AI-Driven IT Boom: Veteran Talent Dominates Hiring Market

Over the past two years, demand for IT roles at Korean companies has been rising, and the preference for highly skilled, experienced workers has become more pronounced under the influence of artificial intelligence (AI).
As AI begins to replace tasks at the level of entry-level developers, analysts say companies are opening their wallets mainly for mid-career and senior talent who can design AI infrastructure and apply it to business models.
■ "Experienced Hires Over Newcomers"
On the 22nd, Financial News asked IT recruitment platform Wanted Lab to analyze two years of IT hiring data.
As of last July, the number of job postings on Wanted Lab had more than doubled compared with January 2023, a year and a half earlier.
IT roles here include core functions essential to IT operations, such as development, product management (PM/PO), and security.
Wanted Lab explained that AI has been a key driver behind the surge in IT hiring demand. As generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT have advanced, demand for AI Transformation (AX) has soared across industries including finance, manufacturing, and retail. In response, companies have been racing to hire software (SW) engineers and other AI-related professionals to build in-house AI models and infrastructure, or to integrate AI into existing services. The preference for highly skilled, experienced workers appears to be intensifying. Among all IT job postings on Wanted Lab, openings for entry-level candidates with 0–2 years of experience increased by 3.63% in 2025 compared with 2023. By contrast, postings for those with 3–5 years of experience rose 16.34%, 6–8 years 28.73%, and 9–11 years 35.88%, showing a much steeper increase for higher experience levels. Although the absolute number of postings is still small, openings for IT professionals with more than 11 years of experience jumped 86.34% over the same period. ■ AI Use Reflected in Performance Reviews Global big tech companies such as Google, Meta, and Amazon, which had already absorbed large numbers of workers, are now undergoing major restructuring and overhauling their organizations. As a result, observers say the global IT job market is being reshaped around a relatively small pool of highly skilled AI specialists. According to Layoffs.fyi, a site that tracks tech-sector layoffs in real time, 42 tech companies worldwide laid off a total of 27,470 employees between the beginning of this year and the 21st. Amazon alone cut around 30,000 jobs in two rounds of layoffs in October last year and this January.
wongood@fnnews.com Joo Won-gyu Reporter