Could High-Paying AI Careers Become a Trend? Inside $250K+ Jobs at Walmart, Amazon and More
The rapid surge of artificial intelligence is changing the workplace. While much has been said about the technology’s potential threats — replacing jobs — another trend is emerging in parallel: companies searching to hire AI-skilled employees and being ready to pay top dollar for them.
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The Wall Street Journal reported that companies are competing to lure talent and looking to avoid losing out to rivals, with salaries almost reaching seven figures.
For instance, Netflix has a job posting regarding a product manager position for a machine-learning platform. The position offers a total compensation of up to $900,000 annually, according to the posting.
And The Wall Street Journal reported that online dating platform Hinge is looking for a president of AI — a job that comes with a base salary of $332,000 to $398,000 a year. Meanwhile, a vice president of AI and machine-learning position at Upwork boasts an advertised salary of $260,000 to $437,000 a year, a senior manager of applied science and generative AI at Amazon lists a top salary of $340,300 and Walmart is hiring for a position on its conversational AI team. Walmart is offering a base salary of $168,000 to $252,000 annually.
According to Peter Cohan — associate professor of management practice, Babson College — while fear mongers wail about how many jobs generative AI will destroy, the reality is more complicated.
Cohan said generative AI will create some new jobs, will remove the drudgery from many other jobs and will — as many fear — eliminate jobs.
Yet, he also noted that of the new jobs generative AI will create, only a tiny fraction of workers have the education and experience required to attract offers topping $1 million.
“The average worker will not qualify for such jobs and is unlikely to be able to obtain the education and experience needed to qualify before the generative AI boom levels off,” said Cohan. “My first thought when I read generative AI jobs were going for $900,000 was that those high salaries were typical of an expanding bubble. How long that bubble expands before bursting depends on whether companies can keep investing in high payoff generative AI applications to justify employing such pricey talent. If generative AI does not pay off, those highly paid people could find themselves out of a job.”
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As The Wall Street Journal explained, some companies said they would need to train existing employees to take on AI projects because there are too few mid-level or senior employees with the desired skills. Doing so is also expensive.
“AI talent is hard to get. It’s expensive. And at the same time, it is highly selective,” Bill McDermott, ServiceNow’s CEO and chairman, told The Wall Street Journal. “People want to go to places where they not only can prosper financially, but they can work on things that inspire them because they have ultimate choice.”
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