Author: Think AI, Aaron

Storage prices have skyrocketed, and Apple has announced a global price increase of 20% for computers; in the AI era, no one can escape the rise in AI prices.

Not just storage, chips and optical communication are continuously rising, and AI talent salaries have skyrocketed even more.

Data from MaiMai shows that the monthly salary for AI positions is rapidly increasing, with the average monthly salary reaching 60,738 yuan; the average monthly salary for AI scientists has surged to 137,153 yuan, leading all positions by a wide margin.

Even non-technical AI operation positions in first-tier cities can offer salaries from 15,000 to 30,000 yuan per month for established teams.

More and more people are switching to AI jobs due to a severe talent shortage in the industry, providing opportunities for ordinary individuals.

An industry veteran mentioned: Last year, the demand for AI talent increased by tenfold, and in the first half of this year, it surged again by 8.5 times;

However, on the other side, layoffs in traditional positions are accelerating, and anxiety over AI replacement is sweeping across various industries.

In the face of a once-in-a-century transformation, large companies are investing unprecedented amounts to attract talent,

with companies like Tencent and ByteDance in heated competition for talent, with no cap on salary budgets for core talents. The competition for talent has even extended to teenagers.

Many people are confused about how ordinary individuals can benefit from this AI boom; if one cannot code, does that mean they can only watch from the sidelines?

The AI Job Pyramid

Although AI industry salaries are generally high, there is a vast salary gap between different levels of positions, ranging from 130,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan per month.

The founder and CEO of the leading platform MaiMai, Lin Fan, categorizes AI talent into three levels:

First is the entry-level research position, which has the highest salary ceiling and is where large companies are competing fiercely for core talent.

This level starts with an annual salary of 800,000 yuan, with senior experts generally earning between 1.5 million to 3 million yuan, while top talents have no upper limit, with equity and signing bonuses being standard.

Representative positions include familiar roles such as AI scientist, pre-training engineer for large models, high-performance computing engineer, embodied intelligence algorithm expert, and AI chip operator development engineer, among others.

However, the entry requirements are indeed high, with almost all candidates holding master's degrees or PhDs in computer science, mathematics, or related fields, along with experience on top conference papers or core projects from large companies, making it very difficult for ordinary people and recent graduates to access.

Additionally, the fastest-growing positions are embodied intelligence and robotics algorithm engineers, with a year-on-year growth of 15 times; industrial automation, humanoid robotics, and autonomous driving are in the early stages of explosive growth, with a significant mid-to-long-term shortage, but the barriers to entry are relatively high.

Most people focusing on this level of anxiety is indeed meaningless, just like no one would feel anxious about not becoming an academician because of their high salaries.

The second level is application development talent, with annual salaries ranging from 450,000 to 1 million yuan; outstanding master's graduates with 1-3 years of experience can earn around 500,000 yuan. After the recent success of crayfish, the market has seen the potential for large-scale AI applications, making AI application talent the core of competition.

This year's total recruitment for AI positions has seen model application engineers as the largest segment, accounting for about 40% of all AI recruitment positions, where deep expertise in underlying mathematics is not required. Knowledge of API, fine-tuning, and knowledge base construction is adequate.

These positions require an understanding of business flow, agents, and how to embed AI into specific work scenarios. There is a severe shortage of talent in this area.

Finally, there are AI usage talents, which represent an opportunity for ordinary individuals to get involved.

With annual salaries ranging from 100,000 to 500,000 yuan, top bachelor graduates in first-tier cities with 1-2 years of experience or excellent workers without a degree can exceed 250,000 yuan. The barriers to entry are relatively lower, with this level placing more emphasis on project experience and the ability to integrate with actual business.

There is no need for a deep technical background, but with a profound understanding of the business, one can leverage AI to accomplish tasks far beyond everyday work.

Corresponding positions at this level include: AI trainer, AI content operator, AI product operator, AI compliance reviewer, etc. AI trainers/data annotation roles can be entered without any coding skills; the talent gap for AI trainers nationwide has already exceeded 5 million.

World Economic Forum Report: 170 Million New Jobs

This AI talent war, as pointed out by the World Economic Forum's report last year, is not a temporary phenomenon.

The report indicated that by 2030, 170 million new jobs will be created globally, while 92 million jobs will be displaced, resulting in a net increase of 78 million jobs.

The report is based on a survey of over 1,000 leading employers globally. Among them, AI and information processing technologies will create 11 million new positions while displacing 9 million existing ones.

Musk has also stated that AI will make the world in the next decade extremely polarized, with one side experiencing extreme prosperity and the other facing mass unemployment.

However, overall, new jobs are still being created; AI has not eliminated jobs, but rather restructured them. New trends are forming, and exceptional individuals have already taken early actions and made their choices.

How to Get on the Fast Track?

This is the question that everyone is most concerned about and also the most anxious about. As can be seen from the previous text, even individuals who do not know how to code can still enter the AI industry.

AI, as the strongest tool currently available, when mastered, can improve efficiency and capabilities significantly, just as the discovery of fire enhanced the abilities of primitive humans, making salary increases almost inevitable.

However, due to the current hype surrounding AI, the market is filled with mixed offerings; thus, avoiding pitfalls is crucial.

Courses and training that charge excessively proliferate, but the practical significance of tools that can be found directly online is rather limited;

seeing the high salaries of algorithm engineers and blindly trying to roll into technical positions at a cost-effective rate can instead waste one’s industry experience;

currently, pure prompt engineer positions are already shrinking, as prompt skills without business relevance hold no commercial value; new models and new tools emerge quickly, easily trapping people in the latest trends.

For non-technical background individuals, combining AI with their current field of work will build a more competitive edge.

Learning AI tools that enhance efficiency without being overly ambitious; engaging in practical operations, building one’s own workflow, and creating a personal AI assistant, followed by compiling projects.

For example, using AI tools to operate an account that continuously produces content; setting up a simple AI assistant using agents; accepting gigs on freelance platforms to accumulate real case studies.

Industry predictions suggest that the current shortage of AI talent will last for more than three years; beginning now, everything is still timely.

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