhere, but opportunities are not. Forward-thinking companies are hiring beyond borders to access high-growth talent hubs, particularly in regional pockets where expertise in AI, cybersecurity, and cloud computing are advancing faster than others. This approach not only fills roles faster but also builds stronger teams, and creates future-ready organizations prepared for long-term success."

The best organizations know that talent pools, when built wisely, can be a competitive advantage for sourcing the skills of today and tomorrow. Here are some ways you can optimize your approach: 

• Start with skills-based hiring: Especially for skills like AI, it can be hard to judge candidates simply by their traditional qualifications. By focusing on skills and how you might go about assessing them, you can welcome in a large pool of candidates for roles that are developing by the day. 

• Invest in your internal pools: When you offer training and development opportunities, most notably upskilling on AI, you can nurture your own internal talent pools. This can both future-proof your organization from a skill development perspective, while also giving a boost to retention through employee engagement. 

• Expand your talent pool globally: By partnering with an EOR, like Remote, you can immediately widen your talent pool across the globe. This strategy can diversify your search and provide access to specialised skills that may not be readily available locally.

• What is a talent pool and do they work for recruitment?

• Why is everyone talking about…passive talent pools?

• Talent pipelines: How to design, build, and fill them

That's all for this week's edition of Personio Pulse: This Week in HR. Check back next week as we continue to dissect the latest trends impacting the ways we work. 

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