New research from LinkedIn found that the 30-to 45-year-old generation is the one actually cashing in on the explosion of new AI roles.

LinkedIn analyzed its own platform data to uncover the 12 fastest-growing AI jobs and the age of those getting hired right now. It also revealed that millennials make up 60% of new hires for head of AI jobs—and they’re commanding a median salary of $236,000. Meanwhile, millennials make up 56% of technical new hires.

But most of those new hires are men.

Alarmingly, women make up just 20% of head of AI hires, 26% of director of AI hires, and 18% of technical staff hires. 

While millennials nab top jobs, Gen Z is cleaning up entry-level AI roles

Gen Z is struggling with the worst entry-level job market in 37 years. The unemployment rate for workers aged 22 to 27 was 7.2% in June, compared to just 4.1% overall. 

While bosses specifically cite AI as the reason they’re not hiring young workers to do those easier tasks anymore, LinkedIn’s data suggests AI is actually one area of hiring hope for the youngest generation of workers.

In fact, Gen Z workers make up more than two-thirds of new hires for two of the most in-demand individual contributor roles in tech right now: forward deployed engineer and AI engineer, paying median salaries of $199,000 and $166,000, respectively. 

The report suggests this signals that newer AI roles may be a “strong entry point” for younger workers, even as the rest of the job market shuts them out.

For a generation used to job rejections, stagnant pay, and living with their parents longer well into their twenties, nabbing an AI role could be their ticket to success: the typical AI job now pays a median salary of $177,000, more than double the $80,000 median for non-AI roles. The only problem? Not everyone can get one.

AI jobs pay double what everything else does—but women and those without degrees are being shut out

Despite major tech employers, from Google to Apple, dropping their degree requirements, LinkedIn’s data shows that if you want a job in AI, the ritzy qualification still matters.  

Over 95% of the new hires for head of AI, AI director, and technical staff roles hold a bachelor’s degree or higher—and the research shows that higher education can result in roughly $52,000 more in median pay.

Workers without four-year degrees—as well as women—are being consigned to the lowest-paying roles with the lowest barriers to entry, like data annotation. 

As the report bluntly concludes: “AI is often described as a force that democratizes expertise. Yet today’s AI labor market appears increasingly concentrated among workers with higher levels of formal education, especially in the highest-paying occupations.”