The Jobs AI Is Creating, and How People Are Getting Them

Most of what you read about AI and work counts the jobs it might take. The other column gets less attention, and it is larger than many people assume. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 expects 170 million jobs to be created worldwide by 2030 and 92 million to be displaced, a net gain of 78 million, with technology among the forces behind both numbers.

In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the economy to add 5.9 million jobs from 2025 to 2035. That growth is uneven, and some familiar roles are shrinking while new ones appear. This guide covers both sides honestly, then looks at how real people are making the move into growing work.

What new jobs is AI creating?

The clearest evidence comes from the fastest-growing job titles. LinkedIn’s Jobs on the Rise 2026 report, built from millions of jobs that LinkedIn members started between January 2023 and July 2025, ranks AI engineers as the fastest-growing role in the U.S., followed by AI consultants and strategists. Data annotators, who label and review the data that AI systems learn from, ranked fourth, and AI and machine learning researchers ranked fifth.

Employers also want AI skills inside existing jobs. PwC’s 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer found that jobs requiring specific AI skills grew 69% while the overall job market grew 9%, and that the average advertised wage premium for AI skills reached 62%. Lightcast’s analysis of job postings found a smaller but still meaningful premium of 28%, nearly $18,000 a year (Lightcast, July 2025).

Globally, the WEF’s survey of more than 1,000 companies puts big data specialists, fintech engineers, and AI and machine learning specialists at the top of its fastest-growing roles by 2030, with software and applications developers close behind (WEF Jobs outlook, 2025). Many of these roles call for technical depth. LinkedIn reports that people who became AI engineers had a median of 3.7 years of prior experience, most often as software engineers, data scientists or full stack engineers, which tells you the newest titles usually go to people already doing related work.

Which jobs are growing because of AI, even if they are not AI jobs?

A second group of jobs grows because AI needs physical and digital infrastructure. The BLS expects electricity demand to rise over the next decade due in large part to AI adoption, and projects utilities to be the fastest-growing major industry sector, at 9.8% from 2025 to 2035. It also expects AI adoption to support employment at computing infrastructure providers, and LinkedIn’s list shows the same trend, with datacenter technicians at number 17.

Data and security work is growing as well. BLS projects data scientists to grow 34.6% and information security analysts 21.0% over the decade, against 3.5% for all occupations (BLS Table 1.3). Read high percentages with care, though. BLS notes that solar photovoltaic installers and wind turbine service technicians, two of its fastest-growing occupations, will add fewer than 15,000 jobs combined by 2035.

Many of the fastest-growing jobs have little to do with AI. Nurse practitioners top the BLS list at 41.0%, and medical and health services managers (24.2%) and home health and personal care aides (18.1%) are also projected to grow far faster than average. The WEF expects farmworkers, delivery drivers, construction workers and salespersons to add the most jobs worldwide in absolute numbers, with large gains in care work too, so technology is only one of several doors.

Which jobs is AI shrinking?

The BLS is direct about where AI is reducing demand. It projects office and administrative support occupations to decline faster than any other major group, down 4.0% from 2025 to 2035, a loss of 752,100 jobs, and it names automation tools, including those powered by AI, as one reason. Among the steepest projected declines are word processors and typists (down 34.4%), data entry keyers (down 25.5%), telemarketers (down 21.4%) and payroll and timekeeping clerks (down 15.9%), according to BLS Table 1.5.

The BLS also says generative AI may limit demand for some jobs in arts, design, entertainment, sports and media, and that AI tools in the sales process, together with e-commerce, are expected to contribute to losses in sales jobs. The WEF’s employers list cashiers and ticket clerks along with administrative assistants and executive secretaries among the fastest-declining roles, and for the first time graphic designers and legal secretaries appear just outside the top ten.

Being on one of these lists is a reason to plan, and you can plan from a position of strength while you are still employed. Customer service representatives, for example, are projected to decline 5.3% over the decade, yet BLS counted about 2.7 million of them in 2025 (BLS Table 1.2). The work is shrinking gradually, which gives you time to build toward the next step.

How are people actually getting AI jobs?

LinkedIn’s report is useful here because it lists the most common previous jobs for each growing role. In almost every case, those previous jobs are close cousins of the new one, which means people are stepping sideways with their experience rather than starting from zero.

The pattern is encouraging if you do not work in tech. Editors and content managers are moving into data annotation, where LinkedIn lists content production and copywriting among the common skills. Medical billers are moving into healthcare reimbursement, where LinkedIn lists Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, prior authorization and managed care as the common skills. People in IT support are moving into datacenter work, a hands-on role where LinkedIn reports remote availability of just 3.6%.

What jobs can I move into from my current job?

JobRoute’s analysis of public O*NET, BLS and Anthropic Economic Index data maps adjacent roles for more than 900 occupations. For each pair it measures how much of your skill set carries over, estimates how long the transition typically takes, and scores how much of the destination’s work AI can already do. Three examples show what realistic moves look like, trade-offs included.

Medical records specialists to health information technologists. In JobRoute’s analysis these roles share about 70% of their skills, with an estimated transition of about 11 months. BLS projects health information technologists and medical registrars to grow 15.9% from 2025 to 2035, about twice the 7.8% projected for medical records specialists, with a 2025 median wage of $68,020 compared with $51,140. The typical entry education is an associate’s degree, and JobRoute scores the destination as somewhat more exposed to AI (57 versus 48 out of 100), so this move is about growth and pay rather than distance from AI.

Computer programmers to software developers or testers. BLS projects computer programmers to decline 7.3% over the decade, while software developers grow 10.2% and software quality assurance analysts and testers grow 5.7%. JobRoute’s analysis finds about 68% skill overlap with software developers, with an estimated transition of about 12 months, and about 63% overlap with testers. The developer role scores a little lower on AI exposure (60 versus 64), and its 2025 median wage was $135,980.

Customer service representatives to service sales or patient support. JobRoute’s analysis finds about 71% skill overlap between customer service and sales representatives of services, with an estimated transition of about 10 months. BLS projects that sales role to grow 2.7%, with a 2025 median wage of $69,990 compared with $44,770 for customer service, although JobRoute scores it as more exposed to AI (61 versus 44). Patient representatives share about 61% of the skills and carry a similar exposure score to customer service (42 versus 44), which suits someone who wants to stay close to helping people directly.

How do I start moving toward a growing role?

Pick one target role and study its tasks before you spend money on training. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook lets you compare pay, entry-level education and projected growth, and JobRoute’s occupation pages show which tasks in common roles AI already handles. If the target needs a credential, an American Job Center offers free career counseling and can point you to training opportunities near you.

Look inside your own employer as well. The WEF found that almost half of employers expect to move staff from AI-exposed roles into other parts of their business, and that in a typical group of 100 workers, employers expect 19 to be reskilled and redeployed within their organization by 2030 (WEF Skills outlook, 2025). The same report finds employers mostly expect to fund that training themselves, so telling your manager which direction interests you can open a door that costs you nothing.

Then build one piece of evidence that you can do part of the new job, such as a small project, a certificate or a stretch assignment at work. Our guide to finding an adjacent role when your job is exposed walks through how to compare candidates side by side.

If you would like to see your own options, take the free AI Ready Score. In about three minutes it shows which of your tasks AI already does and suggests adjacent roles you could move toward.