Pittsburgh was named the third highest paying metro for artificial intelligence software engineers, earning a median pay of $243,650 annually. The report comes from salary analysis company Levels.fyi.
Pittsburgh was only beaten by the San Francisco Bay area, where employees earn a median of $318,150 annually, and Seattle, where the median was $310,000 annually. Directly underneath Pittsburgh was New York City, with a median of $242,667.
Nationally, seven of the top 10 highest paying companies for AI engineers are in San Francisco. The highest paying firm was ChatGPT developers Open AI, paying a median of over $900,000 annually. The other three companies in the top ten are all headquartered in Seattle, including Korea-focused e-commerce platform Coupang. None of the companies in the top 20 are based in Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh has become a regional hub for artificial intelligence companies, in part due to Carnegie Mellon University, which is ranked as the number one undergraduate and graduate school for AI in the country by the U.S. News and World Report. The university is also considered by many to be the birthplace of the technology, stemming back to invention of the General Problem Solving machine in 1957.
In the past year, the national average compensation for AI engineers has increased from approximately $244,000 to approximately $300,000. The report also found that AI software engineers make more than their non-AI knowledgeable counterparts. However, the report notes that this gap may narrow.
"As the market for AI talent matures, companies may become more discerning in their hiring practices and compensation strategies," the report reads. "With a better understanding of the skills and qualifications required for AI roles, companies may adjust their compensation offers to align more closely with market standards, resulting in a narrower pay gap between AI and non-AI positions."
Artificial intelligence faces an uncertain future as both the federal and state governments consider regulations and guidelines. Additionally, the Department of Justice recently launched an inquiry into whether AI chipmaker NVIDIA has violated antitrust laws. NVIDIA was briefly the second largest company in the world, but swapped back with Apple for third place after news of the probe broke. The company has multiple partnerships in the Pittsburgh area, including AI-powered clinical documentation company Abridge, who have raised significant capital this year.
