Hiring Managers Are Looking for ChatGPT Experience — And Some Are Willing to Pay Up to $800,000 For It Business leaders are willing to pay big bucks for candidates who know their way around an AI chatbot.
By Madeline Garfinkle •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
ChatGPT, the AI prompt-driven chatbot created by OpenAI last year, instantly garnered worldwide attention. The chatbot's ability to generate immediate content can help workers with anything from writing rental listings to computer code.
The tool has also garnered criticism, especially with concerns over privacy, ethics (notably in law), and how AI could replace human jobs. When it comes to the latter, the answer is complicated. In May, the World Economic Forum estimated that nearly 14 million jobs — or 2% of current employment — could disappear by 2027 due to increased adoption of AI technology.
Later that same month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Congress that AI will replace jobs but can also create "much better" ones.
Related: IBM Says 7,800 Jobs (or Nearly 30% of Its Workforce) Could Be Replaced By AI
According to a recent report by ResumeBuilder, which surveyed 1,187 business leaders in the U.S., 92% are currently hiring — 91% of which are looking for workers with ChatGPT experience.
They're also willing to pay.
Per the report, one in four survey respondents said the starting salary for AI "prompt engineers" will exceed $200,000, and 17% said it will exceed $300,000.
"With this expertise not yet widely available in the hiring market, those candidates with ChatGPT and AI skills will be highly sought after from progressive companies," said Chief Career Advisor at ResumeBuilder, Stacie Haller, in the report. "As this tech is still so new, there is a race to bring on employees with this skill in order for the company to stay cutting edge, and it looks like companies are willing to pay to do so."
And the race to recruit workers with AI skills has also prompted urgency: 30% of business leaders looking for ChatGPT skills said they are hiring "urgently" for the positions, 11% of which said it is "very urgent."
What Does Working with ChatGPT Mean, Exactly?
A roundup by Business Insider found that the positions calling for ChatGPT skills range from titles like "machine learning engineer" and "AI data operations specialist" to more conventional roles like product managers and copywriters, except the posting mentions skills with the AI chatbot gives candidates a "competitive edge."
Many of the job postings examined paid six figures, including two for the remote job search engine, Crossover, which listed positions (now closed) for a senior director of product management and chief product officer — both of which mentioned ChatGPT experience in the listing. Each starting salary is $800,000.
