The Artificial Intelligence (AI) talent market continues to evolve. So what does that mean for AI contractors? In short – opportunities. 2025 is looking to be a great year with increased opportunities.
So what do you need to need to do to stay competitive and capitalise on those AI opportunities?
What are some of the most in demand roles in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) field?
Companies need to scale up initiatives quickly and for that they need talent on demand, but not any talent, specialist AI talent.
Roles showing consistent demand include:
- Machine Learning Engineers (especially those with deployment / ops experience)
- Prompt Engineers for fine-tuning LLMs and building generative AI products
- Computer Vision Specialists in sectors like automotive, and security
- AI / ML Ops who streamline production environments
- AI Product Managers who can engage both the wider tech team and business stakeholders
Contract work is necessary for the AI market
The market shows technology companies are building multidisciplinary project teams made up of contractors and permanent team members; hiring contractors to meet specific project-based demand rather than just increasing permanent headcount. This provides greater flexibility, access to bleeding-edge projects and excellent financial opportunity. AI contract roles, driven in part by evolving AI trends, are being used in a multitude of projects – be that in a start-up or an established business. Projects can support innovation, model development, MVPs and infrastructure set-up.
Global AI
With the evolution of the market, the AI workforce is global with contractors working remotely and on projects throughout the world.
So how do you stay competitive?
Technical Considerations:
- Python, PyTorch, TensorFlow
- LLM tuning, embedding models, LangChain
- APIs, model deployment, containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes)
- AWS SageMaker, GCP Vertex AI
Remember however that technical skills alone may not be enough, harness and develop your soft skills. Communication, collaboration and the ability to take a business issue and translate it to technical tasks are still key, especially as AI trends continue to shape cross-functional team dynamics and expectations.
So what about the future of a contractor in the AI marketplace and staying ahead?
Consider emerging areas such as Multimodal AI, AI Safety & Alignment, Autonomous Agents, AI for Cyber Security, AI for finance, and synthetic data generation.
Stay up-to-date and involved. Engage on open-source AI projects, attend hackathons and conferences and extend your network with recruiters like Advanced Resource Managers who are well placed to support you find your next contract engagement matching you with the right project at the right rate at the right time.
