Good news for non-robots everywhere. There might still be a job in artificial intelligence with your name on it — and it might pay quite a lot.
The median base pay for open jobs in artificial intelligence is about $111,000 per year, more than twice the U.S. median base pay for full-time workers, $51,000 per year, according to the jobs site Glassdoor. Glassdoor analyzed the artificial-intelligence related jobs on its site to determine that median.
The top-paying AI job, in a sample of open jobs on Glassdoor as of Oct. 20, was director of AI at a tech company, an executive-level role. Glassdoor estimated it would pay roughly $257,000, not including any bonuses and stock-related compensation.
The role of vice president of product management was close behind, with an estimated $249,500 base pay, followed by data engineer for deep learning, at $243,000 in base pay.
“The growth of artificial intelligence is already starting to create new, unexpected jobs in sales, in marketing, in project management, financial services, all types of jobs we wouldn’t think of as tech jobs,” said Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor’s chief economist. “The machines definitely don’t work alone.”
Some jobs not posted on Glassdoor likely pay even more, Chamberlain said. Tech companies who poach top talent for AI jobs pay top dollar, into the seven figures and up, he said.
“Those people are kind of like the NBA players of the tech world.”
Glassdoor also found some unexpected jobs now available because of artificial intelligence, and they aren’t all strictly tech, Chamberlain said.
Jobs in user experience often require a background in art or design, for example. Attorneys now are called upon to solve some ethical and legal questions related to AI, he said. There are even jobs open as “chatbot copywriters,” for individuals who can create text answers to questions customers might ask on a virtual chat that spews automatic responses, known as a “chatbot.”
It’s easy to see some jobs being “destroyed” by AI, but this report shows there are also a few jobs being created, Chamberlain said.
“Who in sales would have thought, ‘I’m going to someday be a technical sales director for an AI group?’” he said. “You could never have seen that coming.”