Demand for AI data trainers grows as pay and skill requirements rise

AI data trainers—professionals who curate, label and validate datasets used to train models—are in growing demand and can command substantial pay. Two recent studies cited potential annual incomes ranging roughly from $65,000 to $180,000, with higher compensation for subject-matter experts and managers.

Research from HireArt notes the role has shifted from simple gig work to specialized cognitive labor that requires nuanced reasoning, deep domain knowledge and, increasingly, multilingual skills. ZipRecruiter reported an overall average salary of $64,984, with a broad range from about $28,000 to $132,500.

Typical duties include curating and cleaning datasets, accurately labeling data, performing quality checks, fine-tuning and providing feedback to improve model accuracy, writing and refining prompts or instructions, and evaluating model outputs for clarity and usefulness. Pay varies by domain and role.

HireArt found subject-matter experts in fields such as medicine, law and finance can earn $70 to $180 per hour. Hourly ranges by specialty and role differ widely—for example, highly skilled prompt engineers and engineering specialists can see substantially higher rates than entry-level annotation or QA roles.

Key Topics

Tech, Ai Data Trainer, Data Annotation, Prompt Engineer, Hireart, Ziprecruiter