North America extended its dominance for artificial intelligence (AI) hiring among offshore industry companies in the three months ending January. The number of roles in North America made up 41.1% of total AI jobs – up from 29.5% in the same quarter in 2020.

That was followed by South & Central America, which saw a 0.4 year-on-year percentage point change in AI roles.

The figures are compiled by GlobalData, which track the number of new job postings from key companies in various sectors over time. Using textual analysis, these job advertisements are then classified thematically.

GlobalData's thematic approach to sector activity seeks to group key company information by topic to see which companies are best placed to weather the disruptions coming to their industries. These key themes, which include AI, are chosen to cover "any issue that keeps a CEO awake at night".

By tracking them across job advertisements, it allows us to see which companies are leading the way on specific issues and which are dragging their heels – and importantly where the market is expanding and contracting.

Which countries are seeing the most growth for AI job ads in the offshore industry?

The fastest growing country was the US, which saw 25.9% of all AI job adverts in the three months ending January 2020, increasing to 36.2% in the three months ending January last year. That was followed by the UK (up 1.6 percentage points), Hungary (up 0.9), and Canada (up 0.7).

Which cities are the biggest hubs for AI workers in the offshore industry?

Some 7.9% of all offshore industry AI roles were advertised in Houston (US) in the three months ending January – more than any other city. That was followed by Bengaluru (India) with 7.9%, Chennai (India) with 3%, and Budapest (Hungary) with 2.6%.