A Blog by Jonathan Low

 

Dec 11, 2019

AI Specialist Supplants Blockchain Developer As Year's Hottest Job Skill

After the collapse of crytocurrencies, the 'blockchain developer' category didnt even make it on to this year's list. That is unlikely to happen to AI. JL


Jonathan Vanian reports in Fortune:

A.I. specialist is the fastest growing U.S. job in terms of number of hires according to LinkedIn. Hirings for A.I. specialists on the career networking service have grown 74% annually over the past four years. Last year’s top job role, blockchain developer, is absent from the latest list. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain created a brief demand for jobs, but as the hype died, so did demand. No. 2 on the list was "robotics engineer." The third was "data scientist." Software, Internet, information technology, higher education, and consumer electronics are the industries with the biggest appetite. The most common jobs A.I. specialists held prior include “software engineer,” “data scientist,” “research assistant,” and “data engineer.”
Bye bye blockchain developer, hello artificial intelligence specialist.
That role, A.I. specialist, is the fastest growing U.S. job in terms of number of hires, at least according to LinkedIn, which published its annual emerging jobs report on Tuesday.
Hirings for A.I. specialists on the career networking service have grown 74% annually over the past four years, LinkedIn said. But it didn't reveal how many jobs that represents, only that demand for that job role is growing faster than other emerging jobs.

What’s noteworthy about this year’s survey is that last year’s top job role, blockchain developer, is absent from the latest list. It highlights how the recent craze over cryptocurrencies and blockchain created a brief demand for blockchain-related jobs, but as the hype died down, so too did demand for people with blockchain skills.
“It was spectacular, but vanished very quickly,” LinkedIn’s principal economist Guy Berger said. The fact that blockchain developers did not make this year’s emerging job list caused Berger to say that it validates his company's data by showing it accurately reflects “a failed trend or a flash in the pan.”
No. 2 on the list was "robotics engineer," an umbrella term for both physical robotics and so-called robotic process automation, a trendier technology that involves software automating basic tasks like entering data into a table. The third fastest growing job in terms of hiring was "data scientist."
A.I. specialist is an evolution of other machine-learning and data-crunching job titles that have topped the list before. Although A.I. specialists may share some traits with data scientists, the work of data scientists involves a wider set of statistical or data visualizations tools versus just machine learning software, Berger said.
The top metropolitan areas where A.I. specialists are in demand include the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Boston, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Computer software, Internet, information technology, higher education, and consumer electronics are the industries with the biggest appetite.
The most common jobs that A.I. specialists held prior to labeling themselves with the title include “software engineer,” “data scientist,” “research assistant,” and “data engineer,” a LinkedIn spokesperson said. This suggests that people may be updating their job titles to include artificial intelligence, to put themselves in a better position to capitalize on the current A.I. boom.
“When you talk about A.I., again it’s super high in demand,” Berger said. “I think there’s more and more interest in taking data science to the next level.”

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