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Research report ยท October 2026 edition

Expert Fields in Demand for AI Training

On 31 Oct 2026, 2,171 open AI training roles named an expert field; Software and IT, Finance and accounting and Medicine and nursing had the most openings, and Law advertised the highest median pay ($100/hr).

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

Provisional figures. This month is complete, but late data can still arrive until 3 Nov 2026, when the edition is frozen for good.

Data window
1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026
31 days, UTC
Computed
1 Nov 2026, 01:11 UTC
Final once frozen
Source
The public job boards of the AI training platforms this site tracks, read every hour. Fields are read from role titles; apply clicks are made on AITraining.jobs.
Method
Version 3. Definitions
CC BY 4.0, how to cite

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

Key findings

  1. 1

    Software and IT (395), Finance and accounting (240), Medicine and nursing (229), Engineering (non-software) (221) and Law (154) had the most open roles on 31 Oct 2026, of 21 fields named in role titles.

    Figure 1
  2. 2

    Among fields with enough open roles at the start for their change to read on its own, Medicine and nursing grew fastest (+59.3%, 109 to 174) and Psychology and mental health shrank the most (-62.5%).

    Figure 1
  3. 3

    Law roles advertised the highest median pay, $100/hr, and Translation and interpreting the lowest, $30/hr, among fields with at least 3 distinct advertised rates.

    Figure 2
  4. 4

    Per open role, Trust, safety and child protection roles drew the most applicant interest (2.44x the average role on the site) and Nuclear, CBRN and defense roles the least (0.09x).

    Figure 3
  5. 5

    49.6% of all open AI training roles name an expert field in their title, and 79.7% 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 Oct 2026New listings
Software and IT
395
113
Finance and accounting
240
94
Medicine and nursing
229
187
Engineering (non-software)
221
193
Law
154
79
Business and management
148
52
Voice acting, music and sound
143
25
Mathematics and statistics
110
27
Biology and life sciences
89
40
Chemistry
88
19
Physics and astronomy
75
19
Translation and interpreting
70
11
Data science and machine learning
67
26
Design and visual arts
60
30
Nuclear, CBRN and defense
47
8
Teaching
37
19
Earth and environmental scienceSmall sample
30
9
Writing and media
30
20
Humanities and social sciences
28
7
Trust, safety and child protection
18
4

Sample. 2,171 of the 4,381 roles open at the end of 31 Oct 2026 name a field in their title; 21 fields are named. New listings from 1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026.

A role counts for a field when its title names one of the field's professions, by the same rule the site's profession pages list it with (for example 'Hospitalist' for medicine, 'Litigation Attorney' for law, 'Mechanical Engineering Expert' for engineering). Generic titles ('Expert', 'Specialist', 'AI Tutor') name no profession 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.

Rows with fewer than 13 open roles at the start are marked as a small sample and not ranked: below that the average of the rows weighs more than a row's own open roles at the start (the weight fitted on the rows' own counts).

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

Figure 2

Advertised hourly pay by expert field

Which fields pay the most?

FieldMedian per hourTypical pay
Law
$100
$65 to $400
Psychology and mental health
$85
$35 to $95
Data science and machine learning
$80
$55 to $150
Engineering (non-software)
$80
$40 to $140
Finance and accounting
$80
$50 to $150
Medicine and nursing
$80
$55 to $200
Earth and environmental science
$75
$40 to $100
Business and management
$65
$55 to $145
Software and IT
$65
$40 to $125
Design and visual arts
$55
$35 to $110
Nuclear, CBRN and defense
$50
$35 to $115
Teaching
$50
$35 to $70
Voice acting, music and sound
$50
$35 to $200
Writing and media
$50
$35 to $120
Biology and life sciences
$45
$40 to $120
Chemistry
$40
$40 to $120
Mathematics and statistics
$40
$35 to $150
Physics and astronomy
$40
$40 to $135
Humanities and social sciences
$35
$35 to $75
Trust, safety and child protection
$35
$30 to $65
Translation and interpreting
$30
$12 to $65

Sample. Roles open on 31 Oct 2026 that state an hourly rate; fields with at least 3 distinct advertised rates.

Pay is the hourly figure a posting advertises (the middle of a stated range), counted once per distinct rate as the job board counts it. The median and typical pay are the board's: typical pay runs from the 25th percentile of what roles pay (the middle of each advertised range) to the 90th-percentile advertised ceiling, stated from 3 distinct rates.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, Expert Fields in Demand for AI Training, October 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
Trust, safety and child protection
8.31
2.44x
Data science and machine learning
7.36
2.16x
Earth and environmental science
7.34
2.15x
Business and management
6.79
1.99x
Teaching
6.49
1.90x
Psychology and mental health
5.44
1.59x
Design and visual arts
4.17
1.22x
Software and IT
4.11
1.20x
Medicine and nursing
3.97
1.17x
Writing and media
3.77
1.11x
Biology and life sciences
3.26
0.95x
Humanities and social sciences
2.80
0.82x
Translation and interpreting
2.75
0.81x
Finance and accounting
2.18
0.64x
Mathematics and statistics
1.76
0.52x
Chemistry
1.55
0.45x
Engineering (non-software)
1.35
0.39x
Law
1.31
0.38x
Voice acting, music and sound
1.21
0.36x
Physics and astronomy
0.43
0.12x
Nuclear, CBRN and defense
0.29
0.09x

