Second Talent Reports 52% Rise in APAC AI Hiring Demand in Updated Salary Index
Sep 24, 2026
The August 2026 index update provides regional hiring benchmarks as Co-founder & CEO Elton Chan examines the skills needed to move AI into production
Austin, Texas, September 24, 2026 -- Second Talent updated its Asia Tech Salary Index in August 2026, recording a 52% year-over-year increase in demand for AI roles across APAC. The index tracks engineering pay by role and seniority across eight Asian markets.
Across the markets tracked by the Asia Tech Salary Index, average time to hire was 16 days and the offer acceptance rate was 89%.
“The first conversation around AI talent was heavily focused on researchers and machine learning engineers. That’s no longer enough. Once companies start putting AI into real businesses, they need engineers who can integrate systems, work with existing infrastructure, handle security and reliability, and stay close to the customer,” said Elton Chan, Co-founder and CEO of Second Talent.
For Chan, the 52% rise in demand and the expansion of OpenAI and Anthropic across Asia point to the same shift: AI hiring is broadening beyond research toward applied AI, deployment and engineering roles that bring systems into production.
OpenAI has committed more than S$300 million to its Singapore initiative and plans to create more than 200 Singapore-based technical roles over the next few years, according to its Singapore announcement. Its Singapore hiring spans Forward-Deployed Engineers, Applied AI Engineers, Applied AI Architects, AI deployment engineering leaders and cybersecurity roles. These positions involve taking AI systems from prototypes into production and working directly with enterprise customers.
“Companies shouldn’t assume that hiring an AI engineer solves their AI problem. The technical capability has to match the stage you’re at. If you’re experimenting, you need people who can prototype quickly. If you’re deploying into production, you need people who understand architecture, evaluation, security and operations. If you’re scaling across markets, you also need people who can work with customers and local teams,” said Chan.
Anthropic's February 16, 2026 announcement identified India as its second-largest market for Claude.ai, with nearly half of Claude usage in the country concentrated in computer and mathematical tasks such as building applications, modernizing systems and shipping production software. Anthropic opened its Bengaluru office in February 2026 and is hiring local talent there. Its India team will provide applied AI expertise to help businesses design, build and scale Claude-powered solutions, according to the announcement.
AI hiring in India's IT sector rose 16% year over year in June 2026 while overall IT recruitment fell 3%, and AI and machine learning job listings across 14 sectors rose 25%, according to Naukri data reported by Reuters.
“We are going to see more engineers who aren’t building foundation models but are still doing highly technical AI work. They might be building agentic systems, integrating models into enterprise platforms, improving evaluation pipelines, working on inference, or adapting AI systems to a particular industry. Those are engineering problems, and companies need to hire for them accordingly,” said Chan.
The index benchmarks engineering pay against Silicon Valley and covers hiring velocity and skills demand alongside salaries.
“APAC isn’t one talent pool. Singapore gives you something different from Bangalore. Vietnam gives you something different from Manila. The right market depends on the role, the seniority you need and how much of the work is research, product engineering, deployment or customer-facing,” said Chan.
As companies across Asia build deeper AI teams, Chan expects demand for this kind of technical talent to spread beyond the companies leading in AI research and into the broader enterprise market.
“Start with the system you need to build and the outcome you need to deliver. Then work backwards into the skills. A lot of companies are still writing AI job descriptions around tools and model names. That can leave you with a long list of candidates who look current on paper but don’t have the experience to take the system into production,” said Chan.
About Second Talent
Founded in 2023, Second Talent connects companies with technical talent across Asia. The company provides sourcing, vetting, and support with contracts, payroll and compliance.
Contact Info:
Name: Elton Chan
Email: Send Email
Organization: Second Talent
Website: https://www.secondtalent.com
Release ID: 89204335
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