As we head into the second half of 2026, we asked five members of the Tides team one simple question:

"What's the one trend you think will shape AI hiring over the next six months?"

Here's what they said.

Scott, Founder & Director

"The best AI companies will hire fewer people, but better people."

"I don't think H2 is going to be about companies dramatically increasing headcount. If anything, I think we'll continue to see businesses building smaller, higher-performing teams.

AI is increasing what one great engineer can achieve, so every hire becomes more important. The conversations I'm having with founders and CTOs are far less about adding people and much more about adding capability.

The companies that move fastest won't necessarily have the biggest engineering teams. They'll have the clearest idea of the team they actually need."

Courtney, Director

"Data Engineers are about to become one of the hardest hires in Europe."

"Everyone is understandably excited about AI Engineers, but I think Data Engineers are going to become the real bottleneck.

Almost every business wants to introduce AI into its products or operations. The challenge is that AI is only ever as good as the data behind it.

I'm already seeing more conversations around data platforms, infrastructure and governance than I was six months ago, and I only see that continuing through the rest of the year."

Charlie, Recruitment Consultant 360 - Product Engineering EMEA

"Python will become the language every engineer wants to learn."

"Python has been at the centre of AI for years, but I think we're about to see a much broader shift.

Developers from Java, JavaScript, C# and other backgrounds are increasingly adding Python to their toolkit because that's where so much innovation is happening.

It isn't about replacing their existing skills. It's about expanding them.

If someone asked me today which language would give them the biggest opportunity over the next few years, I'd still say Python."

Brad, Principal Recruitment Consultant AI

"H2 is when AI agents stop being demos and start becoming products."

"We've all seen incredible AI demos over the last year.

The next challenge is turning those demonstrations into reliable products that people actually use every day.

That's a very different engineering problem.

It means thinking about infrastructure, monitoring, reliability, security and user experience rather than simply what the model can do.

The companies that solve those challenges will create a real competitive advantage."

Connor, Principal Recruitment Consultant AI

"Communication is becoming one of the most valuable engineering skills."

"The engineers standing out in interview processes aren't always the ones with the longest list of technical skills.

They're the people who can explain complex ideas clearly, work closely with product teams and understand the commercial context behind what they're building.

As engineering teams become more collaborative and AI handles more repetitive work, I think those human skills become even more valuable.

The ability to communicate well is becoming a technical advantage in its own right."

Five predictions. One common theme.

Although each prediction is different, they're all pointing in the same direction.

AI isn't simply changing the technology we build. It's changing the way companies build teams.

The businesses succeeding in H2 won't necessarily be those hiring the most people. They'll be the ones making the smartest hiring decisions.

And that's exactly where we think the market is heading.