While everyone is riding the generative AI wave, we might as well encash it. The ones equipped with AI skills seem to be the kings in the current genAI wave. 

With companies offering exorbitantly high salaries for AI-related roles, it’s the best place to be in. Last month, Netflix was in the limelight for offering a salary of up to $900,000 for the role of a product manager on their machine learning platform team. The news came in at a time when the Hollywood writer’s strike was ongoing. While it caused a lot of hullabaloo, Netflix is not the only one which is ready to handsomely pay for AI-related roles. A number of companies are following suit. Is the AI salary rage warranted? 

According to Indeed, there are multiple generative AI roles offered by big tech companies including Meta, NVIDIA, Anthropic, Microsoft, Adobe and many others, where the salaries offered go up to as high as half a million dollars. A technical product manager in AI safety, in Anthropic, is being offered salaries of up to $520,000, and a principal engineer AI in HubSpot, gets $427,000. 

It’s not only tech or AI companies that are offering such excessively high salaries. Consumer and services companies that are implementing AI to transform their products are willing to pay high salaries too. Dating app Hinge was looking to hire a VP for AI to oversee their app’s AI strategy, for a salary of $398,000. The role will entail leading a team of data scientists, and ML engineers to develop AI features. Retail corporation Walmart was also looking to hire a senior manager for its conversational AI platform for a salary of up to $252,000 a year. 

All In One

With generative AI taking centre-stage, the influence on the job market is evident. As per AIM Research, the generative AI job market has witnessed a steady growth from January to June of this year. There are over 4200+ generative AI-related jobs in the US and it has risen by 20% in May. Furthermore, job roles have been modified to suit the current trend. The role of a generative AI engineer that did not exist earlier will now require the competencies of that of a deep learning, ML, NL, and software engineer. 

Almost like a mandatory need, the multiple roles are now a necessity. The amalgamation of multiple roles has been descriptively placed under ‘qualifications section’ for these open job roles that are offering huge salaries. For instance, the role of ‘Senior Research Scientist-generative AI’ in NVIDIA, that offers a salary of up to $414,000 a year, a candidate should not only possess a thorough knowledge of python/C++ programming skills, but also an excellent knowledge of theory and practice of deep learning, computervision, natural language processing or computer graphics. The candidate should also be a Ph.D holder in Computer Science/Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or any related field. 

Similarly, a ‘Product Technical Program Manager-generative AI’ for Meta, with a salary package of up to $297,000, requires technical and leadership experience. The candidate must have experience developing large-scale ML/AI platforms such as dataset generation, feature development, model testing and support the development of AI-powered product experiences such as NLP, computer-vision, ranking and personalisation. 

The Layoffs-Hiring Balance

Interestingly, the large layoffs that happened across big tech at the start of the year, seems to have minimal impact with the way things are unfolding now. Scale AI, a data platform for AI that provides training data for ML teams, had laid off 20% of their workforce in January. However, last month, ScaleAI posted a job opening in Indeed for a ‘software engineer- generative AI’ offering up to $215,000 in salary. 

There are even companies that have laid off employees owing to AI chatbots and efficient processes with generative AI implementation. In May, executive outplacement and career consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, attributed 4000 job losses to artificial intelligence, making it the first time for the company to mention AI as a cause of job loss. Indian ecomm platform, for merchants, Dukaan recently laid off 90% of their support staff replacing them with their new AI chatbot. 

Though big tech layoffs have occurred owing to recession or automation, it doesn’t seem to throw cold water over the ambitious hiring process that companies have started. While it looks promising at the moment, it is to be seen how long the generative AI hiring wave will remain.