By 
Study Reveals The Top-Paying Skills and US States for AI Jobs, Including For Beginners, Worth More Than a PhD
- Searches for AI degrees globally hit five-year record this week, with 2024 inquiries reaching 1.7 million compared to just 0.2 million in 2020, on the backdrop of relentess AI and fintech interest.
- California, Washington, New York, and Oregon pay AI specialists better than elsewhere in America, a study from top engineers reveals.
- Knowing Rust and Golang programming languages gives an average $20k-30k salary boost to AI jobs, better than a PhD.
Worldwide online searches for “AI degree” hit the highest weekly volumes reached this week, soaring to a record 1.7 million in 2024 so far, 70% more than in 2023 and 830% more than in 2020. With Bitcoin just hitting $100,000 value on December 5th, Elon Musk being named head of US president-elect Donald Trump’s DOGE agency, and Nvidia reaping all the benefits from the relentless AI enthusiasm this year to a stellar $3.3 trillion market cap, a career in fintech and AI is worth considering in 2025 and beyond.
RELATED: Google search interest in AI jobs quadruples that of crypto jobs
AI takes centre stage
While higher education degrees are worthwhile, top software engineers at StoryChief.io conducted a thorough study of the US job market and revealed shortcuts to an instant salary boost higher even than a PhD, starting with simply looking for opportunities in the states that pay the most, like California, Washington and New York. The income model they developed is also applicable for complete novices wanting a career change in 2025.
They analyzed 12,634 US job listings on Glassdoor that mention artificial intelligence and display any salary information, published up until and including March 8th, 2024. The research identified the most common keywords relating to requirements like skills, education level and experience length found across all the evaluated job openings.
The model then estimates each keyword’s salary value depending on the state the job is in and identifies a weighted average. Certain keywords have negative values, which does not mean fulfilling those requirements was a disadvantage. Rather, it means that job descriptions containing those keywords tend to pay less.
The study’s model makes it possible to combine US employer locations, various skills, experience length and education levels and o estimate a final average salary worth pursuing.
Top-paying states for AI jobs
California has the highest salaries for AI jobs, averaging $150,110 per year. Surprisingly, the second best-paying state for AI specialists is Washington, where average AI salaries are not far off Californian levels. People working in the AI field in Washington state can expect to earn $143,570 per annum.
Storychief.io’s model has found that the average salary in America for AI jobs is $101,816. Washington DC and another 19 states have a salary above the national level. Alaska, West Virginia and North Dakota have the lowest-paying AI jobs.
The highest concentration of AI jobs is in Washington state (841), California (830), New York state (826), Washington DC (763), Massachusetts (735) and Texas (718). Not all of these necessarily have the highest pay levels. States with the scarcest AI vacancies include Wyoming (8), West Virginia (10), South Dakota (13), Idaho (18) and Vermont (18).
Best paying US states and DC for AI jobs
| # | State/DC | Average AI salary ($) |
| 1 | California | 150,110 |
| 2 | Washington state | 143,570 |
| 3 | New York state | 136,800 |
| 4 | Oregon | 134,190 |
| 5 | Nevada | 123,200 |
| 6 | Colorado | 119,920 |
| 7 | Montana | 117,710 |
| 8 | New Hampshire | 117,410 |
| 9 | Connecticut | 116,100 |
| 10 | New Jersey | 115,600 |
| 11 | Rhode Island | 111,440 |
| 12 | Massachusetts | 111,350 |
| 13 | Arizona | 110,650 |
| 14 | District of Columbia | 105,781 |
| 15 | Arkansas | 105,424 |
| 16 | Minnesota | 104,992 |
| 17 | Delaware | 104,802 |
| 18 | Maryland | 102,869 |
| 19 | Georgia | 102,575 |
| 20 | Nebraska | 102,356 |
| 21 | Texas | 101,305 |
| 22 | Vermont | 101,174 |
| 23 | Illinois | 100,675 |
| 24 | Idaho | 99,996 |
| 25 | Hawaii | 98,906 |
| 26 | Virginia | 98,715 |
| 27 | Utah | 98,400 |
| 28 | North Carolina | 97,873 |
| 29 | Alabama | 97,170 |
| 30 | Missouri | 96,355 |
| 31 | Ohio | 96,264 |
| 32 | Wisconsin | 96,154 |
| 33 | Pennsylvania | 95,234 |
| 34 | Florida | 93,859 |
| 35 | Indiana | 93,822 |
| 36 | Wyoming | 93,300 |
| 37 | Iowa | 93,125 |
| 38 | Tennessee | 92,687 |
| 39 | South Carolina | 92,466 |
| 40 | Kansas | 91,502 |
| 41 | Oklahoma | 91,116 |
| 42 | New Mexico | 90,019 |
| 43 | Louisiana | 89,606 |
| 44 | Michigan | 89,442 |
| 45 | South Dakota | 89,167 |
| 46 | Maine | 88,958 |
| 47 | Kentucky | 85,480 |
| 48 | Mississippi | 80,780 |
| 49 | North Dakota | 78,850 |
| 50 | West Virginia | 73,460 |
| 51 | Alaska | 69,920 |
Top-paying skills for AI jobs
The ability to program in Rust gives candidates the highest pay bump. AI job adverts containing Rust as a requirement offer a salary increase of $29,480, on average. Google’s open-source programming language, called Go or Golang, can boost salaries by $21,080. Other pay-boosting skills include deep learning, Python, PyTorch, Scala, JavaScript and NLP.
