Amid widespread concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) technology will reduce jobs, hiring for roles that manage AI operations, such as heads of AI and data annotators (data labelers), is increasing rapidly, data showed.

On April 3, online media outlet Gigazine cited analyses by the Wall Street Journal and LinkedIn and Indeed, saying companies are actively looking for dedicated staff to manage AI even as anxiety grows that AI could replace existing work.

LinkedIn's analysis of hiring data from 2023 to 2025 showed AI created 640,000 jobs in the United States, mainly in white-collar roles. The share of AI-related job postings also more than doubled to 3.4 percent in 2025 from 1.6 percent in 2023. Cory Cantinaga (코리 캔틴가), LinkedIn's head of economics, said, "It is not enough to change the direction of the labor market," but added, "AI-related occupations are growing in a straight line."

By job category, the increase in hiring for heads of AI stood out. Some 225,000 hires were made in 2023 to 2025, the data showed. Hiring for data annotators, who check training data for AI and label images, text and audio, also reached 312,000. This is read as a trend in which companies are starting to set aside separate roles for ongoing operation and quality control, beyond simply adopting AI.

The on-the-ground experience is similar. Aari Ansari (아리 안사리), chief executive of AI staffing firm micro1, said demand for AI annotators is increasing explosively. According to the report, micro1 was founded in 2022 but already employs tens of thousands of part-time data annotators. Some annotators have jobs in fields such as journalism and finance, and the average hourly wage was introduced as about $70.

Still, it is too early to say AI hiring has spread evenly across the broader labor market. In an Indeed analysis, 1 percent of all companies accounted for 90 percent of AI-related job postings, indicating demand was concentrated among a small number of firms. Even so, the share of companies posting job ads that mention AI rose to 6 percent in 2025 from 2 percent in 2018. Indeed economist Cory Stahle (코리 스타르) said, "It is not yet clear how much companies need dedicated staff to manage AI," adding, "It is still in the early stages."