Latest news with #tech sector
New York Times
4 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Big Tech's Net-Zero Goals Are Looking Shaky
The artificial intelligence boom could pose a serious threat to tech company goals to zero out emissions by the end of the decade, according to a fresh batch of sustainability reports. Google's greenhouse gas emissions rose by 11 percent in 2024 from the year before. Amazon's were up by 6 percent. Microsoft's fell slightly but remained 10 percent higher than they were in 2021. Meta's most recent figures have not yet been made public. 'Their emissions are really going through the roof, due to new data centers and A.I. uses,' said Silke Mooldijk, a climate policy analyst at the NewClimate Institute, which published a report in June on the tech sector's net-zero targets. That's a major change from just two years ago, when the same analysis showed that tech companies were doing pretty well, she said. Still, Google, Meta and Microsoft continue to say they will hit net zero by 2030, and Amazon has said it will follow by 2040. Experts are increasingly skeptical. 'In light of these rising emissions, it's really unclear what these targets really mean, because the companies are completely off track,' Mooldijk said. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
27-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AI is driving mass layoffs in tech, but it's boosting salaries by $18,000 a year everywhere else, study says
You've read about it all over, including in Fortune Intelligence. Maybe you or friends have been impacted: artificial intelligence is already transforming work, not least hiring and firing. Nowhere is the impact more visible than in the labor market. The technology industry, the original epicenter of AI adoption, is now seeing many of its own workers displaced by the very innovations they helped create. Employers, racing to integrate AI into everything from cloud infrastructure to customer support, are trimming human headcount in software engineering, IT support, and administrative functions. The rise of AI-powered automation is accelerating layoffs in the tech sector, with impacted employees as high as 80,000 in one count. Microsoft alone is trimming 15,000 jobs while committing $80 billion to new AI investments. But labor market intelligence firm Lightcast is offering a ray of hope going forward. Job postings for non-tech roles that require AI skills are soaring in value. Lightcast's new 'Beyond the Buzz' report, based on analysis of over 1.3 billion job postings, shows that these postings offer 28% higher salaries—an average of nearly $18,000 more per year. The Lightcast research underscores the split in tech and non-tech hiring: job postings for AI skills in tech roles remain robust, but the proportion of AI jobs within IT and computer science has fallen, dropping from 61% in 2019 to just 49% in 2024. This signals an ongoing contraction of traditional tech roles as AI claims an ever-larger share of the work. AI demand explodes beyond tech Rather than stifling workforce prospects, Lightcast's research suggests that AI is dispersing opportunity across the broader economy. More than half of all jobs requesting AI skills in 2024 appeared outside the tech sector—a radical reversal from previous years, when AI was confined to Silicon Valley and computer science labs. Fields like marketing, HR, finance, education, manufacturing, and customer service are rapidly integrating AI tools, from generative AI platforms that craft marketing content to predictive analytics engines that optimize supply chains and recruitment. In fact, job postings mentioning generative AI skills outside IT and computer science have surged an astonishing 800% since 2022, catalyzed by the proliferation of tools like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and DALL-E. Marketing, design, education, and HR are some of the fastest growers in AI adoption—each adapting to new toolkits, workflows, and ways of creating value. Cole Napper, VP of research, innovation, and talent insights at Lightcast, told Fortune in an interview that he was struck by the lack of a discernible pattern for which industries were most affected by the explosion of AI skills present in job postings, noting that the arts come top of the list. AI skills are in demand For the workforce at large, AI proficiency is emerging as one of today's most lucrative skill investments. Possessing two or more AI skills sends paychecks even higher, with a 43% premium on advertised salaries. In 2024, more than 66,000 job postings specifically mentioned generative AI as a skill, a nearly fourfold increase from the prior year, according to the Lightcast's 2025 Artificial Intelligence Index Report. Large language modeling was the second most common AI skill, which showed up in 19,500 open job posts. Postings listing ChatGPT and prompt engineering as skills ranked third and fourth in frequency, respectively. Sectors such as customer/client support, sales, and manufacturing reported the largest pay bumps for AI-skilled workers, as companies race to automate routine functions and leverage AI for competitive advantage. Christina Inge, founder of Thoughtlight, an AI marketing service, told Fortune in a message AI isn't just automating busywork, it's also becoming a tool AI-fluent workers can leverage to increase their own value to a company—and to outperform their peers. Take, for example, someone in sales using AI to create more targeted conversations to close deals faster, Inge wrote. The same can be said for customer service workers. '[Customer service workers fluent in AI] know how to interpret AI outputs, write clear prompts, and troubleshoot when things go off script,' Inge said. 