AI Jobs Are Growing Fast, But Women Account For Just Over a Quarter Of New Hires

Women accounted for just over a quarter of new hires into artificial intelligence roles in the U.S. last year, even as hiring for AI-related positions continued to grow.

Women made up 26% of new AI hires in 2025, while men accounted for 74%, according to new data from LinkedIn. In comparison, women represented about half of new hires in occupations outside AI.

The difference was larger in some of the higher-paying technical roles, while jobs with lower listed salaries tended to have a more even split between men and women.

LinkedIn analyzed information from member profiles to track hiring and used job listings to assess compensation.

One example is the "member of technical staff" role, a title commonly used by AI companies for positions involving research and engineering.

Men accounted for 82% of new hires into these positions in 2025, compared with 18% for women, according to LinkedIn. The median salary listed for the role this year is $223,000.

The numbers are considerably different for data annotators, who work on tasks such as labeling and organizing information used to train AI systems.

Those positions are split roughly evenly between men and women, according to the data. The median listed salary is $51,000.

The figures come as companies increase hiring for workers with AI-related skills despite slower hiring across parts of the broader U.S. labor market.

LinkedIn's AI Labor Market Update found that AI engineering hiring grew more than 25% year over year in 2025. AI engineering roles accounted for nearly 7% of technical job postings on LinkedIn, while people identified as AI engineering talent represented less than 1% of members.

The jobs themselves, however, still account for a relatively small portion of overall U.S. employment.

The gender difference in AI hiring also follows a broader pattern within the technology industry.

Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows women remain underrepresented in several computer and mathematical occupations, including software development and other technical positions.

The latest LinkedIn figures indicate that a similar pattern is appearing as companies add more positions specifically related to AI.

The difference is particularly noticeable when hiring is broken down by salary. Some of the technical roles with higher median listed pay have a larger proportion of male hires, while the gender split is closer in positions such as data annotation.

Sarah Steinberg, head of global public policy partnerships at LinkedIn, told Axios that the distribution of jobs matters because different positions can offer different paths to higher earnings and leadership roles.

"Women may be included in the AI economy, but not in the roles most likely to drive long-term economic mobility, leadership, and decision-making power," Steinberg said.