In a little under two years, the idea of an AI-powered world has progressed from a far-fetched sci-fi fantasy to a genuinely imminent possibility.
Today, the futures of entire multinational organizations are staked on the success of AI, and while more than 200 million people worldwide use ChatGPT each day to write emails, paraphrase text, write code, the use cases extend far beyond the consumer, and well into the realms of life-saving science.
From data center capacity to power-permitted land and access to energy, the need for AI resources is accelerating. But how these resources are used also has a tangible impact on our environment.
The environmental impact of AI
According to the International Energy Agency’s Electricity 2024 report, electricity consumption from artificial intelligence (AI), data centers, and cryptocurrency represented almost two percent of global energy demand in 2022. However, AI’s growth means this proportion could double in size by 2026, meaning that the AI industry alone could soon consume as much energy as Japan.
Meanwhile, AI infrastructure like data centers is also growing in line with end-user demand, which has implications for energy and other precious resources. Moreover, with AI, many data center workloads are dependent on the availability of power, land, and more.
People remain the priority
Technology is often held up as the great white hope that will safely guide us through the fossil fuel transition and into a sustainable future. In fact, to achieve net zero we need to go a step further and use technologies such as AI to help improve efficiency and sustainability in a host of sectors – buildings, data centers, grids, and infrastructure.
This will require more diverse skills – from data scientists to machine learning specialists - and better-trained people in terms of construction and engineering. We need these people to be skilled in the deployment of new and emerging technologies such as liquid cooling, GPU-powered infrastructure, and to ensure high-density workloads can be accommodated with the highest levels of sustainability and energy efficiency.
This can include:
- A new generation of energy professionals to help fast-track the development of new renewable power and/or distributed energy resources.
- Expert mechanical and cooling engineers who understand the intricacies of deploying liquid cooling at scale.
- New whitespace engineers who can fit out technical suites and deploy high-density/GPU-powered infrastructure systems with resilient power and cooling systems.
- People from connected industries such as buildings, who can help data centers connect with local infrastructure to give back, such as redirecting waste heat from servers to heating the community’s homes.
Professionals with these skills are in high demand and there’s a clear talent gap in the data center market. The power of a sustainable, digital future resides in people, so we need these new experts to develop & sustain the data centers and AI workloads of the future.
The growing shortage of talent in Europe
According to the Uptime Institute’s Global Data Center Survey 2023, just eight percent of the current data center workforce are women. Meanwhile, half of existing staff will retire by 2025, despite the number of staff needed to run the world's data centers predicted to grow to nearly 2.3 million by 2025.
Looking more broadly, women currently account for only 20 percent of engineering and 25 percent of tech jobs. Yet, 74 percent of girls express a desire for a career in STEM fields.
Women also make up just 28 percent of the workforce in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), and men vastly outnumber women majoring in most STEM fields in college. Perhaps most worryingly of all, the ratio of women to men in tech roles has declined in the past 35 years, with half of women who go into tech dropping out by the age of 35.
We need a more diverse workforce, and not just because it’s the right thing to do.
According to McKinsey, diverse teams perform better, hire better talent, have more engaged members, and retain workers better than those that do not focus on diversity and inclusion.
People are integral to develop the AI data centers of the future
It’s up to all the different factions – data center organizations, universities, and governments – to create alliances and collaboration programs to make sustainable data center expansion possible.
Companies can begin to close the talent gap by partnering with universities and vocational schools to develop specialized courses and research projects, providing a diverse range of students with hands-on experience of data centers to encourage career interest. Providers should also collaborate with other tech companies on joint training and talent exchange initiatives to boost job interest, career progression, and employee retention.
Data center associations, like the EUDCA, need to meet with government ministers to discuss grants and workforce development programs. Governments must, in turn, recognize the importance of data centers to future economies and help to drive initiatives that reskill and upskill workers to join the industry, but in particular, and help to raise awareness about career opportunities to create a continuous pipeline of talent.
Ensuring a steady supply of skilled professionals will enable the industry to tackle its most urgent issues – energy use, water consumption, and environmental impact – with new ideas, points of view, and energy. Only then can we rely on AI and data centers to power a safe, sustainable future.