The AI revolution: Transforming key industries in APAC

It’s hard to be online or watching the news without hearing about how artificial intelligence and emerging technologies are set to revolutionise almost every facet of our lives – and with good reason. AI’s ability to tackle complex tasks that previously could only be achieved manually has massive potential to expedite processes, minimise costs, and reduce uncertainties.

Within a short time frame, AI tools have gone from an interesting idea to being omnipresent in almost all workplaces. This change is already having a huge impact on the way workplaces operate, resulting in a shift in key skillsets desired in the wider job market, impacting key industries and job roles across APAC. 

At Salt, our specialist recruitment consultants are here to find the right talent at the right time. Our team in APAC have investigated how AI and emerging technologies impact the industries we specialist in and reflect on the positive impacts business leaders are experiencing after adopting AI tools. 

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Creative
Marketing
Sales
Technology
Human Resources

The image for this blog is an artist’s illustration of artificial intelligence (AI). This image explores multimodal models. It was created by Twistedpoly as part of the Visualising AI project launched by Google DeepMind.

AI-skilled talent and hiring demands

The importance and desire for AI-skilled talent is only expected to increase over time. Statista reports that the market for artificial intelligence grew beyond US$184 billion in 2024, a considerable jump of nearly US$50 billion from the previous year. This rapid growth is only expected to continue and is estimated to exceed US$826 billion by 2030.  

Closer to home, new research from Accenture estimates that AI could create an extra US$4.5 trillion in economic value across the APAC region. 

This advancement in AI is predicted to have a tremendous impact on employment demand. In some industries, up to 30% of current hours worked could be automated with AI by 2030, enabling employees to commit more time to strategic, impactful, and “human” tasks. On the flip side, there is an expectation that the widespread adoption of AI will create new employment opportunities, while reshaping existing roles.  

According to The World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2023, AI and machine learning specialists top the list of emerging and fastest growing roles. Meanwhile, the 800 global organisations surveyed report investing nearly 10% of their reskilling efforts into developing their internal AI and big data expertise. 

AI in the creative industry  

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has already significantly impacted the creative industry, being one of the first industries to adopt GenAI tools to support what was once solely driven by human talent and skill.

Creatives we have spoken to tell us that they’re proactively investigating and experimenting with various GenAI tools and discussing how to best use these technologies moving forward.  

While GenAI has been positively received by many, there has been well-publicised backlash from many creatives. Along with the fear of roles being made redundant, many see the technology as devaluing their skills or sacrificing quality and effectiveness in favour of speed and cost reduction. There’s also a concern that GenAI is inherently unethical, as it scrapes existing work from the internet without the consent of the creators and copyright holders. It’s key for business leaders to understand these feelings and challenges when making decisions around the implementation of GenAI tools.

However, creative professionals have adapted to this tech-enabled environment, finding ways to make artificial intelligence work for them instead of against them.  

How the creative industry is using AI tools

• For visual designers, image generation and editing tools such as Midjourney, DALL-E, Leonardo.ai, and Photoroom have been popular. Sound and motion designers are also exploring how advanced GenAI tools like Veed.io, Opus Clip, ElevenLabs, Loudly, and Suno can enhance audio and video content and expedite editing processes.  

• Content writers and copywriters favour ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. They also use Grammarly, Jasper, and Wordtune as ways to provide suggestions to improve sentence structure and make content more engaging. It clear for content professionals that these tools are there to inspire by giving a written starting point or generating high-quality SEO and keyword research to support improved online performance.  

• Motion designers are leveraging GenAI tools to build initial artwork concepts and explore different styles and layouts with minimal effort. They’re also implementing AI to minimise repetitive tasks, such as removing backgrounds, retouching photos, and adjusting sizes, fonts, and colour palettes.  

AI in the marketing industry   

There is a lot of anticipation about using artificial intelligence in the marketing industry, with existing tools such as Google Analytics expanding to incorporate AI functionality and new tools emerging to help make marketers’ lives easier.

