Silicon valley’s technology firms have always had an upper hand over industry giants when it came to recruiting top AI talent. The reason behind is their offering of a percentage of ownership alongside the salary. If the company succeeds, the employee too, becomes a millionaire in no time.

Technology sector, at present, is investing a lot in AI. Research work is being carried out by the technology giants to develop business applications of the said technology. From face-scanning smartphones to autonomous vehicles, the instances of ongoing research are too many to count on.

But who are these people developing AI-powered gadgets, machines, and tools that are making people’s lives easier?

AI programmers, machine-learning algorithm developers, and artificial intelligence engineers – these are the job positions in the AI domain that are making all the revolutionary changes in the technology space. 

Increased Sophistication at Work Leads to Proportional Paychecks  

As being an AI specialist is no easy feat, with those at the helm of affairs possessing skills in numerous fields of study such as computer science, programming, statistics, and data analytics. And hence, when you succeed at becoming one, the paychecks handed out by technology companies are bigger than most of the professionals receive at the end of the month across industry domains. 

The highest-paid AI engineers and machine learning programmers earn somewhere in between $300,000 and $500,000 annually. Even the median pay as per Payscale earned by AI professionals ranges in between USD 120,000 and USD 130,000. 

Why Are the Paychecks This Big in the AI Sector?

AI Career is highly demanding in terms of the skillset required, and not many people in the world possess that level of technical prowess. The scarce talent in the AI field is one of the primary reasons for remunerations soaring high. Added to that, the widespread applicability of AI in business across industry sectors is a reason enough for the surging demand for AI engineers. 

Japan’s largest ecommerce fashion retail company Zozotown, in the recent past, offered an AI tech expert, an annual compensation package of a whopping 100 million yen, that is equivalent to USD 1 million!

Highest-Paid AI Jobs Confined to Few Locations and Even Fewer Industries

Technology is the only domain an AI career aspirant can enter to earn handsome remunerations and perks. Then there are certain geographical areas you need to live in to make it big in the future-proof AI domain. Such technology-nurturing global locations comprise Seattle, Bay Area, New York City, and Los Angeles. About 70% of all AI jobs worldwide, emerge from these localities. 

Before you make a decision moving to one of the mentioned cities for shaping your dream career in AI, let us remind you that these cities are highly expensive. So, do calculate your expenses in proportion to what you will be making once you relocate. 

Top Companies and Industries That Hire AI Professionals 

Adobe, NVIDIA, Uber, Facebook, and Accenture are some of the top companies globally, that recruit AI and machine learning talent from across the world. About 20% of all AI vacancies get produced out of these five global tech giants.   

Talking about the industries that employ skilled individuals in AI in large numbers, these comprise government, travel, financial services, and consulting. The prominent tech firms that are actively recruiting AI professionals at the moment include McKinsey & Company, the U.S. Army, NASA, Federal Reserve Bank, EY, Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, and Capital One.  

Millions of New Job Roles in AI To Emerge

A recent Garter report stated that AI, as an industry, will create 2.3 million new jobs in the next couple of years while killing 1.8 million jobs specific to menial labor. Another research by Capgemini concluded that 83% of firms that have incorporated AI in their business processes have added hundreds of new job positions in their organizational hierarchy. 

Most Apt AI Job Profiles and a Plethora of Skills an AI Aspirant Needs to Master

Under AI comes numerous disciplines such as NLP (natural language processing), speech recognition, machine learning, deep learning, text analysis, biometrics, and data synthesis. Each discipline demands specialized knowledge and skillset. One can prepare to enter any one, or multiple fields of discipline, within AI. Mastery in a single discipline can take you places you have never dreamt of. 

Here comes the skill part, which is highly demanding when you want to become an AI professional. The essential skills you must possess as an AI professional comprise basic knowledge of Python, R, machine learning, data analytics, Java, data mining, SAS, statistical analysis, Hadoop, and Spark. An educational background in Physics, or some kind of life sciences study would prove to be an added advantage.  

As per a recent report furnished by the New York Times, there exist as less as 10,000 skilled AI specialists across the world.