Artificial Intelligence: How AI is changing the job market
Agriculture is entering the era of artificial intelligence: in 2025, the demand for farmers with AI skills has more than doubled compared to 2024. The number of such vacancies for shift workers has also increased by a third, HR services told Izvestia. Experts note that professions where manual labor used to dominate now require an understanding of digital systems and data analytics. Companies are moving from simple mechanization to intelligent management, largely due to a shortage of personnel. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
What industries need artificial intelligence?
Digital technologies are taking over new areas: according to the Avito Work service, in 2025, the number of vacancies for shift workers with AI and automation skills increased by 34% compared to 2024. The trend was most pronounced in the agricultural sector, where the demand for such specialists soared by 112%.
The profession of a machine milking operator is demonstrating record rates: the number of offers for milkmaids and milkmaids has increased 2.1 times. Today, specialists are required not only to take traditional care of animals, but also to be able to work with high-tech equipment: to read data from sensors, analyze monitoring system signals, and make quick decisions. Smart cameras and sensors detect signs of illness and stress in livestock long before humans notice them.
The Rostov region topped the rating of regions in terms of the growing demand for shift workers with skills in working with AI and digital technologies in agriculture: the number of such vacancies here increased 2.2 times.
The Voronezh Region is in second place: over the year, the need for specialists using new technologies in rural areas has almost doubled (+98%). The Saratov Region closes the top three, where the demand for shift workers with AI competencies has increased by 86%.
The top ten regions with the fastest growing demand for agricultural specialists with automation and AI skills also include Volgograd, Tula, Lipetsk, Ryazan, Tambov, Penza regions, as well as Mordovia.
These are the regions where the majority of the country's farmland is concentrated, said Dmitry Korolev, Director of HR-Tech at Avito.
"The ability to work with AI and automated systems is increasingly becoming a core competence in many industries, including agriculture," he said. — Many professions where manual labor used to dominate are being transformed and require specialists to understand the principles of equipment, digital systems and data analytics. AI solutions help businesses not only to increase efficiency and reduce costs, but also to rebuild the production processes themselves, which gradually changes the requirements for personnel.
How AI adjusts the labor market
According to Rosstat, in 2024, the leaders among industries in terms of the share of organizations using artificial intelligence were telecom (25%), higher education (15%), trade (13%), finance (8%), transport (6%), energy and healthcare (5%).
Artificial intelligence is, among other things, models for predicting, classifying and detecting anomalies, Petr Ototsky, a leading researcher at the Presidential Academy (RANEPA), explained to Izvestia.
— Such AI is being massively implemented in economic and social sectors for predictive repairs (predictive maintenance. — Izvestia) or quality control, diagnosis of diseases at an early stage, to optimize resource consumption, identify fraudsters and to solve many other tasks, — he said.
Intelligent decision support systems have become an important area of AI, which is quite suitable for line staff, said Alexander Bukhanovsky, head of the ITMO Institute of Artificial Intelligence.
—These systems receive information using computer vision, after which they form specific recommendations for a person that optimize his work and avoid mistakes," the expert explained. "They are used in manual assembly processes, for maintenance and repair of equipment, when organizing work on construction site x and solving other similar tasks.
The way such systems interact with humans can vary greatly: from the usual text interface (when AI actually replaces the reference book) to the use of augmented reality, which visually combines real—world objects and AI instructions.
In agriculture, AI is used at different levels. An agronomist works with satellite maps of the state of the field, a machine operator works with route analysis and fertilizer application rates, and a greenhouse operator works with microclimate management systems, said Olesya Zmazneva, associate professor of the Department of Infocognitive Technologies at Moscow Polytechnic University.
— On modern farms, robotic milking systems monitor the animal's health, productivity, and milk quality. The employee manages the system and responds to deviations, rather than working manually," she added.
According to her, AI is effective where it is necessary to quickly process a large stream of data and make a forecast: in biology, agronomy, animal husbandry. It is in demand not only to replace routine operations, but also to increase overall efficiency, confirmed Alexander Tugov, director of the AI vertical of the Russian technology company Selectel.
— And it is applicable in physical professions. Computer vision systems are currently being implemented on work harvesters to monitor harvesting, and drones and edge devices (peripheral sensors. — Izvestia) they analyze data in real time, reducing the consumption of water and fertilizers, as well as increasing yields," the expert said. —And it's not just automation, it's intelligent optimization, requiring hardware integration, digital doubles, and fast data processing.
How AI solves the issue of staff shortages
Workers do not need to become highly qualified specialists in artificial intelligence, but a basic understanding of the logic of AI solutions is becoming a new type of literacy, just as computer skills once were, said Sergey Bolovtsov, director of the Presidential Academy's Artificial Intelligence Research Center.
"An employee needs to understand the basic capabilities of AI systems in order, for example, to adjust data for training neural networks and help with system adjustments," he explained.
The expert also suggested that the reasons for the increase in the number of vacancies with the requirements of AI competencies may be government support for the digitalization of the agricultural and industrial complex, a structural decline in prices for AI solutions - by several times in two years, and a shortage of personnel.
— By 2026, it is obvious that a significant part of large enterprises have already integrated AI systems into production processes. At the same time, employers are aware that the requirements for relevant competencies in vacancies should be formulated for the future, taking into account the future pace of technology adoption," said Sergey Bolovtsov.
Ekaterina Kashtanova, Associate Professor of the Department of Personnel Management at the State University of Management, is confident that the growing demand for "digital" shift workers is caused by a critical shortage of personnel.
"It forces companies to move from simple mechanization to intelligent resource management to compensate for the shortage of people," the expert said. — At the same time, for companies, this is also cost optimization, which is so in demand at the present time. A mechanic at a remote mine or drilling site now uses AI to diagnose sound and vibration. Instead of going over the motor according to the regulations (for example, every six months), it uses sensors connected to AI, which predicts the breakdown of a particular node two weeks before the incident.
According to her, in this case, the shift worker turns into a technical condition analyst who works on the guidance of the algorithm, preventing billions of downtime. In agriculture, AI is successfully used not only by milking and automated farm operators, but also by drone operators: real-time computer vision systems monitor not only the health of the herd, but also the accuracy of fertilization.
According to statistics, a class of "hybrid workers" is now being formed, who use AI prompts to quickly process invoices and reports right in the field, saving time on routine, - Ekaterina Kashtanova noted. In her opinion, the penetration of AI into the real sector is no longer an experiment, but the only way to scale production in an environment where traditional labor resources are almost exhausted.
However, the massive penetration of AI into working professions is still being held back by the cost of its implementation, Alexander Tugov pointed out the problem.
— Robots, sensors, integration and training in virtual environments are needed. There are very few companies that have passed even the first pilot stages," the expert pointed out.
Nevertheless, it is obvious that the introduction of AI is becoming an integral part of the competitiveness of manufacturing, agricultural and other working professions.
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