The AI boom and growing talent shortage have resulted in companies paying AI software engineers significantly more than their non-AI counterparts.
As of April 2024, AI software engineers in the U.S. earned an average salary of nearly $300,000, while other software technicians earned about $100,000 less, according to data collected by salary data website Levels.fyi. The pay gap, which was already around 30% in mid-2022, has increased to almost 50%.
“It is clear that companies value AI skills and are willing to pay a premium for them, regardless of what position you work in,” wrote data analyst Alina Kolesnikova in a Levels.fyi report. In some companies this disproportion is more noticeable. For example, robotics company Cruise pays staff-level AI engineers an average of $680,500, while their non-AI colleagues earn $185,500 less, according to Levels.fyi.
Some companies go to great lengths to recruit the best and brightest AI engineers. That covers it offering salaries of up to $1 million, taking over startups, extorting talent from rivals. They too investing in training the next generation of AI workers: : J.P. Morgan spent an undisclosed sum establishing an artificial intelligence research center at Carnegie Mellon University, and Amazon has committed to training 2 million people worldwide by 2025 to better understand generative artificial intelligence.
The demand for AI-savvy recruits will continue to grow as Huge Tech invests more resources into developing the world’s latest and greatest AI technologies.
“As AI shakes up much of the industry, it is also raising the bar for engineering salaries in 2024.” – wrote Kolesnikova. “It’s a testament to where companies choose to invest and where they want to compete for the best talent.”