'That combination of human judgment and AI fluency is hard to find and well worth the extra pay.' In fields like marketing and science, even single AI skills can yield large returns, while more technical positions gravitate to specialists with advanced machine learning or generative AI expertise. Crucially, the most valued AI-enabled roles demand more than just technical wizardry. Employers prize a hybrid skillset: communication, leadership, problem-solving, research, and customer service are among the 10 most-requested skills in AI-focused postings, alongside technical foundations like machine learning and artificial intelligence. 'While generative AI excels at tasks like writing and coding, uniquely human abilities—such as communication, management, innovation, and complex problem-solving—are becoming even more valuable in the AI era,' the study says. Winners and losers The emerging repercussions are striking. Tech workers whose roles are readily automated face rising displacement—unless they can pivot quickly into emerging areas that meld business, technical, and people skills. Meanwhile, millions of workers outside of tech are poised to translate even basic AI literacy into new roles or wage gains. The competitive edge now lies with organizations and professionals agile enough to combine AI capabilities with human judgement, creativity, and business acumen. For companies, the risk is clear: treating AI as an isolated technical specialty is now a liability. Winning firms are investing to embed AI fluency enterprise-wide, upskilling their marketing teams, HR departments, and finance analysts to build a future-ready workforce. AI may be the source of turmoil in Silicon Valley boardrooms, but its economic dividends are flowing rapidly to workers—and companies—in every corner of the economy. For those able to adapt, AI skills are not a harbinger of job loss, but a passport to higher salaries and new career possibilities. Still, the research doesn't indicate exactly where in the income levels the higher postings are coming, so Napper said it's possible that we are seeing some compression, with higher-paid tech jobs being phased out and lower-paying positions being slightly better-paying. Napper said the trend of AI skills cropping up in job postings has exploded over the past few years, and he doesn't expect a slowdown anytime soon. Napper said there's a 'cost to complacency'—one that includes a significant salary cut. He added that the 28% premium, Lightcast plans to release follow-up research on what level of the income latter the trend is hitting the most. For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing. This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
BBC News
20-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Sadiq Khan says his mission to Africa will boost London business
Three countries and five cities in six days. London's mayor has certainly put a few miles on the clock in the past week in Sadiq Khan is the first mayor of the capital to go on a trade mission there - taking in Nigeria, Ghana and South him were about 30 businesses and representatives from London and Partners - the capital's so called growth agency that aims to attract investment previous mayors Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson, who went on similar trade missions, he has faced criticism from opponents for spending time out of London when there's plenty to do like previous mayors, Sir Sadiq has defended the trip as a way of promoting the capital to emerging what has he been up to on the whistle-stop tour? The trip started in Nigeria's biggest city, Lagos - and provided a chance to catch up with a number of firms from the city's growing tech sector. The message from Sir Sadiq was a clear one: partner up with London's tech firms - come and do business with perhaps of the drive during Covid when we were constantly told - "London is open".It was a message he repeated as he moved on to Accra in Ghana. Talking to students there he chose to fire a barbed message to his Labour colleagues in government - criticising proposals that could see universities having to pay a levy on international students' Sadiq talked of "the immense value international students bring to London and the UK" - and warned that "closing our country to global talent would be a pointless act of immense economic self-harm". The mayor followed that up with the promise of the first business summit between Africa and London - to be held in the capital next Dickie, the CEO of BusinessLDN, welcomed this pledge and backed the mayor's trip to Africa, saying: "London is a melting pot of communities, workers and businesses from across the globe."The mayor is absolutely right to bang the drum for closer ties with key high-growth markets. Boosting trade and investment links with the likes of Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa will benefit Londoners."As the tour started, the Conservative MP and shadow chancellor Mel Stride had suggested that the mayor should be back in London with "his hand on the tiller", addressing issues like shoplifting that affect small businesses. While BBC London is not on the current mayor's tour of Africa, I have been on similar ventures with Sir Sadiq and his predecessors Boris Johnson and Ken is interesting is the way they are generally greeted - the fact that being mayor of London is seen as a prestigious role - that London is regarded as a genuinely global can often be at odds with how they are viewed by the people in their own city. There have, of course, been mishaps along the way. Livingstone's trip to Venezuela to meet president Hugo Chavez only made it as far as Cuba. And when he was mayor Johnson had to cancel a planned visit to the West Bank after fears of that, the visits will continue whoever is mayor - as will the rows over whether such trade missions bring real value to London.
