The growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the media industry has drastically changed the skills for which industry leaders are looking. Seventy-two percent of media leaders say they have to reshape the talent and skill of their organizations to keep up with a changing media landscape, per a recent report from Kantar. This is leading to changes in recruitment practices, with 66% of those surveyed saying they feel it's important to recruit outside of the media industry to meet these changing needs.

“There was an acknowledgment… telling us that they think they need to substantially reshape skills in their organization,” said Gary Brown, lead of brand communications at Kantar.

The study by Kantar Media evaluated results from 1,110 respondents across 53 markets. All respondents are involved in the media industry and have some level of data involvement.

Skills, updated

Despite the buzz, AI ranks fairly low as a desired skill among those in the media industry, with 27% of respondents saying it is a very important skill. This is in sharp contrast to communications and storytelling skills, which 79% rank as very important — more than any other skill — according to the study.

However, this doesn’t tell the whole story. While the demand for AI talent remains fairly low, demand is likely to continue to grow. Nearly 70% of respondents predict AI skills will be very important to have within the next three years. Similar tech-based skills, such as handling large data sets, and data science skills as a whole are expected to follow a similar trajectory.

“In terms of which of the skills that are going to increase in importance over the next three years? That's where you see that skills gap,” said Brown.

While AI skills are expected to be a bonus for incoming recruits, many organizations are looking internally for AI development. Over a quarter (26%) of respondents state they would like to grow skills in-house, while an additional 14% would prefer to recruit talent in-house. Only 23% of respondents would prefer to source AI talent externally, per the report. However, 32% of respondents indicated that they prefer a mix of approaches.

Industry shakeup

The media industry seems desperate for change, with 90% of respondents saying they want to recruit people who will challenge what companies are doing, while 66% feel it is important to recruit talent from outside of the media industry, according to the report.

Ultimately, findings support an industry desire for change, with a clear focus on diversifying and updating talent pools. Developing this talent goes beyond recruitment, with many respondents indicating plans for in-house training. Of the organizations planning to develop talent in-house, 63% of respondents plan on doing so through training. This is followed by eLearning, with 39% of respondents planning on implementing this method.

“There's no consensus out there as to what organizations should be doing,” said Brown. “We see this as being very much a conversation starter, right? We're trying to help diagnose the problems, but we're not coming up with all the solutions, because they're going to vary depending on who you're talking to.”