3 tips for cultivating a global talent pool of skilled employees in a new era of tech

Ask most leaders and they’ll tell you that people are their first priority. The supply of workers with advanced capabilities has not kept up with demand, and many industries are facing a shortage of high-skill employees and increasing costs to find and train them. This is a problem that’s only expected to get worse. One study estimates that the global talent shortage could result in about $8.5 trillion in unrealized annual revenues by 2030.

When you put this talent shortage against the backdrop of AI, it paints a complex picture of skills, demands, and a changing landscape. You need to hire talent that can fulfil business needs today, while building and preparing them to utilize the AI tools of tomorrow.

As a business leader and entrepreneur, here are a few lessons I’ve learned about the crucial considerations when cultivating a global talent pool that can compete in the modern world.

I know how much potential is locked in non-traditional talent hubs. I know it from my immigrant experience, but even more so from what I have learned over the last 17 years of building WorldQuant. First, when you only hire people from specific and well-saturated markets and institutions, we often miss out on new ways of thinking and potentially transformative ideas.

Investing in talent from non-traditional hubs can have a positive impact on emerging economies and global growth. In Southeast Asia, for example, analysis showed that wide-scale investment in upskilling could boost GDP by 4% or $250 billion, potentially unlocking more than 670,000 new jobs by 2030.

We see the same lessons in other markets. For example, one-third of our WorldQuant University students are in Africa, a continent that’s often overlooked as a talent pool. But the working-age population (15-64 years old) is expected to almost double, from 849 million in 2024 to 1.56 billion in 2050. By seeding the most promising centres of growth from a digital-driven education and infrastructure standpoint, Africa is poised to be a significant driver of global talent and innovation.

The way I see it is – the bigger the gap between talent and skills, the greater the opportunity. The smartest companies are the ones that are looking for the next great idea where few others are. Targeting new regions for talent development as well as tapping into their existing high-skill workforce can unleash innovation and drive economic growth.

The other side of this talent equation has just as much potential.

When we invest in human capital, we invest in the future, and technology gives us a greater opportunity than ever to access underutilized markets and unlock human potential. Technology gives us the ability to rethink how we identify and train global talent, empowering people around the world to learn and build the skills needed in financial services, technology, professional services, and beyond.

Organizations often think of learning and development as something that is offered to people after they’re hired. It is clear to us that investing in a broader, online talent pool and utilizing technological resources have opened up countless new hiring areas that were much more challenging to access before.

Leaders who have the courage to explore untapped talent pools will reap the benefits. We need to look beyond San Francisco, London, and Singapore for new hires. Parts of Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America are full of highly skilled people, eager to learn and work with companies that are pushing boundaries and breaking new ground.

As someone who is a firm believer in the power of data and information to help us predict future events, I am passionate about the predictive potential of AI. We have already seen AI disrupt the way many people work, and I expect that change will accelerate. But technology, no matter how advanced, does not operate with the same levels of strategic, long-term thinking that humans can. There’s a unique curiosity and creativity about the human mind that AI is currently unable to achieve. A dedication to relentless focus and thinking about the problem all the time guides how I interact with this technology and maximizes the best of what both I and the machine are able to offer.

Those who have used ChatGPT know that its output is centered around responding to a prompt rather than thinking creatively and deeply about the query. To construct AI in the most objective and comprehensive manner possible, I believe organizations need to recruit people with a diverse set of perspectives and backgrounds. Knowledge gaps are often like blind spots; we don’t know they’re there until someone points them out. By harnessing a wider array of voices, we have a better chance of identifying and eliminating these gaps and driving forward innovation using AI technology.

This rings true in the world of business. For example, someone from India or Kenya will use a different framework to approach a problem than someone from a Western background. I believe the more minds contributing to a problem who are coming from different points of view will garner the best possible results. As the race to apply AI to existing business challenges takes place, having a diverse set of perspectives is more important than ever.

In a world where talent and skills shortages are compounded by the evolution of AI, a laser focus on talent has never been more important. Embracing change and new ways of thinking will be key to thriving in a new landscape. It’s the leaders who show courage, creativity, and perseverance in unlocking human potential that will triumph in the race to find the brightest and the best – wherever they may be.