Should you hire AI talent or build it internally?

There comes a time in every company’s life when they must choose: build out AI talent or outsource it?

AI talent is a hot commodity. According to a recent Dice report, almost three-fourths (73%) of tech job postings required at least one AI skill as of May.

But with a looming AI skills gap crisis, many businesses now face the challenge of securing that talent. Bjorn Reynolds, CEO at Safeguard Global, told IT Brew that businesses want to get to the “promised land of AI-driven efficiency,” and are weighing their options when it comes to finding professionals with the right skills.

“Businesses are evaluating large capital expenditures on the buy side and saying, ‘How do I find that capital, release that capital, [and] deploy it, versus trying to build it internally with my own teams?’” Reynolds said.

Buy, buy, buy. A 2024 report from the Adecco Group, a talent and tech advisory firm, found that most companies (66%) planned to externally hire AI talent as opposed to training internally (based on a survey of 2,000 global C-suite executives across industries).

External recruitment of AI talent has several benefits. For one, professionals with AI know-how can easily hit the ground running on AI initiatives at their new employer, said Zach Moreno, associate VP of consulting at Bishop Fox.

“Most likely, they’ve already done this successfully. So, you’re not having to build the entire car,” Moreno said. “You’re able to essentially have the frame and the interior and a bunch of everything else, you just need to put the engine and a few other key components in there and get that running.”

Kaitlin O’Neil, director of recruiting at Bishop Fox, added that hiring AI talent gives companies the opportunity to welcome new ideas and fresh perspectives: “That’s a benefit of bringing in somebody from the outside. It can really challenge everybody internally in a positive way and help you go even further.”

Build up. Upskilling internal talent with relevant AI skills has its perks, too. Moreno said trained internal employees already have a handle on a company’s culture and organizational workflow, which can come in handy when building out AI systems.

“Each organization is going to have a different use case, a different way they want to roll [AI] out,” Moreno said. “Having somebody already familiar with that and who can help build up that knowledge base of the company into the AI offering and the AI structure of what you guys are doing, I think that’s incredibly beneficial.”

Reynolds added that training employees helps to equip them with valuable skills that will be necessary for the future of work.

The cons. But both upskilling internal talent with AI skills and hiring new specialists have their drawbacks. Reynolds said that the “buy” route can be very costly for some companies.

“There’s a lot of companies trying to go, ‘How do I walk across the hot coals to make sure I can afford the talent or afford the projects and balance the rest of my books?’” Reynolds said.

Meanwhile, Moreno said starting from scratch means that it will take time for employees to have the desired AI skills: “You don’t send them to a conference, and then the next day they’re ready to start implementing solutions.”

The verdict. Should you build your AI talent or buy it? Moreno said the answer will vary from business to business.

“For us, I think we are a mix of both because I think that makes the most sense,” Moreno said. “Now that could be completely different for another company depending on what their maturity is [and] where they’re at with all that stuff.”

However, there are a few things companies can consider when determining how to obtain their AI talent. One is looking at the available budget for hiring outsiders.

“If you’re really looking to hire somebody with a lot of hands-on experience with AI who can really point to deliverables that they have driven, it’s probably going to be pretty expensive,” O’Neil said.

Companies need to think about what they are trying to accomplish as an organization and their long-term goals, she added: “That informs the answer of: Is it best to take a combo approach or is it best to hire exclusively inside or exclusively scale up?”