AI Salary Growth by Role

The AI Salary Growth by Role Explorer provides an interactive look at how compensation for AI-related positions has evolved from 2020 to 2023. As artificial intelligence continues to reshape industries—from healthcare and finance to manufacturing and customer service—demand for specialized talent has surged, driving salaries upward across nearly all major roles. This tool leverages aggregated salary data from public reports, including Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, LinkedIn Talent Insights, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and industry-specific AI salary benchmarks, to offer estimated trends for 25 common AI career paths.

Understanding ai salary growth by role is critical for job seekers, hiring managers, and industry analysts alike. For professionals, tracking salary growth can inform career decisions, such as pursuing promotions, changing employers, or developing new skills. For employers, comparing regional and role-specific compensation trends helps ensure competitive offers and retention strategies. And for policymakers and educators, observing salary trends can signal emerging skill gaps and areas requiring workforce development.

While the tool presents estimated salary ranges for 2020 and 2023, it's important to note that these figures are not exact. They represent broad medians derived from self-reported data and employer surveys across various geographies, experience levels, and company sizes. For example, a Machine Learning Engineer in San Francisco may see higher base salaries than one in Atlanta due to cost-of-living differences. Similarly, senior AI researchers at top tech firms or research labs typically earn significantly more than their peers at early-stage startups. This variation highlights the importance of context when interpreting salary trends.

This explorer aims to add clarity to the ai salary growth by role conversation. Whether you're exploring a career transition into AI, benchmarking your current compensation, or planning your organization's talent pipeline, these insights can help you navigate the rapidly evolving AI talent market.

How It Works

This AI Salary Growth Explorer allows users to filter and compare salary trends across 25 distinct AI roles. Use the search filter to look up specific job titles (e.g., "NLP Engineer") or select a growth range (e.g., 50%+) to see roles with the fastest-rising salaries. The table displays estimated salaries for 2020 and 2023, along with percentage growth over the period.

Click on column headers to sort by salary, growth rate, or role name. Each row includes common locations where the role is frequently found, though many positions—particularly technical ones—are increasingly remote-friendly.

Methodology Note

All data in this tool are ESTIMATES based on aggregated, anonymized salary reports sourced from publicly available datasets. Primary data sources include:

• Glassdoor’s Salary Reports: Self-reported compensation data from employees across industries.
• Levels.fyi: Detailed compensation data for tech roles, including base salary, bonuses, and equity.
• LinkedIn Talent Insights: Talent supply and demand trends, including salary benchmarks.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational employment and wage estimates.
• Annual AI Salary Reports: Industry-specific reports published by firms like McKinsey, BCG, and O'Reilly.

The 2020 and 2023 salary figures represent median total compensation (including base salary and bonuses) for mid-level professionals with 3–5 years of experience, typically based in the U.S. Growth percentages reflect the change between these two time points. Exact figures vary based on location, company size, individual experience, and other factors.

The tool does not include equity, stock options, or signing bonuses—common in startup environments—which can significantly increase total compensation for certain roles (e.g., AI Research Scientists at AI labs or tech giants).

Frequently Asked Questions