Deel’s State of Global Hiring Report: AI trainers gain ground in Singapore

Analysis of 1M+ contracts across 150+ countries reveals top startups hire abroad for specialised talent, not cost savings

Deel, the global platform for hiring, managing and paying a workforce anywhere, released its annual 2025 State of Global Hiring Report, the most comprehensive analysis of how companies hire across borders.

Drawing on more than one million worker contracts from over 37,000 companies in 150+ countries, the 2025 report reveals four major shifts transforming the global labour market:

1. The emergence of AI training as a distinct, global profession

2. Top‑funded startups prioritising specialised expertise rather than cost savings when hiring internationally

3. The return of remote workers to cities

4. Contractors in volatile economies increasingly “currency hopping” into US dollars and stablecoins to protect their earnings.

In Asia-Pacific, Singapore stands out on three fronts: early adoption of AI trainers as a new profession, notable compensation growth in senior product and commercial roles, and strong cross-border demand for software developers.

AI is creating jobs in APAC, not just replacing them

Globally, the report reveals a rapid arrival of AI trainers, a new profession that barely existed two years ago. Over 70,000 workers now train AI systems across more than 600 organisations, performing tasks from basic data annotation to expert‑level feedback in medicine, economics and translation. General AI trainer roles hired from abroad grew 283% in 2025, making it the single fastest‑growing cross-border role on Deel’s platform.

APAC is already part of this shift. India and the Philippines account for the second and third highest percentage of global AI trainers on Deel, while AI trainers in Singapore and New Zealand command the region’s highest median hourly rates of US$25.20.

Organisations in Singapore are especially interested in this new role, and the city-state stands out as the top employer to hire AI trainers globally compared to larger markets in the APAC region.

At a global level, pay for AI trainers is sharply bifurcated: 30% of trainers earn US$15–20 an hour for annotation work, while 19% earn US$50–75 an hour and 6% earn above US$100 an hour for subject‑matter expertise. A gender pay gap persists in markets like the United States, where male AI trainers earn higher median hourly rates than their female peers, driven by occupational segmentation across specialisations.

Product and customer‑facing roles lead Singapore pay growth

The report shows salary growth in 2025 concentrating in senior and revenue‑critical roles, but the drivers differ by market. Globally, US project managers led all roles at 24.5% for compensation growth, followed by COOs (21.6%) and CEOs (20%).

In Singapore, the strongest broad‑based pay growth is in senior product management and commercial roles. Product managers in Singapore saw 70% compensation growth between 2024 and 2025, while customer service representatives and sales account managers recorded 31.6% and 28.4% growth respectively (employer‑of‑record roles only). This suggests employers are willing to pay more for roles that directly influence roadmap, revenue and customer experience.

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Karen Ng, Regional Head of Expansion – Enterprise – North and South Asia, Deel, said: “Singapore is now backing its AI ambitions with serious institutional muscle. At the same time, the emergence of AI trainers as a specialised profession and the growth of strategic roles like product leaders are important signals in their own right. AI trainers embed human judgement into how models learn and improve, while product managers sit at the intersection of customer insight, technology and growth. Together, they underline that even in an AI‑enabled economy, it is human expertise that ultimately sets the direction for how these tools are built and how they create value. This is the kind of specialised talent that companies are increasingly hiring across borders to stay competitive.”

Global startups go abroad for specialised talent

Among the world’s fastest‑growing startups, cross‑border hiring is now less about cost and more about capability. Among nearly 100 global startups founded between 2020 and 2025 that raised US$100 million or more in funding, cross‑border hiring leans towards high‑income economies such as the UK (12.2%), Canada (11.9%) and Germany (8.8%). That pattern challenges the idea that international hiring is primarily about low‑cost outsourcing, pointing instead to a hunt for specialised skills in competitive markets.

Software developers make up 28% of cross‑border hires among top startups, followed by tech sales (6.2%), business developers (4%) and AI engineers (2%). In APAC, software developers are the most in-demand cross-border hire in Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore. Top startups are 13.6 percentage points more likely to hire software developers cross‑border than small businesses. This gap suggests high-growth companies are using cross-border hiring to access high-value skill sets that combine technical depth with commercial impact.

Seven of the top 10 cross‑border roles globally are in sales, marketing or other customer‑facing functions. This indicates that even as companies adopt AI, they continue to invest in roles where local understanding of customers and markets – and translating that into product and revenue – is still very hard to automate.

Workers are “currency hopping” to protect earnings

The report also tracks a growing “currency hopping” trend in which contractors in economically volatile markets with high inflation choose US dollars or stablecoins over local currencies to protect their purchasing power. US dollars appeared in half of the 10 most common country‑currency payment combinations globally in 2025, and in some markets, more contractors chose US dollars than their local currency. Argentina leads stablecoin adoption, followed by Cameroon, South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam, Tajikistan, Sri Lanka, and Ukraine.

For APAC employers, this matters when engaging flexible workers or contractors in markets affected by inflation or current volatility. Supporting multi‑currency options helps retain talent and demonstrates sensitivity to local economic realities.

Additional Findings

• Cross-border hiring corridors follow language and proximity, not cost: the U.S. or UK appears in the top 3 worker countries for every major hiring market.

• Enterprises hire through EOR software for compliance and risk (data analysts, fraud examiners, compliance directors); SMBs hire for growth (software developers, customer service, sales).

• For cross-border employees of record, professional and business services is the fastest-growing industry, followed by government/nonprofits and manufacturing.

• When including all worker types, healthcare and life sciences is the top-growth industry, followed by real estate and construction.

• Legal case managers (164% growth) and medical administrative assistants (123% growth) are among the fastest-growing cross-border roles alongside AI trainers.

The way the world works has changed – and Deel has built the standard to power it all. We make it effortless to hire, manage, pay, and equip any worker, anywhere. Deel is one platform for payroll, HR, benefits, mobility, performance, and device management across 150+ countries. Built on owned infrastructure, powered by AI, and supported by thousands of local experts, Deel helps businesses scale smarter, faster, and more compliantly. Trusted by 37,000+ customers, and created to become a global brand people love.

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