AI News Monitor

2025 has brought some uncertainty in the job market. A LinkedIn report shows that demand for AI engineers continues to grow amid this.

LinkedIn’s latest research on jobs on the rise has seen the role of AI engineer topping the list of fastest growing jobs in the UK over the past three years.

The study used LinkedIn data to rank positions in different sectors based on their sustained growth in a three-year period. AI engineering jobs reported on LinkedIn include specific roles in machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and product engineering.

Open positions typically require experience in building and deploying machine learning models, and expert proficiency in programming languages such as Python, R or Java. London is the top hiring location. Only 23% of jobs offer fully remote positions, while 52% accommodate hybrid arrangements.

This is encouraging news for AI job enthusiasts, especially in light of much negativity and uncertainty clouding the labor market in recent months.

All the way back in 2023, one of the world’s richest men, Elon Musk, began to criticize remote work, calling it “morally wrong” and “no longer acceptable”, and even as of November, Musk hadn’t stopped emphasizing this. Unsurprisingly, it has sparked conversations about future work arrangements, and they won’t die so easily. It has become a key concern in 2025. Some employers have openly expressed their unwillingness to give further room to remote working, and some have even initiated return-to-the-office mandates.

There has also been severe backlash against diversity programs. While supporters are convinced that diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) initiatives allow the recruitment of a widespread pool of talent, activists and nationalists have criticized them as reverse discrimination. The election of Donald Trump with his emphasis on nationalism isn’t going to make them stop anytime soon. This might hold concerns for non-citizen AI and tech enthusiasts – for instance, talent from the global south.

All these are certain to affect how people approach work or switch to new roles in the coming 12 to 24 months.

But diversity and remote work are not the only uncertainties. There have been some predictions of an AI lull after the hype period. According to American tech research and consulting giant Garner, new technology always triggers a surge. We have had such with generative AI in the last couple of years, but this surge is always followed by a period where expectations are cooled. Organizations will need to be more innovative and strategic about how they approach transformative AI, rather than simply jumping on the bullet train, which means that even artificial intelligence and machine learning-inclined tech talent and enthusiasts should expect a few bumps on their career paths.

Already, some tech workers in the US have experienced layoffs. There might also be a lull in the French AI sector. According to venture capitalists, French AI startups have had massive funding for a long time but “the AI bubble is starting to pop”, with highly valued AI companies losing a lot of money and investors being less eager to fund them as a result. How this will further impact jobs in the AI field in the year to come may be unclear. These doubts may linger in the job market for a while. Those interested in pursuing careers in AI will have to weigh them up against more positive news such as LinkedIn’s latest data on a continued rise in demand for AI engineers.