AI investment is growing, and so are the career opportunities
- Money is pouring into artificial intelligence — which means more jobs in the space.
- Companies across industries have ramped up their efforts to hire workers who know how to use AI.
Artificial intelligence may have experienced the rapid escalation that characterizes a bubble — but there are no signs that it's going to burst.
Within two months of OpenAI launching its AI chatbot ChatGPT last November, it surpassed 100 million monthly users. Ever since, money has been pouring into the space.
Major tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have invested billions in deals with AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, while venture capital firms have placed eight-figure bets on AI startups. And companies from consulting firms to graphic design platforms are putting resources into internal artificial intelligence strategies.
It doesn't look like the money is going away: While some experts compare the growth of AI to the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s, researchers at Goldman Sachs have argued that there will be no burst and that AI stocks will continue to grow.
More money in AI means more jobs in AI, and companies big and small are now on the hunt for AI talent. These AI jobs range from software developers and machine learning engineers building in-house AI tools to prompt engineers that fine tune AI chatbots to produce the best outputs.
Generative AI has even created a cottage industry of side hustles like ChatGPT course instruction, AI content editing, and newsletters focused on AI-news.
Companies are looking for AI expertise
The number of job postings mentioning GPT or ChatGPT on LinkedIn has grown 21-times since the chatbot came out last year, according to an August report from the company. Forty-four percent of US executives surveyed by LinkedIn in June said they plan to increase their use of AI at their organization in the next year.
"As companies are always looking for ways to increase productivity and drive revenue, it makes sense that more companies would be looking for people who know how to use these emerging AI tools," Karin Kimbrough, LinkedIn's chief economist, previously told Insider.
Earlier this year, Meta, Netflix, and Apple posted listings for AI-related jobs — some offering salaries as high as $900,000 a year — and non-tech companies in the healthcare, education, and legal industries are also looking to hire workers who know how to use AI tools like ChatGPT.
"It's pervasive. It's going to be applied pretty much in every sector," Daron Acemoglu, an economist at MIT, previously told Insider.
To land a job in AI, hiring leaders at companies like Nvidia and IBM suggest applicants emphasize their coding and machine learning skills; attach links to past AI projects in their résumés; and demonstrate their expertise during the interview. Recruiters also suggest applicants articulate how they're using generative AI in their daily lives, and that they follow the latest AI trends and research closely.
Another option: start your own thing
Some people betting on AI are choosing a more entrepreneurial approach: One Gen Zer quit his job at an e-commerce startup to focus on building out his ChatGPT course, which brought in $52,000 in revenue in just four months. A former crypto trader made more than $175,0000 in less than a month teaching people how to use AI to grow their businesses.
Whether you want to leave everything behind for an entirely new career in AI or just become more familiar with chatbots, embracing the technology could be what saves you.
"AI won't take your job," economist Richard Baldwin said during the 2023 World Economic Forum's Growth Summit. "It's somebody using AI that will take your job."
Do you have an interesting story to share on how you switched careers to pursue AI? Contact Insider's Aaron Mok at amok@insider.com