We’ve heard from marketers across APAC that they’re using emerging technologies to streamline workflows, improve campaign execution, and optimise the measurement of marketing activities.  

New research supports this; HubSpot recently reported that nearly 65% of marketing professionals now use AI-powered tools to perform or aid daily tasks. Like creatives, marketers are using GenAI to support content creation, but they’re also using traditional AI and GenAI tools for research purposes, data analysis, and reporting. 

How the marketing industry is using AI tools

• Customer service marketers have been early adopters of traditional AI, in the form of chatbots. AI-powered chatbots enabled by natural language processing have historically consumed marketing content to develop the ability to answer customer questions. Making a more personalised customer journey and answering customer questions in the right place at the right time.  
  

• For brand marketers, large language models (LLMs), such as GPT-4 and GPT-4o by OpenAI, Claude by Anthropic, and Gemini by Google are being ‘taught’ how to interpret brand messages according to distinct customer personas. With simple prompts such as sharing style guides and writing samples, it’s now possible for marketers to create a custom GPT to produce more relevant and personalised content for their target audience(s).  
  

• For both B2B and B2C marketing teams, artificial intelligence is being added to platforms and tools to uncover data-driven customer insights. Not only analysing but helping teams to understand how to use these insights to better target customers. The insights also enable marketers to evolve as their target audience does and adjust their messaging and outreach to stay relevant and deliver ROI.

AI in the sales industry   

Forecasting is crucial for sales professionals but can also be highly stressful, leading many sales teams and individuals to turn to artificial intelligence and automation to make processes more efficient and exact.  

Across APAC, HubSpot has found that sales professionals using AI-powered tools save nearly three hours daily, freeing them up to focus on high-value activities. Additionally, HubSpot reports that almost 70% of global sales professionals predict that most of the software they use will have built-in AI capabilities by the end of this year.  

Sales professionals are known for their people skills and relationship-building abilities, and the rate at which artificial intelligence is learning and evolving raises questions about AI’s ability to replicate human abilities. Yet, when we speak to sales managers and reps about how they’re using AI, it’s clear that it’s primarily acting as a ‘productivity assistant’ – complementing and enhancing human abilities but coming nowhere near replacing them. 

How the sales industry is using AI tools

• Many sales CRM software platforms have already introduced AI assistants with machine learning and natural language processing capabilities to support the completion of manual or repetitive tasks. These include transcribing sales calls, uncovering and qualifying potential leads and tracking prospects. By handing off these tasks along with easy access to real-time customer data and detailed information, sales professionals can focus on relationship-building activities and personalising customer-facing interactions.  
  

• For sales managers, AI-powered analytics tools feed live insights into sales performance and trends. Allowing them to react more quickly and collaborate more effectively at every stage of the sales funnel. Early adopters are even using AI to examine sales calls and client communications, analysing every conversation and interaction to understand which approaches win more business or developing a better understanding of how customers are reacting to sales pitches and offers.  
  

• AI algorithms are now predicting future trends based on market conditions and critical external factors and helping sales managers develop effective go-to-market (GTM) strategies, distribute resources, and better understand who’s likely to buy their products.  

AI in the tech industry  

While AI tools mimic human intelligence and can run autonomously, human input stays crucial throughout the development. Unsurprisingly, the tech industry is experiencing upheaval as companies rush to take advantage across the full spectrum of emergency technologies.

AI is a rapidly advancing field, and we expect the demand for AI-related skills and expertise to grow exponentially across the tech industry and beyond. Some AI specialised roles we’re seeing in the market include Prompt Engineers, AI Architects, AI Product Managers, AI Research Scientists, and AI Ethics Specialists. The developments in AI’s capabilities also increase demand for existing roles, such as Machine Learning Engineers and Data Scientists.

