Artificial intelligence may be displacing millions of jobs worldwide, but the developers behind the technology are in higher demand than ever before, a new report on the Chinese job market reveals.
A report by local recruiting company Maimai revealed that in the first ten months of 2025, AI-related job openings experienced a 543% surge year-over-year. The 2025 talent mobility report added that AI roles dominated the list of the most in-demand jobs in China.
Algorithm engineers were the most in-demand technical job in the country, with AI product managers as the most sought-after non-technical job related to AI.
AI professionals also recorded the highest salaries in the tech industry, with 12 of the 20 jobs having monthly salaries exceeding $8,500. AI skills were rewarded even among professionals holding the same role; algorithm engineers for AI-generated content made 18% more than their peers in other sectors, Maimai revealed.
The AI effect was strong in non-technical roles, too. The report found that keywords such as ‘AI’ and ‘large models’ were included in a fifth of all job postings last year, representing a 7% year-on-year increase.
The massive investment in AI talent is being spearheaded by China’s tech giants, who are splashing millions to attract and retain the best developers. SCMP reports that ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, which is valued at $500 billion, has increased its budget for pay rises by 150% and its bonus pool by 35%.
WeChat owner Tencent (NASDAQ: TCEHY) has also been on a spending spree, luring top talent from rivals like ByteDance by offering to double their salaries, as per a report by The Information. The most high-profile capture has been Yao Shunyu, formerly at OpenAI, who is now the company’s chief AI scientist.
The talent war goes beyond China; in the U.S., the likes of Meta (NASDAQ: META), Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL), and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) have spent billions to attract (and buy out) the best developers, usually from smaller rivals. OpenAI’s Sam Altman claimed that Mark Zuckerberg has made repeated attempts to poach the ChatGPT maker’s top talent with promises of up to $100 million in signing bonuses.
These splashes come amid growing concerns over whether the investment will yield a return for most companies. An MIT study analyzing 300 institutions found that 95% receive zero return on their AI investment, despite investing over $40 billion in AI initiatives.
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Source: https://coingeek.com/demand-for-ai-talent-in-china-surged-543-in-2025-report/