(This article was originally published in Nice Machine AI).

As companies race to integrate artificial intelligence and machine learning into their operations, AI job opportunities and the reskilling of existing talent continue to rise.

AI Job Market

AI job postings have been growing at a fast rate.

The jobs site Indeed saw the number of US-based generative AI job postings climb by 20% May, 2023.

This aggressive growth is also reflected in the AI job listing numbers.

According to the 2023 Stanford AI Index Report, 2022 saw an increase in AI job postings, notably higher than in 2021. The information sector dominated. California posted the most AI-related jobs (142,154), followed by Texas (66,624) and then New York (43,899).

Furthermore, machine learning job opportunities are nearly three times the level in 2018, while artificial intelligence jobs are around 1.5 times higher.

Last year, the jobs site Upwork reported 450% growth in weekly job posts related to generative AI compared to a year ago.

According to Kory Kantenga, a senior economist for LinkedIn, the share of AI job postings for the professional networking site, mentioning AI platforms GPT or ChatGPT, increased nearly sixfold (599%) compared to 2022.

Most In-Demand AI Jobs

According to Glassdoor, another jobs site, the six-figure AI jobs seeing the hottest demand include:

• Machine Learning Engineer: Build and optimize machine learning models and pipelines. Median salary: $114,856.
• Data Scientist: Apply data mining techniques, programming, and statistical analysis to extract insights from data. Median salary: $108,660.
• AI Researcher: Conduct studies and experiments to improve AI algorithms and systems. Median salary: $118,370.
• Computer Vision Engineer: Develop algorithms and models for image recognition, processing, and analysis. Median salary: $104,840.

According to PayScale, a compensation management company, the average salary for an Artificial Intelligence Specialist is $127,380 in 2023.

Other high-demand AI jobs include AI Product Managers, Business Intelligence Developers, Robotics Engineers, Natural Language Processing Specialists, AI Ethicists, and more.

Top Cities for AI Jobs

A 2023 Brookings Institution Report, unsurprisingly, found the Bay Area dominating generative AI (GenAI) job listings. Over the past year, the GenAI activity has been highly concentrated, with over 50% of related job postings in the Brookings database published in San Francisco, San Jose, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Seattle.

• The Bay Area: The tech hub capital of the world.
• New York: Financial and healthcare companies driving AI adoption.
• Los Angeles: Entertainment and aerospace industries.
• Boston: Bolstered by elite universities like Harvard and MIT.
• Seattle: Powered by Microsoft and Amazon.

Furthermore, according to the 2023 Brookings Institution Report, more AI hubs include (but are not limited to):

• Washington, DC: Government agencies investing heavily in AI tech.
• San Diego: Major biotech, healthcare, military, and educational hub.
• Austin: Growing AI hotspot due to tech hub, university, quality of life, and business-friendly environment.

For sure, the information worker is far more remote today than they were five years ago, however (take note) it’s anticipated many GenAI jobs will be in-person some or all of the time.

Factors Driving Demand

What is fueling the continuous growth in AI jobs?

Several key factors stand out:

AI Adoption Is Accelerating

More and more companies are waking up to AI’s potential and racing to enter The Automation Revolution. From predictive analytics to process automation, AI can add much value across many sectors:

• Tech: AI powers product recommendations, search, personalized content, voice assistants, and more.
• Business: AI transforms operations, marketing, sales, and customer service.
• Manufacturing: AI improves supply chain, logistics, predictive maintenance, and production quality.
• Healthcare: AI enables personalized medicine, clinical decision support, and medical imaging.
• Finance: AI transforms trading, fraud detection, risk assessment, and consumer insights.
• Transportation: AI supports autonomous vehicles, route optimization, predictive modeling, and safety.

According to a McKinsey Global Survey–“The State of AI in 2023 — Generative AI’s breakout year,” over 50% of organizations surveyed during April had embedded at least one AI capability into their business processes.

Growth of Big Data

Data Age 2025–Digitization of the World: From Edge to Core (sponsored by Seagate with IDC data) forecasts The Global Datasphere to grow from 33 zettabytes in 2018 to 175 zettabytes by 2025.

The dramatic increase in smart-machine data means humans have a tremendous opportunity to sift through and manage the oceans of information. Companies need AI-skilled talent to build data pipelines, clean data, select useful features, and translate raw data into actionable items.

2023 is the start of The Automation Revolution: Digitization of the world takes root… but so will new jobs.

