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Research report ยท August 2026 edition

Expert Fields in Demand for AI Training

On 31 Aug 2026, 753 open AI training roles named an expert field; Software & computer science, Finance, accounting & economics and Law had the most openings, and Physics & astronomy advertised the highest median pay ($115/hr).

Read the month's story: The AI Training Job Market in August 2026

Data window
1 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026
31 days, UTC
Frozen
10 Oct 2026, 08:03 UTC
These figures will not change
Source
The public job boards of the AI training platforms this site tracks, read every day. Fields are read from role titles; apply clicks are made on AITraining.jobs.
Method
Version 1. Definitions
CC BY 4.0, how to cite

Every figure on this page as CSV and JSON, sent to your work email.

open roles naming an expert field
753
expert fields hiring
17
open roles in Software & computer science, the largest field
108
median in Physics & astronomy, the best-paid field
$115/hr

Key findings

  1. 1

    Software & computer science (108), Finance, accounting & economics (92), Law (91), Business, sales & consulting (72) and Medicine & nursing (72) had the most open roles on 31 Aug 2026, of 17 fields named in role titles.

    Figure 1
  2. 2

    Among fields with at least 10 open roles at the start, Law grew fastest (+160%, 35 to 91) and Writing, editing & journalism shrank the most (-28.6%).

    Figure 1
  3. 3

    Physics & astronomy roles advertised the highest median pay, $115/hr, and Voice acting, music & sound the lowest, $36/hr, among fields with at least 8 priced roles.

    Figure 2
  4. 4

    47.3% of all open AI training roles name an expert field in their title, and 79.1% of the roles classified as law, medicine and finance work do.

    Figure 1

Figure 1

Open roles by expert field

Which professions and disciplines are AI training platforms hiring?

FieldOpen on 31 Aug 2026New listings
Software & computer science
108
96
Finance, accounting & economics
92
84
Law
91
91
Business, sales & consulting
72
73
Medicine & nursing
72
52
Voice acting, music & sound
72
41
Engineering (non-software)
47
28
Design & visual arts
38
33
Biology & life sciences
35
18
Writing, editing & journalism
35
27
Mathematics & statistics
33
12
Humanities & social sciences
29
12
Education & teaching
25
20
Physics & astronomy
22
15
Chemistry
17
5
Psychology & mental healthSmall sample
13
12
Trust, safety & child protectionSmall sample
9
11

Sample. 753 of the 1,591 roles open at the end of 31 Aug 2026 name a field in their title; 17 fields are named. New listings from 1 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026.

A role counts for a field when its title names the profession or discipline (for example 'Hospitalist', 'Litigation Attorney', 'Mechanical Engineering Expert'). Generic titles ('Expert', 'Specialist', 'AI Tutor') name no field and are not counted. A role naming two fields counts for both.

Change compares open roles at the start and the end of the window on the platforms tracked throughout; it is marked as a small sample under 10 roles at the start.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, Expert Fields in Demand for AI Training, August 2026 edition.

Figure 2

Advertised hourly pay by expert field

Which fields pay the most?

FieldMedian per hourMiddle half
Physics & astronomy
$115
$80 to $120
Law
$110
$80 to $150
Psychology & mental health
$88
$75 to $115
Biology & life sciences
$80
$65 to $90
Finance, accounting & economics
$80
$65 to $100
Medicine & nursing
$80
$65 to $100
Business, sales & consulting
$78
$56 to $100
Engineering (non-software)
$78
$65 to $95
Chemistry
$70
$65 to $80
Design & visual arts
$65
$48 to $89
Education & teaching
$65
$53 to $95
Humanities & social sciences
$65
$36 to $75
Mathematics & statistics
$65
$65 to $85
Software & computer science
$65
$65 to $89
Writing, editing & journalism
$55
$43 to $70
Voice acting, music & sound
$36
$28 to $44

Sample. Roles open on 31 Aug 2026 that state an hourly rate; fields with at least 8 such roles.

Pay is the hourly figure the posting advertises (the middle of a stated range). The middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, Expert Fields in Demand for AI Training, August 2026 edition.

Figure 3

Applicant demand per open role, by expert field

Which fields draw the most applicants per opening, and which are short of them?

FieldClicks per role a weekIndex
Writing, editing & journalism
0.28
3.52x
Trust, safety & child protectionSmall sample
0.21
2.59x
Design & visual artsSmall sample
0.18
2.26x
Software & computer science
0.12
1.52x
Education & teachingSmall sample
0.11
1.35x
Engineering (non-software)Small sample
0.08
1.02x
Humanities & social sciencesSmall sample
0.08
0.96x
Finance, accounting & economicsSmall sample
0.07
0.86x
Mathematics & statisticsSmall sample
0.07
0.93x
Business, sales & consultingSmall sample
0.06
0.77x
Physics & astronomySmall sample
0.06
0.69x
LawSmall sample
0.03
0.42x
Medicine & nursingSmall sample
0.03
0.33x
Voice acting, music & soundSmall sample
0.03
0.41x
Biology & life sciencesSmall sample
0.02
0.28x
ChemistrySmall sample
0.01
0.17x
Psychology & mental healthSmall sample
0.00
0.00x

Sample. Apply clicks on AITraining.jobs on roles naming each field, from 1 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026, against the days those roles were open.

Clicks per role a week = apply clicks / (open role-days / 7). Index 1.00 is the average across every open role on the site.

Rows with fewer than 30 clicks or 3 roles open on an average day are marked as a small sample.

AITraining.jobs shows visitors the roles open in their country first, which affects roles limited to some countries.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, Expert Fields in Demand for AI Training, August 2026 edition.

