AI Developer To Data Engineer Becomes The Most Industrially Wanted Talent

Director & Chief Human Resources Officer of IOH, Irsyad Sahroni (leftmost) Narenda Wicaksono, Founder and CEO of Dicoding (rightmost) (photo: Dinda Buana/VOI)

JAKARTA - The need for Indonesia's digital talent continues to increase rapidly. Based on data from the Ministry of Communication and Digital, it is stated that Indonesia needs 9 million digital talents by 2030.

Director & Chief Human Resources Officer of Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, Irsyad Sahroni, said that professions such as AI developers, machine learning specialists, analytic data, and enginer data are the most needed at this time.

"That is what is still needed today. Currently, in all professions, if we don't equip ourselves with the right abilities, it won't be anything. That's the key," said Irsyad at the IDCamp 2025 press conference on Wednesday, September 24.

Irsyad also added that the use of AI has now also entered the realm of human resources (HR). According to him, AI is able to help companies identify employee potential, ranging from prediction of possible resigns, promotional opportunities, to the main factors that make them survive.

Meanwhile, the Founder & CEO of Dicoding Indonesia, Narenda Wicaksono, emphasized that the biggest challenge for many companies is in data management, so that data engineer is very much needed.

He alluded to the latest research results showing that 90% of global CEOs believe AI is able to boost business processes, but the majority of companies are still struggling because the data they have is scattered and messy.

"What is certain is that those who can organize data, take data, process it, so that it can be used by AI as a basis for making decisions," he explained.

However, the two resource persons agreed that in addition to technical expertise, adaptability and understanding of the business context are also the main keys to digital talent in the world of work.