Top Jobs in Artificial Intelligence
By Daniel J. Dick
Unlocking AI’s Best Jobs with… an AI? That’s Right!
Think of ChatGPT as the next Google or Bing–easy to learn and powerful.
It can be your coach, your teacher, your trainer, your practice sparring partner for your next interview, and much more.
But please use caution as ChatGPT can be wrong. Confidently wrong
Which job interests you?
One job is glaringly missing, and that is Prompt Engineer. Ah, but AI is opening up jobs that never existed before. Some AI engineers worked in NLP or Natural Language Processing coming up with ways to predict what word might come next.
Many of us have played with this technology for laughs in Facebook. For instance, one might type in the first part of a sentence and keep selecting the middle “next word” until it finishes the sentence. For instance, “Yesterday, I went to the”… Now, I’ll try it. “Yesterday, I went to the gym to do some cardio but now I feel so much more accomplished today and to day than yesterday and I am still feeling so good today I am not even feeling well.”
Well, Ok. That was a little weird.
But Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT do something like this, but they do a much better job. But rather than starting a story, say, the first paragraphs of Romeo and Juliette and having AI continue the writing until the story is over, it takes the user’s entery, a question, a request, a description of what the user is looking for or how it wants ChatGPT to behave, and it uses it as information to use when competing something it starts based on the prompt.
Let’s Try It Out!
Without further ado, let’s ask ChatGPT for the top most lucrative and enjoyable careers in AI and see what it says:
ChatGPT: What are the 20 most lucrative and enjoyable careers in Artificial Intelligence and Mache Learning and how much can people earn? Cite Sources.
As of my last training cut-off in January 2022, I can provide you with a list of some of the most lucrative careers in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) based on available data. However, it’s important to note that the “enjoyability” of a career can be subjective and varies from person to person, depending on personal interests, work environment, job requirements, and other factors.
Here are 20 notable careers in AI and ML, along with salary ranges:
| Position | Salary Range | Source |
| ------------------------------------ | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| Machine Learning Engineer | $112,806 - $190,000 | [Glassdoor](https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/) |
| Data Scientist | $96,491 - $140,408 | [Payscale](https://www.payscale.com/) |
| AI Research Scientist | $102,000 - $160,000 | [Indeed](https://www.indeed.com/) |
| AI Software Developer | $79,604 - $142,000 | [Glassdoor](https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/) |
| Robotics Scientist | $80,000 - $150,000 | Industry estimates |
| Deep Learning Engineer | $115,000 - $195,000 | [Indeed](https://www.indeed.com/) |
| Natural Language Processing Engineer | $90,000 - $150,000 | Industry estimates |
| Computer Vision Engineer | $90,000 - $170,000 | Industry estimates |
| AI Product Manager | $108,992 - $195,000 | [Glassdoor](https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/) |
| AI Architect | $140,000 - $210,000 | Industry estimates |
| Algorithm Engineer | $89,000 - $155,000 | [Glassdoor](https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/) |
| AI Ethicist | $75,000 - $150,000 | Industry estimates |
| AI Specialist in Healthcare | $90,000 - $200,000 | Industry estimates |
| AI Consultant | $80,000 - $190,000 | Industry estimates |
| AI Sales Specialist | Base + commissions | Industry estimates |
| AI Trainer | $70,000 - $130,000 | Industry estimates |
| AI Policy and Safety Advocate | $78,000 - $160,000 | Industry estimates |
| AI Technical Writer | $58,000 - $116,000 | [Payscale](https://www.payscale.com/) |
| AI Customer Support Specialist | $50,000 - $90,000 | Industry estimates |
| AI Educator and Trainer | $70,000 - $150,000 | Industry estimates |
Keep in mind that these figures are averages and can vary based on location, experience, education, and other factors. Salaries are also dynamic and can change over time. The sources mentioned like Glassdoor, Payscale, and Indeed often update their data based on user-reported salaries, so for the most recent and location-specific data, one should refer directly to these platforms or conduct additional research.
Now What?
Now that we have a list of jobs from ChatGPT, we can start looking into each one to find out
- What do they do in a typical day?
- What different kinds of jobs or niches can they fill?
- What skills to they have to obtain through study or experience?
- What is life like for a person in this role–work life, family life, freedom, advancement potential?
Another thing to consider is that this list is from 2 year old data, and in AI, that’s an eternity. We’re talking about your grandfather’s salary, jobs performed while riding dinosaurs. Wagon wheel repair blacksmiths.
You may end up making up a new career that never existed before. The needs of companies will change rapidly. They are already changing rapidly.
Where is “Autonomous Driving Engineer” or “Autonomous Flight Engineer” in the list? Missing!
Aha! In every list like this, you are bound to find extremely important jobs missing from the list. But the skillsets may overlap heavily. The important thing is to find a career you love–your passion–your reason for living. And then become really good at it. Do that job whether you are paid or whether you have to intern for a while. But don’t intern forever waiting for someone to say you’re good enough to move up. Know your options. Have alternative plans and revenue streams if possible. Own your career and do not ever let anybody else own your career or let them make you feel you owe them your complete allegiance for having paid you a substandard salary while telling you it wasn’t substandard.
Enjoy your work. Come home to your family happy and unstressed. Enjoy serving others to the very best of your ability.