Stepstone analysis: Top salaries for AI specialists increasingly in demand

• Data scientists are salary leaders among AI specialists - annual salaries of up to 90,000 euros possible
• All sectors are increasingly looking for AI expertise - including trades and construction
• Business intelligence, data science and machine learning are the most in-demand skills

The growing demand for expertise in the field of Artificial Intelligence is offering sought-after specialists remarkably high salaries, far exceeding the German gross average salary of 43,750 euros. Base for this is a recent labour market analysis by The Stepstone Group.

Above average median salary for AI experts
Earnings prospects for AI jobs vary by industry and experience: data scientists, who primarily extract information from large amounts of data, top the list with a median gross annual salary of 67,000 euros. They are followed by product owners (€63,500), who manage projects and set the framework from brainstorming to the finished AI product. This is followed by Data Engineers (€60,750), who structure a company's data flows in databases. In fourth place are business analysts (€60,500), who interpret data from internal and external sources and use the findings to develop and improve the business. In fifth place are IT controllers (€59,500), who primarily monitors the costs and success of (AI) projects.*

Dr Tobias Zimmermann, labour market expert at The Stepstone Group: "Data scientists are in high demand. They have a highly relevant skill set that is urgently needed in more and more companies, due to the transformation of the world of work and business models. It is therefore no surprise that data scientists are well paid. With ten years' experience, they can expect to earn around 90,000 euros a year".

AI experts needed in all sectors
Virtually all industries that want to position themselves accordingly will benefit from the increased use of AI: In banking and (cyber) security, the uses of AI are quite evident. - Demand in these areas increased by four and a half times between 2019 and 2023. More surprisingly, the skilled trades, construction and insurance sectors are also seeking four times as many experts to develop artificial organisers, recruiters or assistants as in 2019.

Dr Tobias Zimmermann: "AI is the transformative technology of the 21st century. Next to the great people shortage, AI is the biggest driver of change in the world of work. That's why the demand is logically increasing across all sectors - although the IT sector continues to register the highest demand."

Hard skills and soft skills
According to the Stepstone job market analysis, business intelligence, data science, machine learning, data analytics and big data are the most important skills that AI specialists should have.**

"Not everyone needs to become a data scientist or machine learning expert," says labour market expert Zimmermann. "More than ever, the age of AI requires core human skills. According to our data, employers are increasingly looking for flexibility, communication skills and a willingness to learn. And that makes perfect sense, because human skills are the real skills of the future - regardless of the profession."

* IT jobs by gross median salary

** Top 5 most sought-after skills among developers in 2023

• Business intelligence (technology for collecting information and preparing forecasts for companies)
• Data science (deriving trends by developing new models to improve data analysis)
• Machine learning (sub-area of AI development in which computers learn automatically from data)
• Data analytics (analysis and derivation of trends from existing data)
• Big data (ability to deal with large amounts of data)

About the analysis
For the internal analysis of internal platform data, the entirety of all job advertisements from 2019 up to and including October 2023 were examined using exhaustive keyword lists on the topics of artificial intelligence and soft skills. More specifically, the requirements stated by employers to be able to perform the advertised job were analyzed.