For the tech sector, more than anywhere, it’s important to make sure teams are prepared for the rapid implementation of AI tools and get up to speed with new ways of working. Skills-based hiring and identifying AI competence is therefore key, as qualifications in AI are still relatively rare. Our recent guide to AI for business leaders offers additional insights into the new roles appearing due to digital advancements. 

How the tech industry is using AI tools

• Technology teams, like many others, are already using artificial intelligence in their current roles. AI-powered tools are enhancing efficiency and productivity by automating tasks, driving innovation and problem-solving. 
  

• In service management, AI enables self-solving service desks that analyse company data and provide users with effective self-help options. Then, machine learning allows AI to analyse and compare service requests and suggest optimal solutions, improving service delivery. 
  

• For tech leadership, AI has also been identified as an opportunity to bridge the divide between efficiency and creativity. By helping to identify what ideas are achievable and estimating the resources required to execute. It has also been explored to help identify roadblocks that are impacting customers and feed this info back to developers to help them create more user-friendly experiences. 

AI in the human resources industry

A recent survey of global business executives conducted by the IMB Institute for Business Value (IBV) found that up to 40% of employees will need to upskill or reskill due to the use of AI and automation in the workplace over the next three years. Given that learning and development (L&D) is the responsibility of many HR professionals, this staggering statistic significantly impacts their team and workforce planning.

We can see how artificial intelligence and emerging technologies will create many new job roles, some of which we know and some that will become clear as the technology evolves.  

HR leaders play a crucial role in how organisations adapt to emerging technology, with their actions remaining focused on people. They are driving employee-focused practices such as job design to define higher-value work. Finding and cutting repetitive, low-value tasks that can be handled by AI or automation. Read more in our article for how HR digital transformation is crucial for the workplace.

How the HR industry is using AI tools

• Deploying AI capabilities is not just helping HR professionals. Managers across all business functions now have improved access to high-quality employee-related data and guidance on HR topics, reducing the need for direct support from HR team members.  
  

• For leaders in workforce planning, HR professionals are using AI-powered tools in their daily work to drive efficiency and efficacy. Enabling them to track and analyse employee performance ahead of reviews, create personalised development programmes and prompt frequent check-ins between managers and their employees. AI is also being used to automate employee engagement and exit surveys, and analyse the resulting data to provide actionable insights.  
  

• For learning and development, AI is also being used to streamline employee onboarding while emerging technologies such as AR, VR, and MR enrich the L&D experience. Future-focused HR functions are even taking inspiration from marketers and introducing AI chatbots to serve as 24/7 HR assistants, allowing HR team members to focus on strategic tasks.

AI to augment, not to replace 

At Salt, we believe that emerging technologies will lead to job creation (and don’t just take our word for it). In the Future of Jobs Report 2023, the World Economic Forum projects that artificial intelligence will result in a net gain in jobs. However, AI presents both challenges and considerations for business leaders across all industries. From ethical questions about discrimination and unfair treatment to privacy, surveillance, and data security concerns.

With global policymakers struggling to regulate AI use without stifling innovation, organisations must ensure their workforces prepare for the rapid implementation of artificial intelligence and, considering AI qualifications are still relatively uncommon, adopt an iterative approach to testing use cases for emerging technologies. 

Ginni Rometty, an AI thought leader and former Chairman, President, and Chief Executive of IBM, champions AI’s potential to overcome business challenges at scale. Rometty, who led IBM’s transformation to a data-led organisation, believes that AI’s purpose is to augment, not replace, humanity.  She recommends starting small by identifying and introducing artificial intelligence in low-risk areas of your organisation where tolerance to failure is high and seen as an opportunity to learn and iterate.  

Rometty also recognises that hiring the right talent remains a crucial challenge for many organisations as the pace of innovation increases. Our recommendation? A skills-first approach to hiring talent by seeking candidates with proven abilities to take on new challenges and think critically about the good and bad implications of artificial intelligence and future emerging technologies.