Figure 4

Who hires for each field

Is each field's hiring spread across platforms or held by one?

FieldLargest platformIts sharePlatforms listing
Software & computer scienceInvisible
38.0%
9
Finance, accounting & economicsMercor
41.3%
8
LawMercor
45.1%
6
Business, sales & consultingMercor
41.7%
10
Medicine & nursingAfterQuery
27.8%
6
Voice acting, music & soundMercor
52.8%
5
Engineering (non-software)micro1
34.0%
6
Design & visual artsmicro1
39.5%
7
Biology & life sciencesmicro1
28.6%
6
Writing, editing & journalismmicro1
40.0%
8
Mathematics & statisticsInvisible
54.5%
7
Humanities & social sciencesInvisible
27.6%
7
Education & teachingAfterQuery
32.0%
5
Physics & astronomymicro1
59.1%
6
ChemistryInvisible
35.3%
4
Psychology & mental healthAfterQuery
53.8%
5
Trust, safety & child protectionSmall sampleTransPerfect DataForce
77.8%
3

Sample. Roles open on 31 Aug 2026, by the platform that lists them.

A high share means one platform holds most of the openings: an applicant has few alternatives, and that platform sets the going rate.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, Expert Fields in Demand for AI Training, August 2026 edition.

Figure 5

Where each field's roles are open

Can professionals apply from anywhere, or only from some countries?

FieldOpen worldwideOnly listed countries
Voice acting, music & sound
95.8%
4.2%
Physics & astronomy
77.3%
18.2%
Design & visual arts
71.1%
18.4%
Writing, editing & journalism
68.6%
17.1%
Law
68.1%
22.0%
Business, sales & consulting
62.5%
19.4%
Chemistry
58.8%
29.4%
Education & teaching
56.0%
12.0%
Biology & life sciences
54.3%
37.1%
Engineering (non-software)
53.2%
21.3%
Finance, accounting & economics
47.8%
33.7%
Medicine & nursing
47.2%
25.0%
Software & computer science
46.3%
45.4%
Mathematics & statistics
45.5%
48.5%
Humanities & social sciences
37.9%
48.3%
Psychology & mental health
30.8%
15.4%
Trust, safety & child protectionSmall sample
11.1%
77.8%

Sample. Roles open on 31 Aug 2026; shares of each field's own open roles.

The rule is read from each posting's location text. The rest of each row is roles open worldwide except some countries, or with no rule stated.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, Expert Fields in Demand for AI Training, August 2026 edition.

For labs, data vendors and researchers

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The figures above are a summary. Behind them are records we collect ourselves, every day:

  • 9,572 roles tracked, each with its history

    Every role on 29 job boards, read daily since 13 Jul 2026: its pay and place, and the first and last day it was open.

  • 6,200 apply clicks in 28 days

    Which roles people actually apply to, by field, pay and kind of work. It happens on this site, so nobody else can count it.

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Method and definitions

The public job boards of the AI training platforms this site tracks, read every day. Fields are read from role titles; apply clicks are made on AITraining.jobs. Every figure is computed by one database query over the window shown, the same query for the live report and for every edition. Each figure states its sample beneath it.

Field of a role
A role counts for a field when its title names the profession or discipline, for example 'Hospitalist', 'Litigation Attorney' or 'Mechanical Engineering Expert'. Generic titles ('Expert', 'Specialist', 'AI Tutor') name no field. A role naming two fields counts for both.
Open role
A role listed by a given day and still in its platform's feed that day.
New listing
A role that first appeared during the window on a platform already tracked before that week. A platform's first week in this dataset is its back catalogue and is not counted as new.
Advertised pay
The hourly figure a posting states (the middle of a stated range). Medians need at least 8 roles stating a rate; the middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
Clicks per open role a week
Apply clicks on AITraining.jobs divided by the days the roles were open, times 7.
Demand index
A group's clicks per open role a week divided by the same rate across every open role on the site. Above 1, its roles draw more applicants than the average role.
Location rule
Read from each posting's location text and, where that names no country, from what the posting's own description states: open worldwide, worldwide except listed countries, only listed countries, or no rule stated.
Window
Live: the last 28 complete days, in UTC. Edition: one calendar month, in UTC.

What this data cannot tell you

  • Platforms that recruit without a public job board are not counted. Several large ones invite workers to projects directly.
  • A listing is not a hire. Some platforms keep evergreen roles open for months, and some post one listing per language or country.
  • Generic titles hide the field of many roles, so each field's count is a floor.
  • Apply clicks measure interest among the people who use AITraining.jobs, and what is shown first gets clicked more.

How the job feeds are read and roles are classified: site methodology. How fresh, complete and consistent the data is, checked every day: data quality and coverage.

Editions

The live report covers the last 28 complete days and changes every day. Each complete month is also published as an edition, frozen two days after the month ends, so a figure you cite from an edition never moves.

Cite and reuse

Free to quote, chart and republish under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page. This edition is frozen, so its figures will read the same later.

Citation

AITraining.jobs (2026). Expert Fields in Demand for AI Training, August 2026 edition. https://www.aitraining.team/research/expert-fields-in-demand/2026-08

BibTeX

@misc{aitrainingjobs_expert_fields_in_demand_2026_08,
  author = {{AITraining.jobs}},
  title = {Expert Fields in Demand for AI Training, August 2026 edition},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://www.aitraining.team/research/expert-fields-in-demand/2026-08}},
}
Data: every figure as CSV (one line per value) and JSON, sent to your work email.Pay and open-roles data

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