Talent in, Talent out. The Shifting Geography of the Global AI Workforce.

Autor/inn/en	Pal, Siddhi; Schneider, Catherine; Lazzaroni, Ruggero Marino
Institution	interface - Tech analysis and policy ideas for Europe
Titel	Talent in, Talent out. The Shifting Geography of the Global AI Workforce. Gefälligkeitsübersetzung: Talente kommen, Talente gehen: Die sich wandelnde Geografie der globalen KI-Belegschaft.
Quelle	Berlin (2026), 26 S. PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Monografie
Schlagwörter	Künstliche Intelligenz; Einwanderung; Internationale Migration; Internationaler Wettbewerb; Wirtschaftsgeografie; Arbeitsmigration; Fachkraft; Informationstechnischer Beruf; Informationswirtschaft; Internationaler Vergleich; Geschlechterverteilung; Rekrutierung; Welt; Europäische Union; Arbeitnehmer; Ausländer; Einwanderer; Europa; Herkunftsland
Abstract	"This data brief maps the movement of AI talent across the globe between April 2024 and September 2025. During this period, the global conversation around the AI workforce moved from brain drain to talent circularity and competitive edge, accompanied by a wave of social and economic policies designed to attract, reattract, and nurture AI talent. In Europe, political sentiment has coalesced around the demand for "sovereign AI," including sovereign talent. In the US, emerging domestic policy changes, particularly around visas, may be pushing both American and international talent to other geographies. At the same time, the world has seen a decrease in Chinese-trained AI talent in global workforces and a corresponding increase in India-trained talent internationally. Drawing on the movement of over 1.6 million technical AI professionals worldwide, we find quantitative signals for three shifts. First, Germany and Netherlands are emerging as Europe's frontier AI talent hubs, with the highest concentrations of talent such as AI Researchers & Engineers in the EU; other global hubs with high concentration of this talent include Ireland and Singapore. In terms of absolute numbers, the US and India remain dominant, although China's domestic labour force was not included due to data limitations. However, the share of US workers who switched to a job abroad has risen from just under 3% in 2021 to nearly 6% by 2025, according to Revelio Labs data. We anticipate the number of India-trained professionals in the EU to also grow following the recent EU-India Free Trade Agreement, which prioritises ease of tech talent mobility. Second, Europe's education investments may be creating stronger domestic talent pools. Germany, Finland, and Switzerland are all growing their share of domestically trained AI professionals. But these gains appear regional with a shrinking international talent pool in countries like France, where salaried worker visas fell nearly 16% in a single year. The data shows that growing domestic talent and attracting foreign talent are not substitutes for each other, and without complementary strategies, countries that weaken one will feel the effects in the other. Third, European markets may be growing quickly, but not in diversity, which is a loss for competitiveness. Europe is seeing the proportion of women as AI engineers and developers decreasing, and the gender parity gap is growing. Germany, which has both nurtured and attracted AI talent in the last year, had an increase in the gender gap by 4 percentage points; Similarly, in the Netherlands, the commercial backbone of female software professionals is shrinking. Together, these findings point to the need for holistic policy approaches that treat nurturing, attracting, and retaining talent not just as a challenge of scale, but also of inclusion. As policymakers and other relevant stakeholders move deeper into AI "race" and "leadership" narratives, it is worth pausing to ask: what kind of talent do countries actually need? Who makes up those workforces? And is the competition for more, or for better?" The study refers to the period 2024-2025 (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku).
Erfasst von	Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Nürnberg
Update	2026/4