Summary List PlacementFew industries are blowing up like artificial intelligence and big data. A combination of new technology and expanding adoption are sparking meteoric growth. The analyst firm PitchBook estimates spending on AI software and hardware will reach $138 billion this year, and grow at a rate of 23% in the next three years. That puts the industry at $258 billion in 2024. All that spending fuels an equally explosive jobs market. The job search site ZipRecruiter shows 48,955 artificial intelligence engineer jobs currently listed in the US. Those jobs pay very, very well.