Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning seem poised to dominate the future. Companies around the world are devoting resources to making their apps and services “smarter.” But which tech jobs actually require AI skills?
To find the answer to that question, we turn to Burning Glass, which collects and analyzes millions of job postings from across the country. Specifically, we wanted to find out which occupations account for the highest percentage of job postings that require AI skills. The breakdown is as follows. As cliche as it is, some of these results may surprise you:
What can we conclude from this breakdown?While you might think that artificial intelligence skills are highly sought after among software developers and engineers (after all, someone needs to build smarter chatbots), it’s clear that data science is the profession where AI is most prevalent.
In fact, there is a lot of overlap between AI and data science. Both fields involve collecting, wrangling, cleaning, and analyzing large amounts of data. But while data scientists analyze data to gain insights to provide to the broader organization, artificial intelligence and machine learning experts use those datasets to train AI platforms to become “smarter.” Once sufficiently trained, these platforms can make their own (hopefully correct) inferences about the data.
Given the intersection of artificial intelligence and data science, many machine learning and AI professionals become data scientists and vice versa. That relationship will only deepen in the coming years. Burning Glass suggests that machine learning is a “defining skill” among data scientists and is necessary for their daily work. If you’re aiming for a job as a data scientist, having extensive knowledge of artificial intelligence and machine learning tools and platforms can give you a decisive advantage in a crowded market.
Many other technical roles will also see an increased need for artificial intelligence skills in the coming years. For example, if you work in software development, learning AI skills now will prepare you for a future where AI tools and platforms become a pervasive part of many companies’ technology stacks. Don’t get me wrong. Managers and executives also need to become familiar with AI concepts and skills. Rob Thomas, IBM’s senior vice president of cloud and data platforms, recently told CNBC that “AI isn’t going to replace managers, but managers that use AI will replace managers that don’t use AI.”
Overall, jobs leveraging artificial intelligence skills are expected to grow by 43.4% over the next 10 years. Jobs that use a lot of AI skills currently have an average salary of $105,000, which is higher than many other occupations. However, keep in mind that AI and machine learning are areas that really require knowledge, and recruiters will definitely test both your knowledge of the basic concepts and your ability to execute. When applying for an AI-related job, a portfolio of past projects is only useful to prospective clients.
To be sure, AI is still in its infancy. Despite all the hype, relatively few companies are integrating AI into their front-end products and back-end infrastructure. Nevertheless, it is clear that employers are already interested in technologists who are familiar with AI and machine learning platforms that will help determine the future.
