If you follow technology news, you’ve probably heard AI industry insiders ringing alarm bells about the imminent failure of so-called scaling laws. OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever went so far as to call an end to the “age of scaling,” arguing that “now we’re back in the age of wonder and discovery once again [and] everyone is looking for the next thing.”
Prominent tech executives like Eric Schmidt of Google have pushed back on this idea, saying that the laws of scaling are alive and well. They say the next generative AI models will be far better than the current generation.
Whoever you believe, it has been and will most likely remain a very exciting time for professionals in the AI space. A very lucrative time, as well, if you can find the right opportunity.
“AI is a long-lead industry, so we’re not likely to see the full benefit of investments made today for several years to come,” says Ryan McCorvie, a quantitative analyst and machine learning expert who’s been in or around the industry for decades.
In other words, McCorvie says, the time to position yourself for the next big leap forward is right now. If you wait for the next “ChatGPT moment,” you might be too late.
With that in mind, here’s how McCorvie and others see the AI industry evolving in 2025 and beyond.
“Picks and Shovels” Are in Demand (Literally)
The global data center market is expected to grow at an 11% annual rate through 2030, according to Grandview Research. Some observers believe that’s an underestimate, and that demand for “compute” will increase even more quickly.
Whatever the reality, AI is driving a great deal of the demand for data center capacity. Massive data centers are already under construction across the country, with many more on the way, meaning the best way for people without advanced degrees to get in on the action is to go into “picks and shovels” fields, namely construction and skilled trades.
AI “Suppliers” Are Growing Fast Too
Data centers don’t build themselves. They also don’t run themselves. Accordingly, the market for the hardware and components that power AI algorithms and other types of high-performance computing platforms is about to get a whole lot bigger. Companies that make graphics chips, server racks, cooling systems, power infrastructure, and more are likely to ramp up hiring in the months and years to come.
Sales and Marketing Face Bottlenecks
Large language models like ChatGPT opened regular folks’ eyes to the power of AI, but the real action today is in smaller models more narrowly tailored to specific use cases.
While these models get better every week, they don’t scale as well as ChatGPT, which attracted paying users simply by virtue of existing and being fun to play with.
Sales and marketing professionals aren’t seen as crucial to the advancement of AI capabilities, but in this particular case they have an important role to play in connecting potential end users — mostly commercial customers — with solutions tailored to their needs.
Demand Is Rising for AI Users
The growing diversity of AI models, solutions, and enabled systems is increasing demand among AI companies (and companies that use AI in their software) for end users. In turn, this creates an opportunity for professionals willing and able to leverage AI in their own work, with or without being asked first. Whether that means using an AI copilot to “uprate” your passable coding skills into something approaching expertise or integrating generative AI into your daily email grind, your ability to unlock new levels of productivity could help you future-proof your own career in a rapidly changing industry.
No Time to Waste?
The current questions about AI’s short-term scaling potential might prove trivial in light of what we’re all expecting to happen sooner or later: the emergence of human-level (or better) artificial intelligence. Whenever it happens, this would have world-changing implications — and 20% of Metaculus bettors expect it to arrive by 2027.
If it’s true that you have only a few more years to gain a foothold in the AI industry before the machines can do your job better, there really isn’t any time to waste.
