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Generative AI skills are increasingly in demand for job postings across fields.
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As artificial intelligence tools continue to develop, more industries are seeking workers who possess AI skills, creating opportunities for higher education to better prepare students.
A recent report from Lightcast found that job postings requiring generative AI skills for non–computer science or information technology roles grew ninefold between 2022 and 2024, with over 80,000 postings seeking those skills.
In addition to a fast-growing emphasis on AI aptitude, job postings continue to require soft skills including communication, leadership, research and customer service—skills that report authors wrote are necessary for workers to have lasting careers.
“Technical AI capabilities provide the foundation, but success depends on workers who can apply these tools strategically, communicate insights effectively, and solve problems requiring both human judgment and machine capability,” according to the report.
Methodology
Lightcast’s report “Beyond the Buzz” analyzes job postings scraped from various job boards, newspapers and employer sites.
The report calls out a variety of AI skills adopted from the “AI Index Report” from the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, including machine learning and natural language processing, robotics, visual image recognition, AI ethics, autonomous driving, neural networks, and generative AI.
Setting the stage: Anecdotally, employers have called for more education on generative AI tools for those currently in the workforce and future workers. Industry leaders have warned that AI is threatening entry-level roles for young talent, which some say places additional responsibility on colleges to incorporate AI into the curriculum.
Students also indicate they want to better understand how these tools could affect their work.
A May 2024 survey of college students by Inside Higher Ed and Generation Lab found that 20 percent of respondents believe their college or university should ensure students are aware of the impact on careers of emerging technologies such as AI. A survey of recent college graduates also fielded in May 2024 found that colleges weren’t quite hitting the mark on generative AI training; 66 percent said they need more training on how to work with new technologies in their current role.
The report: A Lightcast data analysis found that the average job has seen 32 percent of required skills change from 2021 to 2024, with one in four jobs seeing 75 percent of skills change. Many of these highly disrupted roles are tech-focused, such as computer scientists, mobile-app developers or web developers. However, more jobs outside tech are also seeing AI creep into postings.
“Employers are already posting jobs that require specific AI capabilities, offering substantial salary premiums for these skills, and doing so across every career area from retail to research,” according to the report.
Students most interested in working directly with generative AI have also seen a clear increase in career opportunities. Job postings for generative AI engineers shot up from 1,620 in 2022 to 11,160 in 2024, for example.
The share of jobs requiring AI skills has also grown nine times across job functions, with tens of thousands of jobs unrelated to IT mentioning generative AI skills in their postings. In 2024, a minority of jobs across sectors mentioned AI skills; even in IT and computer science, only 13 percent explicitly call out AI experience as a desired candidate trait. But compared to previous years, the share is growing across sectors, including the military, human resources and design, media and writing.
Some industries remain largely unaffected; fewer than 0.2 percent of jobs posted in the transportation and hospitality, food and tourism sectors mention AI skills, according to the report.
The roles that mention AI skills often have higher posted salaries—an average of 28 percent higher, compared to jobs that don’t mention AI skills—as well.
Gauging the jump in wage earnings for an AI-skilled employee compared to those not using AI is difficult, because AI positions range from a more specialized entry-level position in one field to a senior role with additional expertise in another. For example, in marketing and public relations, search engine optimization specialist roles are more likely to mention AI skills in the posting (19 percent), compared to social media strategists (4 percent).
Do Students Want to Use Generative AI?
Many employers and industry leaders say generative AI skills are the future and that working professionals, particularly young ones, will need to know how to use the tools. But Gen Z has some ethical concerns about the tech. Read more about the dilemma here.
So what? The report authors believe understanding the data around AI skills can improve educational institutions, helping them infuse the curriculum with market-relevant AI and tie financial outcomes to programs for prospective students.
For instructors, it’s important to track skills listed in job postings to best align curricula to workplace needs for their various programs, according to the report.
However, AI should remain a tool for enhancing educational effectiveness rather than replace core pedagogical skills, the authors wrote. The top soft skills needed for AI jobs, according to Lightcast data, include communication, management, operations, leadership, research, customer service, writing and problem-solving.
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