New York tops tech talent headcount
New York has overtaken the San Francisco Bay Area as the largest tech-talent workforce in North America, according to CBRE's "Scoring Tech Talent 2026" report. The metro area added 30,640 workers between 2022 and 2025, bringing its total to 394,300, while the Bay Area's headcount fell by 23,900 to 375,730. This marks the first time in the study's 13-year history that the city leads by sheer numbers.
AI skills fuel the shift
The change reflects a broader diversification of the tech economy. In the Bay Area, about 61 % of tech workers are employed by high-tech firms, whereas CBRE notes that New York's talent is spread across finance, insurance, real estate and other sectors. Across the United States and Canada, the pool of workers with AI expertise grew 45 % year-on-year to 751,000 by mid-2026. Although the Bay Area still hosts the highest absolute number of AI specialists and a larger share of AI-related job ads (26 % versus 17 % in New York), the city's overall growth is outpacing its rival.
Financial services lead AI hiring
In the realm of finance, New York and Dallas-Fort Worth each hold a 20 % concentration of AI-specialist talent, ahead of Toronto (19 %) and Chicago (16 %). Banks are increasingly competing with pure-tech firms for engineers who can embed AI into regulated environments. Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, told Bloomberg Television that the bank expects to recruit more AI experts, saying:
"There will be all different types of jobs, and I think we will be hiring more AI people and fewer bankers in certain categories."
The lender's Data & AI division already runs projects on large-language-model applications, fraud detection, risk analytics, personalisation and automation.
Alastair Borthwick, chief financial officer of Bank of America, highlighted the productivity gains from AI in a recent earnings call, stating:
"New AI capabilities now allow more than 200,000 of our employees to work more effectively, and they've helped contribute to producing a 59 % efficiency ratio, a roughly 360-basis-point improvement from last year."
Implications for the labour market
Slower hiring and layoffs in traditional tech firms have opened opportunities for non-tech employers. The report found that financial services, insurance and real estate added 90,530 tech jobs since 2022, while the high-tech sector shed 21,262 positions. Although New York now leads in headcount, the Bay Area retains the top spot in CBRE's broader talent ranking, which weighs concentration, wages and AI strength.
What lies ahead?
Analysts expect AI-driven hiring to keep accelerating, especially as banks seek to modernise legacy systems and comply with tighter regulations. The competition for talent may push salaries higher and encourage more cross-industry mobility, potentially reshaping the North American tech landscape for years to come.