Sample. Apply clicks on AITraining.jobs on roles naming each field, from 1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 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 3.9 open role-days (0.6 role-weeks) are marked as a small sample and not ranked: below that the pooled rate of the fields weighs more than a row's own clicks (the weight fitted on their own clicks).

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, October 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 and ITAlignerr
15.7%
28
Finance and accountingAlignerr
12.1%
25
Medicine and nursingMercor
15.7%
32
Engineering (non-software)Mindrift
18.6%
25
Lawmicro1
35.1%
28
Business and managementSuperAnnotate (SME)
12.8%
20
Voice acting, music and soundInvisible
26.6%
12
Mathematics and statisticsAnyone AI
16.4%
20
Biology and life sciencesAnyone AI
28.1%
17
ChemistryAnyone AI
26.1%
18
Physics and astronomyAnyone AI
29.3%
22
Translation and interpretingSigma AI
32.9%
15
Data science and machine learningmicro1
14.9%
21
Design and visual artsMercor
13.3%
18
Nuclear, CBRN and defenseSuperAnnotate (SME)
25.5%
10
TeachingAfterQuery
21.6%
14
Earth and environmental scienceAlignerr
20.0%
12
Writing and mediaAlignerr
23.3%
16
Humanities and social sciencesInvisible
25.0%
9
Trust, safety and child protectionSmall sampleTransPerfect DataForce
88.9%
3

Sample. Roles open on 31 Oct 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.

Rows with fewer than 19.7 open roles are marked as a small sample and not ranked: below that the average of the rows weighs more than a row's own open roles (the weight fitted on the rows' own counts).

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, Expert Fields in Demand for AI Training, October 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 and sound
44.1%
35.7%
Earth and environmental science
33.3%
43.3%
Writing and media
33.3%
50.0%
Teaching
32.4%
29.7%
Software and IT
28.9%
49.6%
Chemistry
26.1%
59.1%
Mathematics and statistics
25.5%
62.7%
Translation and interpreting
22.9%
74.3%
Physics and astronomy
20.0%
62.7%
Business and management
19.6%
47.3%
Finance and accounting
19.2%
61.7%
Design and visual arts
18.3%
50.0%
Humanities and social sciences
17.9%
64.3%
Data science and machine learning
16.4%
49.3%
Biology and life sciences
14.6%
60.7%
Engineering (non-software)
11.3%
63.8%
Medicine and nursing
8.7%
79.5%
Nuclear, CBRN and defense
8.5%
59.6%
Law
7.1%
66.2%
Trust, safety and child protectionSmall sample
5.6%
88.9%

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

The rule is read from each posting's location text and, where that names no country, from what the posting's own description states. The rest of each row is roles open worldwide except some countries, or with no rule stated.

Rows with fewer than 20.8 open roles are marked as a small sample and not ranked: below that the average of the rows weighs more than a row's own open roles (the weight fitted on the rows' own counts).

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

For labs, data vendors and researchers

Buy the data behind this report

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

  • 11,482 roles tracked, each with its history

    Every role on 62 job boards, read since 13 Jul 2026 (every hour since 18 Oct 2026): its pay and place, and the first and last day it was open.

  • 58,632 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.

  • 39 lab and vendor hiring boards

    The job boards of 25 AI labs and 14 human-data vendors, read every day: who is hiring for human data, and who is hiring to buy it.

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Method and definitions

The public job boards of the AI training platforms this site tracks, read every hour. 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. When this site changes how it reads a platform's board (a cap lifted, a page kind or department read too, a relevance rule changed), the roles that came into view or left it from that change to the end of its week are this site's reading, not the platform's hiring: they are not new listings or removals, and changes in open roles are measured like for like across it. Each platform's report says what changed.
Advertised pay
The hourly figure a posting states (the middle of a stated range), counted once per distinct rate as the job board counts it. The median and typical pay are the board's: typical pay runs from the 25th percentile of what roles pay (the middle of each advertised range) to the 90th-percentile advertised ceiling, stated from 3 distinct rates.
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, October 2026 edition. https://aitraining.jobs/research/expert-fields-in-demand/2026-10

BibTeX

@misc{aitrainingjobs_expert_fields_in_demand_2026_10,
  author = {{AITraining.jobs}},
  title = {Expert Fields in Demand for AI Training, October 2026 edition},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://aitraining.jobs/research/expert-fields-in-demand/2026-10}},
}
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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