A new study has found the top skills and states that offer the biggest salary bumps in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Being able to program using Rust or Golang increases expected pay by $20,000-$30,000. Meanwhile, AI specialists have the highest average salaries in California and Washington.
This is according to new research from content operations software StoryChief.io, which analyzed 12,634 US job listings on Glassdoor that mention artificial intelligence and display any salary information. US employers published them up until and including March 8th, 2024.
Keyword Insights
The research identified the most common keywords relating to requirements like skills, education level and experience length found across all the evaluated job openings. The model then estimates each keyword’s salary value depending on the state the job is in and identifies a weighted average. Certain keywords have negative values, which does not mean fulfilling those requirements was a disadvantage. Rather, it means that job descriptions containing those keywords tend to pay less.
The study’s model makes it possible to combine various skills, experience length, education levels and location factors to estimate a final average salary worth pursuing.
The ability to program in Rust gives candidates the highest pay bump. AI job adverts containing Rust as a requirement offer a salary increase of $29,480, on average. Google’s open-source programming language, called Go or Golang, can boost salaries by $21,080. Other pay-boosting skills include deep learning, Python, PyTorch, Scala, JavaScript and NLP.
Some skills have negative values, which does not mean that having them decreases one’s salary. Instead, job listings that mention these skills tend to have lower-than-average salaries. For example, adverts containing MATLAB, Keras and clustering are usually associated with salaries that are around $8,826-12,990 below average.
California has the highest salaries for AI jobs, averaging $150,110 per year. Surprisingly, the second best-paying state for AI specialists is Washington, where average AI salaries are not far off Californian levels. People working in the AI field in Washington state can expect to earn $143,570 per annum.
AI Salary Averages Across the U.S.
Storychief.io’s model has found that the average salary in America for AI jobs is $101,816. Washington DC and another 19 states have a salary above the national level. Alaska, West Virginia And North Dakota have the lowest-paying AI jobs.
The highest concentration of AI jobs is in Washington state (841), California (830), New York state (826), Washington DC (763), Massachusetts (735) and Texas (718). Not all of these necessarily have the highest pay levels. States with the scarcest AI vacancies include Wyoming (8), West Virginia (10), South Dakota (13), Idaho (18) and Vermont (18).
AI job listings that mention a bachelor’s degree as a requirement tend to pay $8,756 less than average. Having a master’s degree earns AI specialists an extra $1,534 per year, while PhDs tend to boost average salaries by $3,951.
Valeri Potchekailov, CEO of StoryChief.io said: “While having relevant experience is the clearest factor dictating pay, it is unfair on younger talent keen to see their abilities rewarded appropriately. We sought to identify AI-related skills that could be mastered quickly, resulting in higher pay.“
