AI, Robotics and Data Scientist are Top Emerging Jobs in 2020
According to the 2020 Emerging Jobs Report published by LinkedIn, artificial intelligence, robotics (Specializing in Robotics Process Automation, or RPA) and data scientist roles are in the top 5 position in Singapore.
Individual reports were released for 9 countries, including Singapore, Australia and India in the Asia Pacific region. While there are variances across countries, there is no question that data science and related skills are driving emerging jobs growth around the world.
Dominated by tech
According to LinkedIn, Singapore's top emerging jobs are dominated by technology roles. This was credited to the Singapore government’s investment in digitalization and how it serves as a hub for tech start-ups and large enterprise organizations that are undergoing digital transformation.
Interesting, what stood out was the diversity of the roles and how the labor market in Singapore clearly values both hard, technical skills, as well as soft skills, according to the Singapore report.
In true data science fashion, LinkedIn drew its conclusion by looking at public profiles that has held a full-time position over the last five years, using this data to compute the share of hiring and determine the compound annual growth rate. You can read more about the full process here.
Here’s what LinkedIn has to say about the roles of artificial intelligence specialist, robotics engineering and the data scientist.
Artificial Intelligence Specialist (#1)
By 2035, the field of artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to add as much as USD215 billion to businesses, and Singapore is working hard not to be left behind. Indeed, a national program called AI Singapore (AISG) is currently focused on deep research in the field, as well as investing in and growing local talent to put Singapore on the global map.
An AI specialist work on establishing the environment that machines require to “learn”. This doesn’t appear by itself, and often requires extensive set up and modelling, as well as pumping in the requisite data. If you are looking to do well here, expect to be familiar in AI-centric niches such as machine learning, deep learning, and computer vision, according to the LinkedIn report.
Robotics Engineering – Software (#2)
Engineers who can build and deploy Robotics Process Automation (RPA) software to automate mundane, rules-based tasks or processes such as expense reporting can expect to be in demand in the year ahead. By significantly speeding up certain tasks, RPA can deliver not just substantial cost reduction benefits, but can also grow revenue and bolster the customer experience.
To do well here, the robotics engineer will obviously need to be an expert in RPA, and the experience with top RPA platforms such as UiPath, Robot Operating System (ROS) and Blue Prism will be in good stead.
Data Scientist (#5)
Both global and Asian firms have allocated significantly in their Singaporean data hubs, and the data analytics industry is expected to contribute an estimated USD730 million to the economy annually, says the Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB). To further build this talent, NTU has launched a new Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Research Centre last year with SGD8 million (USD5.85 million) in funding allocated over three years.
As organizations in Singapore get overwhelmed with data, they are looking for data scientists to serve as trend spotters who can correlate data points and generate meaningful, actionable insights in today’s complex and highly fluid business environments. Top skills that are sought for in this category includes Python and R, machine learning and deep learning skillsets, and Apache Spark.
Of note is how the Python programming language made the list of skills you need in the above three roles. One other role that made LinkedIn’s list and which is related to data would be data engineers at #7 position. To do well, expect to know – yes, Python – and Scala programming languages, as well as tools such as Apache Spark, Hadoop, and Hive.
