Can being good at AI lead to a high-paying job?

AI is among the most important skills in today's job market. Whether you become an adept at using or misusing this technology will determine your future career.

Understanding AI will help us go far in this era. Photo: New York Times.

Artificial intelligence is causing a polarization in the labor market. Many experts argue that while this technology offers significant economic value and drives unprecedented progress, it is also creating new employment problems.

According to the World Economic Forum's Future of Work 2025 report, AI and big data are among the fastest-growing skills, along with technology-related jobs. The report predicts that many jobs will be replaced, widening the skills gap in the market.

Moreover, AI has had a significant impact on students even from their school days. While the number of jobs may decrease, it creates many opportunities for those who master this technology.

Finding a "starting point" is a challenging task.

According to the Statistics Bureau, the youth unemployment rate for those aged 15-24 in the first quarter of 2025 was 7.93%, showing a slight decrease. This could change significantly in the coming years.

In an interview with Axios in May 2025, Dario Amodei, CEO of AI company Anthropic, predicted that 50% of entry-level positions would be eliminated by AI within five years. While not quite as drastic as experts imagine, the figures are still not very encouraging.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that the unemployment rate for American workers aged 22-27 with a bachelor's degree or higher has exceeded 5.3%, according to the latest comprehensive data as of early 2025. This is the highest level since August 2021.

The comments from the creator of Claude AI have caused a stir on social media recently. Photo: CNN.

Oxford Economics even noted that, for the first time since 1980, the unemployment rate among recent graduates consistently exceeded the national average. Matthew Martin from the organization confirmed that "AI has certainly replaced some lower-level jobs." These are repetitive tasks, or many simple tasks such as creating PowerPoint presentations, calculating data, and summarizing documents.

Solving these problems is AI's outstanding strength. Recently, along with Google and Photoshop, ChatGPT has gradually become a verb. When faced with a not-too-complex problem, or needing a quick query, many people often suggest "Ask ChatGPT," as a useful tool.

Concurring, Geoffrey Hinton, a former Google employee dubbed the "Father of AI," argues that artificial intelligence has begun to be used for jobs favored by recent graduates. Today's workforce requires superior skills. Furthermore, with the advent of chatbots, one person is now doing the workload of many others, effectively leading to mass layoffs.

The differentiation between good and bad

To address this issue, some companies have sought out candidates while they are still in school. Universities collaborate with companies to train personnel, assigning students practical projects as part of their curriculum.

However, this has created a divide between the group of students who received the training and the rest. Ho Quoc Tuan, Director of the Master of Finance & Accounting program at the University of Bristol, wrote on his blog that some outstanding students are even directly recruited by businesses for full-time positions with salaries many times higher.

Kieu Trang (born in 2002), a Computer Science student at Ton Duc Thang University, shared that many of her classmates had already started internships in their third year. Even now, although the university organizes many job fairs to help students find internship opportunities, employers still prioritize high-achieving students.

Nam Long's director, at the age of 13, had a passion for programming. Photo: Provided by the interviewee.

Recently, the story of Nam Long, a 13-year-old boy who took on the role of Growth Director at a technology company, has gone viral on social media. Thanks to his exceptional programming skills and fluency in English, Long received internship offers from six major corporations.

Long's passion for programming and his self-taught nature have greatly contributed to his deep understanding of technology. On the other hand, Mr. Quoc Tuan argues that with the current integration of AI into the classroom, some students are using this technology to pass courses rather than truly understanding what they are learning.

Chatbots can summarize and search for information, but often miss some important details and cannot replace the synthesis abilities of humans. "These people are gradually becoming AI users, but they lack the ability to think independently," Mr. Tuan wrote.

Understanding and acquiring the necessary knowledge about AI in the near future can help users avoid disadvantages in their career development. In addition, developing soft skills such as critical thinking and self-learning is also essential in this new era.

Source: https://znews.vn/gioi-ai-co-tim-duoc-viec-luong-cao-post1561674.html