But there’s a problem —

Shortage of Qualified Talent

Companies, of course, need employees who can turn cutting-edge AI/machine learning (ML) innovation into real-world business impact.

According to The State of AI in 2022 (McKinsey’s annual survey of 1,500 companies), there’s still insufficient supply-side talent for needed AI roles like data scientists and data engineers. So, to fill the talent gap, the reskilling of existing talent is underway; nearly half of the surveyed businesses are investing an average of 200 hours of learning per year per technologist. Companies have begun hiring from technical skill boot camps and online schools.

As our world becomes increasingly accelerated by AI and digitization, academic pedigree will matter less than practical experience scaling AI/ML and translating new algorithmic models into applied business solutions.

Mehul Patel (the former CEO of Hired) shared the following tip with Quanthub, a data literacy platform.

“It’s critical for hiring managers to focus on assessing a candidate’s skills rather than over-indexing on education (i.e., Harvard, MIT, Stanford, etc.) While 50% of software engineers have a computer science degree, another 32% either taught themselves to code or learned through a coding boot camp — and they may have the same programming skills.”

Investments in AI Startups

AI investment continues to pour in.

In 2021, a 2022 Stanford AI Index Report revealed private investment totaled nearly $90 billion — more than 2x the total investment made in 2020. To help illustrate, in 2021, there were 15 funding rounds worth $500 million or more. In 2020, there were only four rounds.

Nearly 3x the $500 million private investment rounds into AI between 2020 and 2021.

According to the data research company Pitchbook, the value of VC investment in GenAI was over $15 billion, nearly up 60% compared to the same 2022 period. (The percentage increase does not include Microsoft’s whopping $10 billion investment in OpenAI this past January).

CNN further reports that it’s not just investors hoping to cash in on the AI boom; flows into the world’s top 5 AI-focused ETFs have ballooned by an average of 35% since January.

All this investment activity points to an encouraging AI jobs market. Flush with cash, startups can level up their AI teams and offer competitive salaries. Many engineers and researchers are pursuing opportunities with startups as well as–

Titans like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple have naturally been growing their AI research labs and engineering teams.

Projections for Future Growth

Current estimates for the future size of the AI job market vary, but the sea of data suggests massive AI job growth on the horizon–

• According to PwC (as cited by Forbes) AI is expected to contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, more than the current output of China and India combined.
• AI will replace nearly 85 million jobs worldwide by 2025, and according to the WEF Report, AI may create 97 million new jobs.
• According to Gartner, by 2025, the market for AI software will reach almost $135 billion, with growth accelerating from nearly 15% in 2021 to over 30% by 2025.
• According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023, the employment of data analysts/scientists, big data specialists, AI/ML specialists, and cybersecurity professionals is expected to grow on average by 30% by 2027.
• Furthermore, training workers in AI and big data skills will be prioritized by over 40% of surveyed companies in the next five years, ranking behind analytical thinking (48%) and creative thinking (43%).

On a sobering note–

Forrester forecasts that cognitive technologies such as robots, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation will replace 7% of US jobs by 2025.

Although these estimates vary over the coming five-plus years, it’s safe to say the positive job trend is one of booming demand for AI skills. With small and big companies needing to be future-ready, investment in reskilling, recruiting, and retaining qualified talent is paramount.

As the saying goes, the early bird gets the worm. Or, in this case, the prepared human gets a bigger byte. Individuals who grow their AI expertise–early–will be positioned for exciting, lucrative careers. (Private planes, mansions, accolades… and more! I digress!)

Looking to the Future

As laid out, The Automation Revolution and AI job boom show no indication of slowing down anytime soon. As more companies integrate AI and innovations emerge from big (and small) research and engineering labs, demand for qualified talent will continue to outpace supply for several years.

With the right experience and skills (plot twist: not all of them are high-tech!) motivated individuals can take advantage of these friendly blue-sky trends to propel their careers forward.

Additionally, companies and schools will need to do more to expand access to these new technologies to shape the future trajectory of AI progress for all positively. Policymakers must make important decisions regarding AI ethics, intellectual property rights, and a changing workforce.

If our new industrial revolution is stewarded responsibly, AI/ML technologies could generate prosperity and opportunity for employees and society as a whole… for many decades to come.

Stay tuned: Nice Machine’s next article will examine programming and non-programming (“soft” skills) trendlines and opportunities for AI jobs.

Remember, nice human, the future is what we make it.

This article was originally published in Nice Machine AI (September 2023).