- AI hiring slumped over the last 12 months, leading to a 37% decrease year-on-year in Q1
- But AI-specific job ads rose 14% from Q4 2023 to Q1 2024, with AI development roles up 25%
- JPMorgan, Capital One, and Citigroup lead the way for recent hiring
- US banks are sweeping up 45% of all graduate hires moving into AI in banking, with 31% going to European banks and just 10% to UK banks
June 13th, 2024 – LONDON, UK – AI hiring by the world’s biggest banks stabilised in the first quarter of 2024, according to new insight from AI benchmarking and intelligence platform Evident.
AI-specific jobs advertised by the world’s largest banks were 37% lower in Q1 2024, compared to Q1 2023, mirroring top-line trends in overall hiring activity.
After a year of significant cost-cutting and rationalization across the global banking industry, Evident’s data shows that the proportion of AI hires to total banking hires has remained stable (11% of all job listings since 2023), indicating that AI remains a strategic priority for these institutions.
And there are signs that the pace of recruitment is increasing again following a strong quarter for the industry. Evident reports a 14% increase in job posts from Q4 2023 to Q1 2024, including a 25% increase in AI Development roles, with US banks currently adding AI Development job listings around 6x as fast as their European rivals.
Alexandra Mousavizadeh, CEO and Co-founder of Evident, comments: “The battle for AI talent has cooled since the frenzy of activity seen in 2023. However, the banks are not losing interest in AI, merely reskilling existing talent and optimizing operationally as they gear up for the next stretch of the race.
“The big US institutions look to be out of the blocks faster than the leading Europeans, while the three banks with the most AI talent – JPMorgan, Capital One, and Citigroup – are also recruiting the most aggressively. They’re looking to drive home their early advantage and outflank the competition in what is still a relatively small, specialist talent pool.”
According to Evident’s new Talent Development Dispatch, JPMorgan, Capital One, and Citigroup dominate the 2024 hiring landscape, accounting for 38% of all recent AI job posts and more than half (53%) of Generative AI roles advertised.
Outside the established leaders, three banks – Deutsche Bank, Groupe BPCE, and Intesa Sanpaolo – have posted 7.8% of all new AI job listings over the past six months, despite accounting for just 3.7% of AI talent volume, signalling a particularly aggressive recruiting posture.
The battle for grads could be key to winning the AI talent war
The Evident Dispatch also reveals that banks are 1.5x more reliant on hiring from outside the banking sector to meet their goals. The majority of AI talent is sourced from graduate hires (62%), with the remainder sourced from adjacent sectors (19%) or poached directly from other institutions (13%).
This focus on graduate and non-industry hires reflects the persistent shortage of AI talent across the banking sector, which commands a hefty premium as a consequence. Evident’s most recent analysis of AI salaries at US banks demonstrates a +20-30% premium in base salary for AI-related jobs (excluding bonus packages).
The US banks are sweeping up 45% of all graduate hires moving into AI in banking, compared to 31% going to European banks and just 10% to UK banks.
Evident’s data reveals a high degree of intra-industry churn, with 13% of AI talent caught in a revolving door between the major banks. While the majority of banks (35 of 50) in the Evident AI Index are keeping the difference between poached employees and defecting employees in careful balance seven institutions are aggressively poaching AI talent from their peers: Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Capital One, Standard Chartered, CommBank, RBC, and PNC Financial.
Mousavizadeh adds: “Wells Fargo is leading on net banking hires, poaching 1.9x more AI talent from other banks than it loses through defections, while the recent uptick in US hiring is focused on AI Development, recruiting highly skilled graduates with advanced degrees. Once again, the US banks are leading, which could give them a long-term talent advantage as the industry embarks on the complex business of operationalizing AI at scale.”
