As organizations across industries intensify their push to enhance efficiencies and use of artificial intelligence, many are also coming under increased pressure to demonstrate measurable business impact. To ensure the responsible, trustworthy integration of multimodal and agentic AI systems at scale, new job positions continue to open for professionals with tangible AI expertise — specifically, those with experience in higher-level AI systems who can architect their deployment across the enterprise.
Following a strong third quarter, the U.S. AI job market maintained its upward trajectory in the fourth quarter of 2025, adding nearly 3,500 new AI-related openings from October through December. The Q4 total of 45,465 AI jobs is roughly 40% higher than the total from a year prior, and an impressive 90.7% increase from Q4 2023.
And, as observed in Q3, the job market is shifting away from more general data science roles in favor of higher-level leadership positions, like systems architects and project managers — an indication that many companies have moved beyond AI’s more foundational steps and are now putting systems to work at scale.
“The resilience of AI hiring in a cooling labor market underscores how strategically important AI has become across business,” said Alex Fourlis, General Manager of Veritone Hire. “Organizations are continuing to prioritize specialized, high-level AI roles as they see increased ROI and competitive advantage from scaled AI adoption. At Veritone, we see this hiring data as a strong indicator of the increasing investment in AI across industries and the technology’s shift from experimentation to a mission-critical initiative at the C-suite level.”
AI job growth continues to rise while overall labor market shrivels
The growth in AI positions is particularly notable given the poor performance of the overall labor market. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the labor market shifted from average monthly gains of 47,500 jobs in Q3 to average monthly losses of nearly 20,000 in Q4, driven largely by October’s net loss of 173,000 jobs. Coming on the heels of Q3’s 25.3% decline from the preceding quarter, this year was the weakest for job gains since 2020.
Once again, the AI sector has remained immune to this overall frigidity. According to the latest data from Aspen Tech Labs (ATL), AI-related jobs experienced an 8.1% growth during the final quarter of 2025. While down slightly from the 14.2% rise observed in the fall, this figure is still double the 3.9% increase from Q1 to Q2.
While technology companies continue to comprise the top five employers for AI-related roles, there was a shakeup in the rankings from previous quarters. Amazon continues to hold the number one spot with 743 active job postings in Q4 2025, but Apple has fallen out of the top three, replaced by Microsoft in the number two position.
The top three AI employers in Q4 2025 were as follows:
- Amazon: 743 live roles
- Microsoft: 604 roles
- Google: 537 roles
Walmart and JPMorgan Chase remained the only non-tech companies among leading AI employers, underscoring their forward-looking investment in AI and overall AI leadership in their respective industries.
Management, engineer and systems architect job growth remains strong, while research roles rebound
Following the trends noted in the third quarter of 2025, the AI job market appears to be continuing in its shift beyond simple data analysis and into an era defined by engineering, production, and scaled deployment.
The most telling indicator of this shift is the ascent of the AI/ML Engineer, which, with a remarkable 74.4% year-over-year growth, overtook Data Scientist as the role with the most openings in the final quarter of 2025, climbing 8.9% in that quarter alone to reach 15,295 vacancies. This starkly contrasts with the role of Data Scientist, which saw only modest annual growth of 4.5% to 15,028 openings and a slight contraction in Q4, suggesting its position as a core but saturating function. This changing of the guard signifies that the central challenge for organizations is no longer simply interpreting data but is now about building, deploying, and maintaining robust AI systems in live environments.
This engineering-centric reality is further reinforced by the concurrent boom in strategic and management roles. The demand for AI/ML Architects, who design these complex systems, surged by an incredible 130.2% over the course of the year, while the need for Product/Project Managers to oversee their implementation nearly doubled. The sustained quarterly growth for both roles, at 16.8% and 18.8% respectively, illustrates a clear investment in the leadership required to scale AI across the enterprise.
As organizations build out these production-focused engineering teams, they are simultaneously shedding the specialized, manual functions of a previous era. The continued decline of the Big Data Engineer role—shrinking by 21.1% in Q4 and nearly 20% year-over-year—points to a foundational shift in the technology stack. As companies increasingly adopt comprehensive AI platforms that automate the complex and once-manual processes of data organization, the need for this specialized data management role is diminishing, with its remaining duties either being handled by these advanced platforms or absorbed into the versatile skillset of the modern AI/ML Engineer.
Compensation remains high as the market continues to spread to non-traditional geographies
Highlighting the strategic value placed on artificial intelligence, professionals in AI-focused roles consistently command higher salaries than their IT peers. In Q4 2025, the median salary for AI-related jobs was $163,280—over 25% higher than the median for non-AI IT roles. This premium is particularly pronounced for specialized talent, as AI Software Developer salaries rebounded robustly to $169,998, re-establishing a nearly 17% pay gap over their non-AI counterparts. This trend reinforces the high value the market places on engineers capable of operationalizing advanced AI systems.
This expansion is also geographic. The market for AI talent is accelerating its spread beyond traditional tech epicenters, with the most dynamic growth now concentrated in new regions. While California, New York, and Texas still host the most open positions, Oklahoma led the nation in Q4 growth with a remarkable 89.7% surge in openings. Other states like Kentucky (+84.0%), West Virginia (+57.1%), and Alaska (+125%) also posted substantial gains. This geographic diffusion illustrates AI’s deepening integration into the broader economy, signaling that it is no longer a siloed innovation but a fundamental component of business operations across nearly every sector and state.
As the market matures, engineering and strategy are poised to define AI’s next chapter
The Q4 2025 data reveal an AI job market that is rapidly maturing, shifting decisively from exploration to scaled production. This evolution is marked by the ascent of the AI/ML Engineer as the most in-demand role, explosive growth in strategic leadership positions like architects and managers, and a geographic expansion into new industrial heartlands. Even as AI job growth defies the broader economic slowdown, it increasingly rewards specialized, high-level talent with significant salary premiums. Ultimately, the findings show AI cementing its role not as a theoretical discipline, but as a core, engineered business function being integrated across every state and sector.
