Will AI careers outpace traditional IT roles?

AI roles in the United States are currently experiencing a significant surge in demand. This trend began building traction in July?2023. Since then, AI-related jobs and skills demand has steadily climbed, with companies like TikTok, Apple, Meta Platforms, Inc., Capital One, KPMG, and tech giants like Microsoft and NVIDIA leading the hiring spree. This trend is driven by the rapid expansion of AI technologies in multiple sectors.?

To understand the shift in the job market, we separated AI-related roles from traditional IT positions based on their job titles and skill requirements.

What increased AI job postings means

It’s clear from looking at our chart that AI job postings have been picking up lately, while IT job postings have shown a decline since last year. From July 2023, the index for AI job postings began to rise, moving from 81.9 to 94.0 or +14.8% in August 2023. This upward trend continued, and by February 2024, the index had reached 127.6, up 20.8% from January 2024, indicating a significant increase in demand for AI professionals. In contrast, traditional IT job postings have shown a decline, but saw a slight 4.6% increase, moving from 69.4 in January 2024 to 72.6 in February 2024. This suggests that companies have started to incorporate AI into their traditional IT role offerings, leading to a shift to AI-specific job titles and AI skill requirements.??

For candidates, this means that learning AI skills could significantly increase their employability in the current market. For companies looking to hire this talent, this means analyzing the current competition within the AI talent landscape. As demand increases, supply shortages are expected. This drives a higher value for AI skills. Therefore, talent leaders need to ensure their hiring strategies reflect current trends. They should also adjust the salaries of their current employees and new hires to match market rates. Now is a great time to review current employees’?skillsets?and invest in training to upskill them to stay competitive.?

The most in-demand AI job titles include:?

• Data Scientist?
• Machine Learning Engineer?
• Software Engineer for AI products?
• AI Engineer?
• Robotics Engineer ?

These roles are in high demand as they involve analyzing large amounts of complex raw data, developing machine learning models, building AI products, designing AI systems, and leading data science teams.?

AI jobs growth is accelerating

While both AI and IT professionals are in demand, the growth rate for AI jobs is significantly higher and has been on a steady rise since mid-2023. This trend is likely to accelerate as more companies realize the benefits of AI and seek to incorporate it into their operations. For more insights and to stay updated with current labor market trends, visit our website: https://www.claroanalytics.com.