Hello everyone,
What a year it has been at People In AI! As we wrap up 2024 and get ready to welcome 2025, I wanted to take a moment to share some reflections, celebrate our milestones, and look ahead at what’s on the horizon. Whether you’re a client, candidate, or simply a supporter of our work, thank you for being part of our journey.
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Our Performance and Growth
- Exceeded Targets We’re proud to share that we closed out the year at 134% of our annual target—a massive thank-you to the clients and candidates who made this possible. The most in-demand roles were extremely specialized positions in Machine Learning, predominantly in fast-growing, well-funded organizations.
- Referral-Based Success Nearly all our new business this year came through referrals and recommendations. In an age where business development automation tools abound (often to diminishing returns), our strategy of delivering exceptional service and earning referrals has proven highly effective. We plan to scale further in 2025, bringing on more clients as our team expands.
- Team Expansion We’ve hired new recruiters to meet the growing demand and will continue to look for world-class AI, ML, Data, and Engineering specialists to join our NYC-based recruiting team.
- Busy Season at Year-End December (and Q4 overall) turned out to be our busiest period. This signals a strong job market as we move into 2025. Companies that anticipate a tight candidate landscape will be better positioned to land the top talent.
- New Branding and Website We launched our new website and branding this year, leading to coverage in Yahoo News and other outlets. This fresh look has helped us better showcase our work, and we’re thrilled with the response.
- SEO and Marketing Efforts In a crowded marketplace, SEO has been crucial. Frequent blog posts, job postings, and LinkedIn newsletters have significantly increased our visibility—yielding over $150K in revenue from marketing efforts alone. Definitely worth the investment!
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Market Observations
- Heightened Specialization Compared to a few years ago, the “generalist” Data Scientist role is becoming rarer. Companies now seek very specific skill sets, tech stacks, educational backgrounds, and niche technical experience—plus top-notch communication skills.
- Evolving Skill Sets Gen AI and LLM developments have exploded, creating a strong demand for roles that didn’t exist a short time ago. Candidates are motivated to join organizations doing impactful work, and they fear falling behind on the latest technologies.
- Emerging Technical Lead Roles There’s a particular need for IC (Individual Contributor) Tech Leads who can guide projects with deep technical expertise. These leaders often bridge the gap between hands-on coding and strategic decision-making.
- Senior Hiring Challenges The job market for senior-level professionals has been tough, with fewer open positions and increased competition. Some experienced candidates have found it harder to secure roles than in previous years.
- LinkedIn’s Dominance LinkedIn is the primary platform for job hunting right now, but it’s also crowded. While ad responses are high, the quality can be inconsistent, making life challenging for both recruiters and candidates.
- Candidate Motivations Compensation is always key, but we’re seeing that growth potential and cutting-edge work matter just as much. Many candidates feel stagnant in their current roles or worry about their company’s growth path and future opportunities.
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Looking Ahead to 2025
Is the AI Bubble Here to Stay?
Despite concerns that the current hype might fade, I don’t see the “AI bubble” popping anytime soon. That said, even the biggest optimists acknowledge that simply throwing more data and compute at ever-larger AI models is no longer a reliable path to improvement. In 2025, we’ll likely see:
- More “Reasoned” AI Models that query and refine their answers before returning a final response—think of them as step-by-step reasoning bots.
- Agent-Like Capabilities Google’s recent AI advancements hint at a future where your browser can track what you’re working on and propose ways to help. We’re still in “demo and prototype” territory, but these innovations show there’s plenty in the pipeline to keep AI momentum going.
- No Immediate ‘Killer App’ While we wait for a single app that truly changes the game, expect to see AI integrated in almost everything—sometimes intrusively, sometimes helpfully.
- Nvidia and the Hardware Race Nvidia’s GPUs will likely remain dominant for at least another year, even as tech giants design their own AI chips. Nvidia’s software ecosystem continues to be a significant moat.
- Investor Sentiment Whether the AI stock boom continues depends on factors like market confidence in economic policy and continued Federal Reserve flexibility. There may be some volatility, but the AI hype could sustain capital inflows a while longer.
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Recruitment Trends for 2025
- Startup Hiring Well-funded AI startups will continue to hire aggressively, while major players (FAANG/MAG7) re-activate their hiring engines—intensifying competition for top talent.
- Faster Recruitment Processes Slow, cumbersome hiring procedures will become less viable in a tight candidate market. Companies that move quickly and decisively will win the best talent.
- Return-to-Office Momentum Many organizations will solidify in-office policies, leaning toward either fully remote or 3–4 days in-office. The “hybrid with loose standards” model will become less common.
- Continued Focus on Team Culture With top talent in high demand, companies must emphasize culture, career growth, and mission to stay competitive. This will require fresh approaches to employer branding and employee engagement.
- Global Talent Pool As remote work becomes more normalized (even with some return-to-office), companies will increasingly tap global talent, adding to the diversity of AI and tech teams.
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Final Thoughts
Thank you again for your support, collaboration, and encouragement throughout 2024. At People In AI , our passion has always been connecting top-tier technical talent with innovative organizations, and we couldn’t have done it without the incredible relationships we’ve built with all of you.
Here’s to an even more dynamic and successful 2025—together, we’ll shape the future of AI recruitment and technology.
Warm wishes,
Sam Jones
Founder, People in AI
