The rise of the ‘AI engineer’ and what it means for the future of tech jobs

• AI opens up new career opportunities for software developers looking to transition into different roles.

• Developers at an AI roundtable said the tech job market is fluctuating rapidly due to AI generation.

• This article is part of the ‘CXO AI Playbook’: clear conversations from business leaders about how they test and use AI.

A few years ago, Kesha Williams was ready to leave her tech career behind, but then the AI ​​boom brought her back.

“I’ve been in tech for 30 years, and before generation AI, I was ready to retire,” she says. “I think I’ll stay here and see where this goes.” Williams is head of enterprise architecture and engineering at Slalom.

Williams and six other developers from companies like Amazon, Meta, Anaconda, and more joined Business Insider’s virtual roundtable in November to discuss how AI is changing the software development landscape.

While hiring and recruitment in many tech jobs are declining due to the increased adoption of AI coding tools, developers say AI is also opening up new career opportunities.

A new career path

Panelists said the rise of jobs focused on building AI models and functions is a recent development in the sector.

“One of the biggest things I’ve noticed over the last two to three years is the emergence of a job title called ‘AI engineer,’ which didn’t exist before, and is a cross between a machine learning engineer and a traditional software engineer,” said Shruti Kapoor, a leading member of the engineering staff at Slack. “I’m seeing more and more companies where ‘AI engineer’ is one of the highest-paying jobs available to software engineers.”

Salary trends from Levels.fyi, an online platform that allows tech workers to compare their pay packages, found that entry-level AI engineers can earn 8% more than their non-AI engineer counterparts over the past two years, and senior engineers can earn nearly 11% more.

Neeraj Verma, head of applied AI at Nice, said during the roundtable that AI has enabled software engineers at his company to transition internally into AI roles. He said that more than 20% of developers in Nice have moved into AI-related roles in the past two years, with around 100 of these individuals considered experts in rapid engineering.

Verma said the company’s developers are not only powered by AI; they are actively involved in using the technology to build other AI features.

He added that many senior-level developers with strong coding skills at the company have expressed interest in moving to AI to apply their skills in new ways. Nice has set up training programs to help these employees learn the technology and make internal career changes.

AI-specialized jobs include machine learning engineers, prompt engineers, and AI researchers. While the skills that could be useful for each of these jobs may differ, Kapoor says an AI engineering role doesn’t necessarily require a specific technical background. For example, employees with previous experience in industries such as accounting and product management have been able to move into the AI ​​space.

Adapt to change

Just as AI is changing the software development process, developers say professional opportunities in AI may also be constantly evolving.

“Software development in five years will change much faster than anything we’ve ever seen before,” Igor Ostrovsky, Augment’s co-founder, said during the roundtable. “How you design, develop, test and maintain software will all change, and exactly how you handle AI will evolve too.”

Researchers are already questioning the long-term potential of fast-paced tech jobs, whose demand will skyrocket in 2023. They say generative AI models could soon be trained to optimize their own prompts.

“I think rapid engineering is more a sign that some developers have a desire to learn and are eager to figure out how to interact with AI, but it won’t necessarily be the way you interact with AI in three or five years. ” Ostrovsky said.

The pace of technology development means that software developers’ ability to learn creatively, adapt and solve problems will be more important than ever to stay ahead.

Read the original article on Business Insider