New jobs of the AI era

A developer who builds products and internal tools on top of language models: document assistants, agents, systems that handle incoming requests. On LinkedIn's Jobs on the Rise 2026 list for the US, this job ranks first.

Helps a company find where AI really saves time, choose tools, agree on rules and train employees. On LinkedIn's Jobs on the Rise 2026 list for the US the role ranks second, and it's more often people with a lot of experience in their industry who move into it.

Builds workflows and agents that sort incoming requests on their own, move data between services, and prepare reports and draft emails. In Microsoft's 2025 Work Trend Index survey, AI agent specialists were on the list of roles that leaders are considering hiring for.

Builds websites, internal tools and simple apps by describing them in words while AI writes the code. Collins Dictionary named "vibe coding" its word of the year for 2025; people build prototypes and small tools this way, but complex products still get finished by developers.

As a standalone job title it shows up less and less: models understand plain requests better, and every employee is now expected to know how to give AI a task. The skill itself hasn't gone away. It moved inside other roles and grew into working with context.

Rates and corrects model answers, writes reference solutions and labels the data that models learn from. Companies that train models increasingly look for people with subject-matter expertise, not just labelers.

Checks how an assistant or agent answers before launch and after every change: builds test questions, hunts for errors, made-up answers and ways to trick the system. Without that kind of check, customers are the ones who report the problems.

Makes sure a company uses AI within the law and under clear rules: an inventory of systems, risk assessment, documents, employee training. The role grew out of the work of lawyers, privacy specialists and compliance officers; AI helps them but doesn't replace licensed legal work.

Makes video, images, voiceover and music with generative models for ads, training and social media. What's valued isn't knowing which button to press but taste, scripting, a consistent style and knowing the rules on rights and labels.

Builds and maintains the knowledge base that a company's AI assistants answer from: instructions, prices, procedures, answers to common questions. The role is still taking shape; support specialists, editors and knowledge-base administrators often take it on alongside their jobs.