AI is often criticized for taking away human jobs, but it is also increasingly generating new ones.
As companies look for candidates who are knowledgeable in artificial intelligence, the number of job posts mentioning the technology has increased recently, according to a new Brookings Institution survey. According to the Washington, D.C.-based think group, job ads with an AI theme have risen by more than 100% in the past year alone.
According to data from labor market analytics firm Lightcast, Brookings found that over the past 15 years, AI-related job listings have increased at an average yearly pace of roughly 29%, above the broader economy’s 11% posting rate.
As more businesses begin incorporating AI into their processes, there is an increasing need for AI specialists. According to Brookings, which cited statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), the percentage of businesses in the industrial sector that use AI has more than doubled, from 4% in early 2023 to almost 9% as of mid-2025.
Even though the number of AI jobs has increased recently, they still only account for a small portion of the labor market as a whole. According to investment firm Goldman Sachs, adoption will peak in the early 2030s.
Goldman Sachs senior global economist Joseph Briggs stated, “AI is definitely visible in the micro labor market data, but it doesn’t seem like it’s driving the overall labor market dynamic.”
Which AI jobs?
According to Elena Magrini, worldwide head of research at Lightcast, the growing AI job market requires a variety of skill sets, from more broad AI-related jobs like software developers to more specialized AI-specific professions like AI engineers.
According to Brookings, the number of job posts mentioning generative AI talents increased from 3,780 in 2010 to over 80,000 in 2025.
Indeed Hiring Lab economist Cory Stahle stated that the growing need for consultants who can assist firms in integrating AI is a result of organizations’ increasing embrace of the technology. Indeed reports that job postings for so-called responsible AI positions—which center on the moral application of AI technologies in society and business—are also increasing.
To put it another way, Stahle stated that as companies come up with innovative and creative methods to use the technology responsibly, the concept of what it means to be a “AI job” is evolving daily.
Given their tendency to be linked to greater compensation, AI roles could prove to be an especially alluring segment of the American labor market. According to a different Lightcast analysis, job posts mentioning AI talents pay $18,000 on average, or 28% more annually, than identical occupations that don’t need AI skills.
Where can one find employment in AI?
With 13% of all AI-related job posts occurring in tech hotspots like Silicon Valley, it should come as no surprise that AI employment growth tends to be focused there. Seattle makes up 7%, according to Lightcast statistics.
However, according to Mark Muro, a senior scholar at Brookings Metro, AI jobs are beginning to appear in other regions of the US, such as the Sunbelt and the East Coast between Boston and Washington, D.C. He pointed out that universities have also acted as the catalyst for the expansion of AI jobs.
AI expertise is becoming more and more necessary in non-technical domains like marketing, finance, and human resources, according to Magrini. According to Lightcast data, in 2024, more than half of job postings seeking AI skills were outside of the IT and computer science fields.
Muro stated that although adoption varies by region, he anticipates that companies will embrace AI at a faster rate in the upcoming years as they become aware of its advantages and disadvantages.
According to him, there appears to be broad agreement that this is crucial for productivity and that it energizes businesspeople and regional leaders.
