US is losing the race for AI dominance

THE DATA IS CLEAR: US dominance in AI is fast eroding as the best minds in the field decide to take their skills elsewhere.

In the short term, other countries will attract the talent they have long regretted losing—the longer-term consequences for the US may be severe.

This trend is predicted by Zeki Data, a UK-based data intelligence company, in its just-released annual State of AI Talent Report 2025 . The full report can be downloaded for free.

Zeki forecasts a dramatic shift in the flow of Top AI Talent around the world that will begin to address the imbalance of AI global innovation.

Attracting Top AI Talent is a zero-sum game—countries compete for a limited pool of individuals who have a proven, disproportionately positive impact on the innovation of the companies and nations they join. Zeki sees that opportunities abound for smaller companies to attract young emerging talent as large companies employ AI in recruitment efforts that will result in a homogenised talent pool. The full report includes extensive data visualisations and Zeki's 10 Top AI Talent predictions:

  1. The US will no longer be the destination of choice of Top AI Talent in 2025.
  2. India will become a consumer, not a provider, of Top AI Talent in 2025.
  3. Major AI players in Europe and the Gulf States will redouble efforts to retain their supply of Top AI Talent.
  4. Google's talent concentration will set the stage of LLM dominance.
  5. London will be the new epicenter for responsible technology.
  6. Big Pharma will play it safe and outsource high-risk, high-reward AI Drug Discovery.
  7. Nvidia's talent magnetism will reinforce its innovation leadership.
  8. The intersection between quantum and AI will grow but to the detriment of pure quantum companies.
  9. AI companies will widen their search for Talent at a cost to medical research.
  10. The defense sector will buck the trend.


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