AI skills can generate 18 percent raise: AWS survey

Amazon Web Services' Managing Director Luke Anderson speaks at a press event to introduce the company's AI training programs on Thursday in central Seoul. [AWS]

Korean employers are willing to offer a pay raise of at least 18 percent if job candidates are equipped with higher AI skills and literacy, according to a survey by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The Seattle-based company and a consulting firm Access Partnership surveyed some 15,000 respondents from the Asia-Pacific region including Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia to analyze global AI trends and workforce capacity. From Korea, 511 employers and 1,652 employees participated in the survey.

“AI skills are not just about knowing how to code,” said Abhineet Kaul, Access Partnership's director, during an event at the AWS Korea's office in southern Seoul to introduce its AI training programs on Thursday. “When we define skills, we are not only talking about the broader category of direct technical skills but also associative skills, which will be very critical in the world of AI.”

Generative AI will go through the most explosive growth in Korea out of all AI technologies, AWS said. Eighty-eight percent and 84 percent of the employers and workers expect to use generative AI tools in their organizations by 2028.

Fifty-one percent of the domestic employers said that the technology would be advantageous in automating redundant tasks, 47 percent said that it could enhance communication, 43 percent said that AI could be trained to learn new skills, 38 percent said that AI could enhance innovation and creativity and 36 percent said that it could improve productivity.

Eighty-five percent of the employers surveyed believe that their organizations will become AI-enabled by 2028. Eighty-eight percent of the employers and 84 percent of the employees anticipate using generative AI tools within the next five years.

Sixty-four percent of Korean employers are prioritizing the recruitment of talent with AI literacy, but 88 percent of them responded that they couldn’t find appropriate prospective hires, with 76 percent as of 2023 lacking the knowledge necessary to train employees to utilize AI.

“Since 2017, we have enabled and trained over 200,000 individuals in Korea on cloud technologies and over 8.3 million individuals across the Asia-Pacific — and we’re not slowing down and we’re not stopping here,” said AWS Managing Director Luke Anderson. “[Now], building an AI-ready workforce is one of our top priorities. AWS has a number of AI-ready courses and trading packages available for our customers, our partners and our communities to start leveraging."

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]