Some skills have negative values, which does not mean that having them decreases one’s salary. Instead, job listings that mention these skills tend to have lower-than-average salaries. For example, adverts containing MATLAB, Keras and clustering are usually associated with salaries that are around $8,826-12,990 below average.
Top Salary Boosting Skills for AI Jobs
| # | Requirement | Salary bump ($) |
| 1 | Rust | 29,480 |
| 2 | Golang | 21,080 |
| 3 | Deep learning | 15,660 |
| 4 | Python | 13,100 |
| 5 | PyTorch | 7,223 |
| 6 | Scala | 7,134 |
| 7 | JavaScript | 5,952 |
| 8 | NLP | 3,452 |
| 9 | SQL | -2,426 |
| 10 | Java | -2,767 |
| 11 | Computer vision | -5,882 |
| 12 | R | -6,004 |
| 13 | Regression | -6,314 |
| 14 | Tree methods | -6,852 |
| 15 | Clustering | -8,826 |
| 16 | Keras | -10,180 |
| 17 | MATLAB | -12,990 |
Value of AI experience
Having over 15 years of relevant experience gives AI jobs the biggest salary bump, estimated at $56,790. Experience in the AI field ranging from ten up to 15 years is worth an extra $41,430 above average. Applicants with five to ten years’ worth of relevant experience should expect a $19,700 salary increase compared to their state average. Those with less than five years’ experience in AI can expect to see a salary below average. Even one year’s experience, up to five, generally sees openings that are around $2,086 below the state average.
How much experience impacts AI job salaries
| # | Experience (years) | Salary bump ($) |
| 1 | Over 15 | 56,790 |
| 2 | 10 up to 15 | 41,430 |
| 3 | 5 up to 10 | 19,700 |
| 4 | 1 up to 5 | -2,086 |
Value of education level for AI jobs
AI job listings that mention a bachelor’s degree as a requirement tend to pay $8,756 less than average. Having a master’s degree earns AI specialists an extra $1,534 per year, while PhDs tend to boost average salaries by $3,951.
How much education impacts AI job salaries
| # | Education level (years) | Salary bump ($) |
| 1 | PhD | 3,951 |
| 2 | Master’s degree | 1,534 |
| 3 | Bachelor’s degree | -8,756 |
Valeri Potchekailov, CEO of StoryChief.io, commented on the findings: “While having relevant experience is the clearest factor dictating pay, it is unfair on younger talent keen to see their abilities rewarded appropriately. We sought to identify AI-related skills that could be mastered quickly, resulting in higher pay.
“Surprisingly, even the highest level of education is currently valued about 7.5 times less than knowing how to code in Rust, for example. AI is an incredibly fast-paced environment. While higher education is always valuable, the fact that employers appreciate certain specific skills sometimes more than having a particular degree evens out the playing field for those who cannot access higher education or have limited experience. This is refreshing news and opens the door to AI enthusiasts from all walks of life.
Making informed choices when looking for a job in AI
“Our salary estimate model allows you to combine various factors to have a better understanding of what pay one could expect. For example, someone in a relatively rich state, like Florida, with a relevant bachelor’s degree and three years’ experience in AI, who can code in Golang, Python and JavaScript finds a job requiring all of the above and no other factors mentioned in this study.
To estimate their salary, they should start from the state’s average AI salary, which is $93,859 in Florida, and add or subtract how much the other factors are worth: add $21,080 for Golang, $13,100 –for Python, $5,952 – for JavaScript; subtract $8,756 for having less than five years’ experience. Their final salary estimate is thus $125,235.
“While the skills we analyzed are geographically weighted based on how much employers in each state value them, an identical job listing in a state with better AI salaries is still a useful fact to know, especially when someone is not tied down geographically, or the job is largely remote.
“We hope our findings encourage those who are passionate about AI and have a knack for coding to be more confident and make more informed choices when looking for a job in AI.”
The study was carried out by StoryChief.io, a leading content marketing platform specializing in centralized collaborative content creation, distribution and metrics.
Credit: StoryChief.io
