In 2025, AI became officially unavoidable: It had been lurking in the background before, as early adapters experimented with it. But this year, companies invested more than $202 billion in AI, a 75% increase from $114 billion invested in 2024. Major tech companies fought bitterly over AI talent, offering astronomical pay packages.
There was a groundswell of demand for talent, and unsurprisingly this spread to the demand for AI, data science, and engineering jobs, which increased 28% compared to 2024, according to data provided to Fast Company by IT staffing company Mondo. The firm also provided data on the top five jobs that took off in 2025, which we’ve listed by volume of demand.
Some of the jobs are new to Mondo’s dataset. Others saw explosive growth in demand compared to 2024. But they’re all related to AI. There’s a spike in certain jobs’ growth every year, but as we wrap up 2025, it’s clear: This was the year of artificial intelligence.
And the technology isn’t going anywhere. Neither are these jobs:
1. Data Engineer (18% growth)
An AI is only as strong as the data that’s powering it. Accurate and reliable data is a must, and as the demand for AI increases, so does the demand for data engineers who can ensure models are fed the highest-quality data.
2. Analytics Engineer (25% growth)
