AI Consultant Is Second Fastest Growing Job in the US, LinkedIn Says
AI consultant and strategist is the second fastest growing U.S. role
AI consultants and strategists ranked second on LinkedIn's 2026 Jobs on the Rise list for the United States, behind only AI engineers at number one.
The list analyzed millions of jobs started by LinkedIn members from January 1, 2023 to July 31, 2025 to calculate growth rates by title. New home sales specialists ranked third, data annotators fourth and AI and machine learning researchers fifth.
AI consultants and strategists help organizations plan and implement AI technologies to improve operations and reach their goals. Their most common skills are large language models, MLOps and computer vision, and the top hiring industries are technology, IT services and business consulting.
Experience, hubs and flexible work
It is a senior role. People entering it have a median of 8.2 years of prior experience, far above the AI engineer median, and they most often transition from founder, software engineer and product manager roles.
The most jobs are in San Francisco, New York City and Boston. About 30 percent of positions are remote and 33 percent are hybrid, reflecting the advisory nature of the work. More than half of U.S. professionals planned to look for a new job in 2026, LinkedIn research found, while 76 percent felt unprepared.
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How this could hit the options market
A ranking that puts AI engineers first and AI consultants second is a demand signal for the whole AI stack, from chip and cloud leaders such as NVDA and MSFT to consulting and IT services names including ACN and IBM.
LinkedIn owner Microsoft reports the platform inside its results, so sustained enterprise AI hiring also supports the software and cloud story in MSFT. Traders will look for follow through in earnings commentary from consultancies, where AI strategy work is high margin and can lead larger implementation deals.
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