(Yicai) July 21 -- China's artificial intelligence sector is short of more than five million workers, according to a new report by a headhunter’s think tank.

Demand for AI professionals in China surged 37 percent in the six months ended June 30 from a year earlier, according to the report recently published by the Liepin Big Data Research Institute. The rapid growth of emerging industries, including AI and new energy vehicles, has continued to drive demand for tech talent, highlighting strong development potential, the report said.

The surge in demand is inseparable from the AI craze triggered by DeepSeek, while the proliferation of robotics competitions in the first half further stoked market interest in embodied intelligence, according to the report.

Among the top 20 fastest‑growing job categories in the period, AI‑related roles claimed six spots, each growing more than 30 percent, the report noted. Demand for robotics engineers was the highest, while that for algorithm engineers ranked third, surging by over 50 percent for both. Job listings for data modeling, deep learning, data annotation, and machine learning also soared.

According to a previous report by McKinsey, demand for AI professionals in China will likely increase sixfold by 2030 from 2022.

China has also seen robust growth in job openings in the low-altitude economy, embodied intelligence, smart manufacturing, and semiconductors, per a report by online recruitment platform Zhaopin.

New job listings for drone engineers, robot‑debugging specialists, algorithm and mechanical engineers, and semiconductor process and equipment engineers all climbed over 30 percent in the first five months compared with the same period of last year, Zhaopin said.

Meanwhile, the robotics sector saw new openings gain 6 percent, with applicant numbers soaring 32 percent, it added.

Editor: Martin Kadiev