AI is creating a new class of professional roles

AI is creating new roles across companies: engineers build models, data annotators label inputs and evaluate model responses, forward-deployed engineers adapt systems for customers, and newly appointed heads of AI decide how organizations should use the technology.

Google and Accenture are reportedly working together on forward-deployed engineering, with roughly 1,000 people on one team. The Economist says postings for heads of AI, AI engineers and AI directors have roughly doubled since 2023.

Preliminary Burning Glass Institute research estimates that AI jobs now account for about 1% of professional employment in the United States—around 1 million positions—and 4–5% of jobs in computer occupations and life sciences. LinkedIn counted roughly 640,000 new AI-specific jobs between 2023 and 2024. Professional occupations closest to the AI boom added about 730,000 jobs above trend since 2022, although AI did not necessarily create all of them.