AI-Driven Data Science Roles Command Higher Salaries, Evolving Skills Required
A recent report by Lightcast has revealed a significant shift in the data science job market, with AI-driven roles commanding higher salaries and evolving skill requirements. The report, released in August 2025, shows that generative-AI data scientists and LLM product data scientists are earning median base salaries of USD 155k and USD 165k respectively, outpacing the USD 125k earned by basic data scientists.
The data science role is not disappearing but transforming into 'GenAI Data Scientist' positions, which offer better pay and clearer production expectations. The demand is for a hybrid skill set that combines statistical rigor with prompt-era engineering. An analysis of 1,200 hired résumés in 2025 identified the must-have skills for these roles, including prompt engineering, LLM fine-tuning, and retrieval-augmented generation, unlike traditional requirements such as Kaggle medals or pure research credentials.
AI-related job postings have grown at an average annual rate of nearly 29% over the last 15 years, more than double the 11% annual growth rate of job postings in the general economy. This growth is reflected in the increasing number of 'GenAI Data Scientist' roles, with around 18,000 open positions demanding skills like LLM fine-tuning, prompt evaluation, and synthetic data generation. Employers still need data scientists but expect them to work with foundation models, challenging the traditional data-science toolkit and career path. To retool in 90 days, data scientists are advised to complete a short, credentialed course, build a mini product using RAG pipelines, and publish the artefacts with a one-page model card and open-source code.
The Lightcast report underscores the evolving nature of data science roles, with AI-driven positions commanding higher salaries and requiring new skill sets. As the field continues to grow and change, data scientists must adapt to remain competitive, with a focus on GenAI technologies, programming skills, and understanding of machine learning frameworks. The increasing demand for 'GenAI Data Scientist' roles reflects the industry's need for professionals who can work with foundation models and meet the challenges of the AI era.
