[AI Hegemony War Korea's Winning Move] Job Offering 400 Million KRW Annual Salary by 'ChatGPT' Company... 100 to 1 Competition Rate Domestically

Ryuten Technologies (Ryuten), a startup recognized as a leader in generative artificial intelligence (AI), recently selected the first prompt engineers through a public recruitment in South Korea. These engineers are responsible for inputting questions into AI to elicit better responses. The competition rate reached 100 to 1. Although this job is unfamiliar to many, numerous people have already started moving quickly to adapt to the AI era.

New AI-Created Profession: Prompt Engineer

As AI spreads, concerns about AI taking over jobs are growing. AI is already replacing humans in many areas. However, new jobs are also emerging in the AI era. Prompt engineers, a profession created by AI, are a prime example.

Prompt engineering is a field that has only just begun hiring overseas as well. Right after OpenAI released ChatGPT in November last year, attention focused on prompt engineers. OpenAI’s job board featured postings offering prompt engineers salaries up to $335,000 (approximately 427 million KRW), which attracted significant attention.

Many companies both domestically and internationally plan to increase hiring of prompt engineers. Ryuten also intends to expand recruitment of prompt engineers, also known as ‘AI psychologists,’ starting with their first public recruitment, aiming to build their own proprietary technological expertise.

Survey results on essential employee skills in the AI era according to leaders from Microsoft's 'Work Trend Index 2023'.

Survey Results on AI Benefits in the Workplace According to Leaders from Microsoft’s 'Work Trend Index 2023'.

“We Must Adapt to Changes in Work Methods”

Applying to become a prompt engineer is not the only way to survive in the AI era. As AI advances, the value of prompt engineers may inevitably decline. Experts advise that to survive in the AI era, one should focus not on specific jobs but on adapting to the changes in work methods that AI will bring.

Microsoft recently released the ‘Work Trend Index’ report. In March, it surveyed 31,000 people across 31 countries, including South Korea, about the skills needed in the AI era.

The report shows that 82% of leaders, including company executives, believe employees need new skills to prepare for the AI era. These new skills do not refer solely to specialized knowledge. Rather, they mean the ability to quickly adapt to entirely new ways of working brought about by AI.

The leader group identified essential skills employees should have in the AI era as analytical judgment, flexibility, emotional intelligence, creative evaluation, intellectual curiosity, bias detection, and prompt engineering skills. All of these are abilities to rapidly adapt to new environments.

In the report, when asked about the ‘advantages of AI,’ the leader group selected increased employee productivity (31%) as the greatest benefit. This was followed by work automation (29%), improved employee well-being (26%), and creating an environment for high-value work (25%). In contrast, workforce reduction accounted for only 16%, the lowest proportion among all responses.