Global mobility of highly skilled talent falls nearly 12% as competition for AI expertise intensifies

The international movement of highly skilled professionals fell sharply in 2025, with cross-border relocations dropping from 3.7 million to 3.3 million—a decline of 11.6% and roughly 430,000 fewer movers than the year prior, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said in its latest talent survey. Several European countries, mostly France, Spain, and Germany, have managed to strengthen their positions in the race for foreigners with a university diploma. While overall mobility contracts, competition for the workers who do choose to move, particularly those with AI expertise, is intensifying.

France and Spain has managed to attract STEM talents, AI speacialists and research talent while Germany has become the third most attractive country globally for those with a PhD. In the meantime, Romania performed the poorest among the Central and Eastern European countries in attracting and also keeping talent.

These are among the findings of the BCG Top Talent Tracker 2Q 2026, released by Boston Consulting Group. The latest edition of BCG’s proprietary tracker analyzed real-time mobility data on 221 million highly skilled professionals, defined as those holding at least a bachelor’s degree, across more than 200 destinations through the end of 2025.

“Global talent flows have slowed but competition for the most important talent from a strategic point of view has intensified,” said Adam Kotsis, BCG Director. “Highly qualified specialists prefer countries where innovation is strong, professional opportunities are attractive and carriers are for the long term.”

Countries that lead in talent for a given technology are 17 times more likely to also lead in that technology. Talent with doctoral (PhD) degrees represent the most educated segment of the mobile talent pool. They are a leading indicator of where future science and innovation will concentrate. At the corporate level, companies that attract more global talent into leadership positions generate 1 additional percentage point of shareholder value per year.

While global talent mobility declined by nearly 12%, Central and Eastern Europe saw an even steeper fall: talent arriving in the region fell by 28% to 58,000. The most dramatic fall was recorded in Romania, where the inflow of highly-skilled university-degree talent inflow fell by 58%, including a 61% decline in PhD, 50% in AI, and 42% in STEM talent. The retention ratio of 0.35, the lowest in CEE, means that about three times as many highly skilled workers leave Romania as arrive.

Within CEE, the Czech Republic is a story of resilience: it is the only CEE country with a positive retention rate, and the smallest decline in talent inflows. Both Hungary and Slovakia saw more people with university degrees leaving than arriving. Slovenia proved very successful at keeping PhD talent at home, even more successful than Germany. Talent inflow into Poland was high, although down 21%.

When it comes to talent mobility, all eyes are on the US, which introduced a stricter and more selective immigration policy under the second Trump administration. The United States is extending its lead in highly skilled, STEM, and research talent, even against the backdrop of tighter immigration policy. But in AI, it is not. Whether this proves a temporary levelling or the start of a structural shift may become one of the defining questions of the next decade of the global technology race.

Last year 315,000 AI talent changed countries, down 43,000 from the previous year. In addition to France and Spain, Hongkong, Sweden and Japan saw a rising inflow in this key talent category.   

Among the other notable country-level developments:

• The UAE attracted nearly 194,000 highly skilled workers, gaining 0.8 percentage points of market share, and is now quickly gaining on the UK in both highly skilled and AI talent rankings.
• Saudi Arabia recorded the highest talent retention ratio (2.6x) of any major destination, reflecting growing success in keeping the talent it attracts.
• Germany rose to third place as a destination for research talent, as anglophone hubs cede ground to continental Europe among PhD-level professionals.
• Canada, once a top-three destination for highly skilled talent, dropped to seventh place, recording the largest single-year market share loss among major destinations (–2.1 percentage points).
• The UK, despite maintaining top-three standing in highly skilled, AI, and research categories, lost ground across all talent groups.
• India ranked in the top three for STEM and AI talent inflows, but these flows may be driven largely by nonresident Indians returning home, not broad-based attraction of new foreign talent.

photo credits: The Global Race for AI Talent Is Far From Over | BCG