High-demand AI skills to elevate your career in 2025

• Experience working with ‘recommendation systems’ is the most lucrative AI skill in the US, with a median salary of $195,000 across 185 job listings on Glassdoor.

• Experience using ‘Natural Language Understanding (NLU)’ and ‘CUDA’ were the second and third most valuable AI skills, with salaries for jobs listing these skills averaging $188,600 and $187,500 respectively.

• ‘Machine learning’ is the most sought-after AI skill in the US, appearing in 16,760 job adverts. 

According to a new study, experience working with ‘recommendation systems’ is the most lucrative AI skill in the US. 

The study, conducted by invoice software company Bookipi, analyzed 39,139 unique US jobs on Glassdoor that mentioned Artificial Intelligence (AI) and associated keywords, to reveal the job listings and skills with the highest average median salaries. 

The research also identified the AI skills that appear in most job listings to reveal the most sought-after AI skills. 

Top-paying skills for AI jobs 

Jobs requiring experience working with ‘recommendation systems’ offer the highest median salaries, with a median salary of $195,000 across 185 listings.  

AI job listings containing ‘Natural Language Understanding (NLU)’ as a requirement offer a median salary of $188,600 across 144 listings, making NLU the second most lucrative AI skill. 

Experience using ‘CUDA’ closely follows in third place, with a median salary of $187,500 across 352 listings. 

Machine Learning ‘Model Evaluation’ is the fourth most lucrative AI skill, with a median salary of $183,263 across 107 job listings. 

Experience using ‘MXNet’ ranks fifth, with a median salary of $183,000 across 105 job listings. 

Job adverts containing ‘Apache Flink’ offer a median salary of $182,745, making it the sixth most lucrative AI skill. 

‘Speech recognition’ follows in seventh place, with a median salary of $179,100 across 117 listings. 

‘Distributed systems’ and ‘deep learning’ rank eighth and ninth, offering median salaries of $176,450 and $175,000, respectively. 

‘Reinforcement learning’ is the tenth most lucrative AI skill, with a median salary of $172,838 across all 461 job listings requiring this skill. 

The 10 most lucrative AI skills 

The most sought-after AI skills 

Experience with ‘machine learning’ is the most sought-after AI skill, with 16,760 job listings requiring this skill. The median salary for jobs in Machine Learning is $145,000. 

Experience using ‘python’ is the second most sought-after AI skill, with 11,657 AI job adverts mentioning it. Python roles have a median salary of $136,487. 

Experience with ‘data science’ ranks third, appearing in 8,369 AI job listings with a median salary of $139,579. 

‘C++’ is the fourth most sought-after AI skill, with 7,741 job listings referencing experience using C++ and a median salary of $126,513. 

Microsoft Excel appears in 6,593 job listings and is the fifth most sought-after skill for AI roles. Jobs mentioning Excel offer a median salary of $92,500. 

Other highly sought-after experiences were using SQL, Java, DevOps, data analytics, and CI/CD. 

The 10 most sought-after AI skills 

Tim Lee, CEO and founder of Bookipi, commented on the findings, 

“Interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) has grown exponentially in the past decade, driven by employers integrating it into daily operations, the rise of innovative startups, and job seekers eager to break into the industry and enhance their skills. 

“This study provides insight into the highest-paying AI skills and the most sought-after skills that increase one’s chances of securing a position in the industry. It also offers valuable guidance on the most effective paths to upskilling for individuals looking to advance their careers in the AI industry.”