AI Job Market: Top 10 skills in high demand across the US
Recent reports suggest that searches for generative AI jobs on Indeed have increased by almost 4,000%, with openings for generative AI jobs also up by 306% over the last year.
With this in mind, prompt management tool AIPRM sought to find out how the demand for AI-based skills has evolved in the US job market, to conclude which AI skills are the most in demand, as well as which jobs will likely land you the most money.
Key Findings:
- Computer Science is mentioned 265 times in job postings and is the most mentioned AI-related skill.
- The AI job with the highest paying salary in the US is Director of Data Science, earning an average salary of $253,919.
- California has the highest percentage of AI job listings in the US, with over a quarter (27%) related to AI.
The most in demand AI skills
| Rank | AI-related skill | Number of mentions in job postings |
| 1 | Computer science | 265 |
| 2 | Engineering | 210 |
| 3 | AWS | 199 |
| 4 | Architecture | 180 |
| 5 | Data analysis | 132 |
*The full data set is available to view here.
In total, Computer science was the most commonly mentioned AI-related skill across all AI job listings in 2023, appearing 265 times across the 7,991 job adverts, which equates to around 3.3% of all AI job listings for 2023.
Ranking as the second most mentioned skill is Engineering, with 210 job postings mentioning this AI-related skill (2.6%).
AWS ranks third, with 199 mentions in job postings, and Architecture follows in fourth, with 180 mentions, making these some of the most in demand AI-related skills required when working in the field of AI.
Of all states analysed for job listings, California has the highest percentage of AI listings in the US, with over a quarter (27%) related to AI.
The AI jobs with the highest average salary in the US
| Rank | Job title | Number of job postings (2023) | Median average yearly salary ($USD) |
| 1 | Director of Data Science | 18 | $253,919 |
| 2 | AI Architect | 12 | $250,328 |
| 3 | Head of Data | 23 | $244,674 |
| 4 | Data Science Manager | 83 | $205,621 |
| 5 | Data Infrastructure Engineer | 12 | $201,375 |
| 6 | ML Engineer | 99 | $200,488 |
| 7 | AI E | 25 | $193,242 |
| 8 | Machine Learning Engineer | 845 | $192,380 |
| 9 | Applied Scientist | 269 | $190,827 |
| 10 | Research Scientist | 232 | $190,631 |
*The full data set is available to view here. Note – only jobs with a minimum of 10 listings were selected for the final table, to ensure the median average was as fair and representative as possible.
According to average salary statistics for AI jobs in the U.S, those working as a Director of Data Science can expect the highest average earnings, with a salary of around $253,919. The skills mainly required for this role range from data management and data mining, to architecture.
In second position, AI Architects could expect to earn a median average salary of $250,328, with required skills ranging from architecture, and AWS, to business intelligence and DataOps.
This is followed by head of data with an average salary of $244,674. Three jobs follow this (data science manager, data infrastructure engineer, and ML engineer) all with average salaries of over $200,000.
How has AI hiring changed over time?
| Rank | Country | Average growth rate in AI hiring 2017-2022 (%) |
| 1 | Brazil | 1.21 |
| 2 | Canada | 1.26 |
| 3 | Great Britain | 1.22 |
| 4 | India | 1.19 |
| 5 | U.S.A | 1.20 |
| Average overall growth rate | 1.22 |
*The full data set is available to view here.
Between 2017 and 2022, the U.S. average growth rate in AI hiring was 1.2%. This was slightly lower than the average for Brazil, Canada, and Great Britain.
Despite the U.S. seeing consistent growth in AI hiring over this period, the speed was moderately lower than in other countries.
One example of this is Canada, which had the fastest rate of AI hiring between 2017 and 2022, at 1.26%. This could be down to several factors, including market saturation or the fact the U.S. already has a more developed AI sector by comparison.
Comparatively, India was found to have the lowest overall rate of AI hiring between 2017-2022 (1.19%). However, the country saw the highest average growth rate of all 5 countries in 2020, at 1.42%.
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