Boasting the world’s largest computer vision market, the latest in AI innovations, and sky-high median tech salaries, the United States is a compelling prospect for today’s talent.
How did it become the DeepTech hotspot that it is today? The US leads the charge when it comes to AI research, with almost 60% of top-tier researchers working for US institutions.
The US’s ability to attract international students and researchers has been a key driver behind their success in recent years, alongside innovation-led regulatory conditions and a talent for commercialising bleeding-edge technology.
As specialist DeepTech recruiters, part of our job is keeping a finger on the virtual pulse of the latest and greatest developments in the industry. Computer vision has emerged as an exciting growth area across much of the US, which, according to Statista, will command a market value of $9.4 billion in 2024. Here’s a snapshot of the major trends, challenges, and opportunities that we’re seeing today.
Candidate Demand is Strong
While many markets move to an employer-led dynamic, computer vision (and plenty of other DeepTech areas) is still very much candidate-led. This is largely due to the scarcity of skilled talent and the speed at which the technology evolves.
This is proving to be a significant challenge for innovators hoping to get their projects off the ground. When you combine a shallow talent pool with competitive wages and low average tenures, progress can be slow.
With their ability to pinpoint top talent and access passive candidates in a tight market, specialist recruiters will have a large part to play in driving wider industry progress in the coming months.
Massachusetts and San Francisco are still popular hotspots, but it’s worth noting that according to our LinkedIn Talent Insights, Detroit, New York, and Los Angeles are the top hidden gems in the US for finding high-quality computer vision talent.
Tech Adoption
From driverless cars to remote robot surgeons, industries are adopting computer vision at pace, further driving the demand for talent. We’re seeing this become increasingly common amongst non-tech-native industries like healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, and energy.
This is good news for today’s job seekers, as there’s a wealth of opportunities outside of tech worth taking a look at. Computer vision, like the rest of DeepTech, has the potential to the way the world works – for many candidates, the chance to be a part of that change is a huge draw.
Employers hoping to capitalise on this and secure incredible candidates will need to leverage their employer value proposition (or create one from scratch). This is something that our specialist recruiters can support you with if you need help – meet the team here!
The Decline of Faith in Big Tech
Big tech hasn’t had the best reputation in recent years. Be it the mass layoffs (262,682 US tech workers lost their jobs in 2023), corporate paradigm shifts, or heinous data violations, faith in big tech has been on the decline.
For the world’s computer vision innovators, this could be an opportunity to secure top talent without having to compete too fiercely with inflated salaries.
Edge Computing
As the number of use cases for real-time data reporting rises, Edge Computing will likely be a mainstay of computer vision in 2024. For many, the high costs and extreme complexity of data handling in the modern era are convincing enough reasons to move to Edge Computing, a typically less expensive (and faster) alternative.
Generative AI
Is there a square inch of the world left unaffected by generative AI? It was the talk of the virtual town in 2023, the golden year for DeepTech, and we expect the next 12 months to be no different.
As US innovators seek GenAI use cases, computer vision has emerged as a key area that stands to gain from the latest tech, specifically, synthetic data. Computer vision systems can be trained on GenAI-made synthetic data, mitigating a substantial number of data privacy risks. We’re seeing countless businesses embrace this already, from titans of industry to ambitious startups across the US.
Diversity and Inclusion
The DeepTech space has a diversity problem. A lack of workforce representation can translate to bad training data – homogenised teams don’t always have the diversity of thought needed to recognise and eliminate bias, the effects of which can be deadly.
We’re anticipating that diversity and inclusion will cross a threshold in 2024, with more business leaders recognising its innate value, not just culturally, but monetarily too.
Whether you’re hoping to hire or get hired, our community-led recruitment services have you covered. Our specialist consultants focus on mid to senior and board-level appointments across the US, UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, and Luxembourg.
We specialise in identifying and placing talent in computer vision, C++, GenAI, NLP, MLOPs, and the corresponding areas. Reach out to me directly to find out more: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harry-crick-3a2667151/
