Let’s say you’re interested in working with artificial intelligence (A.I.), perhaps with a focus on machine learning. Why not? Although the market for A.I. skills remains relatively small, those who’ve mastered the core concepts can potentially earn quite a bit in compensation—and work on some very cool projects.
Even if you have the right skills, though, where do you even begin looking for jobs? Many companies don’t bother to post their A.I.-related jobs publicly, since they often have a candidate already in mind for the role. Other A.I. specialists are drawn directly from academia.
Fortunately, there are some companies that post for A.I. jobs in significant quantities. CompTIA recently ran an analysis via Burning Glass, a database of millions of job postings, and discovered the top employers for A.I. job postings in August. Take a look:
What does this tell us? Consulting, finance, healthcare, and technology companies are collecting a lot of the A.I. talent out there, for varying reasons. Consulting companies no doubt wish to contract out these A.I. workers to clients, almost certainly at a healthy premium. Finance, healthcare, and technology companies, meanwhile, all have cutting-edge projects that desperately need A.I. talent—Amazon has a multitude of A.I. efforts in the proverbial pipeline, for example, including making its Alexa digital assistant even smarter.
Microsoft, Dell, and finance firms such as Wells Fargo, meanwhile, all need A.I. to help wrangle and mine huge databases for crucial insights. A recent study of A.I. use-cases showed many companies using the technology in the context of sales, CRM, chatbots, cybersecurity, and marketing automation—all things important to small and large organizations alike.
“The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation and changed how we work,” Khali Henderson, Senior Partner at BuzzTheory and vice chair of CompTIA’s Emerging Technology Community, commented as part of that study. “We learned—somewhat painfully—that traditional tech infrastructure doesn’t provide the agility, scalability and resilience we now require. Going forward, organizations will invest in technologies and services that power digital work, automation and human-machine collaboration. Emerging technologies like AI and IoT will be a big part of that investment, which IDC pegs at $656 billion globally this year.”
Of course, A.I. and machine learning jobs will go more mainstream over the next several years. According to Burning Glass, jobs that heavily involve machine learning are predicted to grow 76.3 percent over the next 10 years. More than 220,000 job postings over the past 12 months mentioned “machine learning” in a meaningful way—quite a large number for a “niche” technology. If you’re interested in A.I., just wait—the opportunities will likely increase.
