AI Jobs: Careers in Artificial Intelligence

Now that we’ve touched on how the global AI market has exploded in value, it’s time to turn our attention to how this has affected the global jobs market. After all, an increased demand for AI in the workplace means that plenty of new AI-related jobs will be needed to help create, update, and monitor the implementation of new AI systems.

But the question is not simply if the AI jobs market will increase at all – rather, it’s if this increased demand is just setting in, or has it already taken off in line with the predicted growth of the market as a whole?

To begin with, let’s first look at the global increase in AI job postings overall. Based on data provided by Stanford University, it is immediately clear that AI roles are becoming more sought after than ever before, already increasing in demand before the AI boom really began.

And according to this data, America currently has the highest percentage of AI-related jobs globally in its jobs market. In fact, in the US alone, AI jobs account for 2.05%[1] of all jobs being advertised. Given the size and population of the US, this is no small amount.

Following on from the US, we have notable countries such as Canada, where AI jobs account for 1.45% of all postings, as well as Australia and Sweden, where AI jobs form 1.23% and 1.20% of the jobs market respectively.[2]

These stats certainly indicate that the integration of AI into modern working is well on its way in large countries across the globe, but with that being said, even in smaller countries like New Zealand, the demand for AI-focused jobs is still rather substantial. In fact, AI jobs make up for 0.45% of all New Zealand job postings[3], which in a small population country such as this, is a much large portion of the total jobs on offer than the stat might suggest.

As previously noted in the data provided by Stanford University, the US is currently the country with the largest overall percentage of AI jobs available. As the country that has invested most in AI in the past few years, this is to be expected, but how exactly does this investment translate into the various job sectors operating in the US? And which sector, in particular, is looking to adopt AI the fastest into their operations?

Naturally, given the nature of AI and its fundamental applications, the sector which has seen the biggest growth for AI-related jobs is the information sector, which increased its percentage of job postings from 4.85% to 5.3% between 2021 and 2022.[4]

However, alongside this sector, data also indicates that the professional, scientific, and technical services sector has grown from 3.86% to 4.07% in the same timeframe. A similar level of growth in AI job posts can also be seen in the financial and insurance industry, which itself grew from 2.94% to 3.33%, and even the retail trade grew an impressive 0.82% to 1.28% over that single year.[5]

What this shows is that there’s a steady growth across numerous US sectors in relation to AI in the workplace, suggesting that AI is likely going to be adopted in all areas of the workforce to some capacity in the coming years, rather than just solely in IT.

With our focus still on the US, let’s now go even deeper into the state of AI job posts in America by analyzing how the number of available AI job advertisements differs between states. Are they all limited to only a few states, or are they spread out evenly across the country?

For anyone who follows AI and tech closely, it’s likely no one’s surprise that the state offering the highest number of AI jobs in 2022 was California. The home of Silicon Valley, AI has long been a staple of California businesses and companies set on leading the way in technological innovations. As a result, there were around 142,154 AI job postings in this state over the course of 2022.[6]

What is more surprising when it comes to the number of job postings per state, however, is just how much lower the next state ranks in terms of job advertisements. Texas, the state with the next highest AI job total, trails behind California by 75,530 jobs. The state still advertised roughly 66,624 AI jobs over the course of the year[2], but nowhere near enough to compete with California.

As for the other highest states for AI job posts, Stanford University data takes us to the East Coast, where New York proved to offer the third highest number of AI jobs at 43,899 overall. It was then followed closely by Massachusetts and Virginia, which advertised 34,603, and 34,221 jobs respectively.[7]

Now, with that data in mind, it’s easy to assume that California has the biggest demand for AI jobs in the US. However, when looking at the percentage of jobs per state that require an AI role, the stats look very different.

In fact, on an AI jobs percentage basis, the area with the greatest advertisement of AI postings was actually Washington DC, where 2.95% of all job posts were AI related.[8] This was then closely followed by Delaware and Washington State, where AI jobs accounted for 2.66% and 2.48% of the jobs market.[9]

In contrast, California’s job percentage sits at just 2.21%,[10] which hints at a much greater demand across the country for AI roles than in previous years – something that will likely only grow as the decade goes on.

Last, but not least, let’s now turn our attention to which industries are looking to adopt AI technology in the near future. As mentioned previously, we’ve already seen that automated customer services currently account for the bulk use of AI in the workplace, but this could change very soon.

And when it comes to industry adoption, Stanford University data actually suggests that it’s risk-related businesses in the high-tech and telecoms sector that are set to adopt AI the fastest, with a 38% growth of AI use recorded throughout 2022.[11]

On top of this, other notable industries matching this growing adoption trend also included service operations in relation to consumer goods and retail, which increase its AI usage by 31%, with a similar story also playing out for product/service development in the finance industry, which grew by 31% as well.[12] So, while the automated customer services sector might dominate AI use currently, we can already see plenty of other industry sectors adopting AI at a rapid pace, a rate that’s also likely to continue to increase over the next few years.