AI fires and replaces some people. Others start getting paid €10,000 a month

Against the backdrop of a new wave of layoffs, this is presented as a cautious reason for optimism: old professions are disappearing, but the market is simultaneously creating new ones.

AI is changing not only company workflows. It is literally creating new categories of professions.

From vibe coders and prompt engineers to AI strategists, forward-deployed engineers, and even philosophers working alongside technical teams — companies around the world are urgently restructuring their approach to hiring future employees.

Almost all new roles require cross-functional expertise: a combination of software development, data engineering, product thinking, and deep understanding of a specific industry.

Public vacancy data shows two simultaneous processes:

— short-term demand for operational roles to support AI;

— long-term need for people capable of designing, overseeing, and scaling machine learning systems.

And this no longer looks like a temporary HR trend of individual companies, but a full-scale restructuring of the labor market.

As AI adoption accelerates, companies simultaneously:

are creating new highly specialized professions;

are renaming old positions by adding AI competencies;

are changing their approach to hiring;

are revising salary levels;

are increasing their reliance on contract and project-based employment.

There is a caveat, though. The Business Insider piece is largely based on vacancy analysis and journalistic observations. It contains almost no detailed data on individual companies' strategies or precise headcount statistics.

I decided to do a superficial check of how all this looks in practice — I reviewed Russian and foreign HR platforms for new AI specializations.

Prompt engineering: there is demand. But salaries are as if we are talking about different planets.

There are indeed many vacancies for prompt engineers on both Western and Russian platforms. The responsibilities are very similar, but the pay difference is striking.

In Europe, such specialists are ready to pay from €4500 to €5500 per month. For more complex roles — up to €10,000. Russian employers offer from 60,000 to 120,000 rubles.

Vibe coders: a trendy term that still lives mainly in Russia

Business Insider describes vibe coders almost as a new explosive profession. But a quick search reveals an interesting detail: on foreign job platforms, there are no vacancies with exactly this name. Vibe coding skills more often appear as an additional part of the prompt engineer's functionality, not as an independent specialty. However, on Russian resources, 'vibe coder' is encountered quite regularly. Salary range — from 40,000 to 150,000 rubles.

Forward-deployed engineers: the new AI elite?

Separate hype is now around forward-deployed engineers. These are specialists who not only know how to work with AI, but deeply immerse themselves in the customer's processes:

study internal regulations;

work with company data;

adapt AI to a specific business;

become a link between development and the client.

Almost all sources emphasize: ideal candidates are often former founders of tech startups — people with a strong technical profile and simultaneously developed communication skills. In Europe, such specialists are ready to pay from €45,000 to €130,000 per year — depending on the country and level of tasks. On Russian platforms, comparable vacancies were practically not found.

AI philosophers: sounds beautiful, paid modestly

The most unexpected thing turned out to be something else. In Western AI companies, there is indeed a growing demand for humanities scholars — primarily philosophers and AI ethics specialists. Their tasks: control of AI usage policies, analysis of ethical risks, participation in governance processes, work with legal and cultural constraints. However, salaries quickly bring back to reality. In Europe, such specialists are usually offered only €10–20 per hour. Moreover, the requirements are extremely strict: not only academic knowledge is needed, but also a deep understanding of the local language, law, and cultural context. That is, a German AI company needs specifically a German philosopher. Representatives of this profession, it seems, will not become global digital nomads.

There is no demand for philosophers from IT companies on Russian HR platforms. Rare university departments remain the main employers.

The main question now sounds like this:

If AI is so rapidly reshaping the labor market, where do new opportunities actually appear - for specialists, entrepreneurs and small teams?

Because in the era of technological breakthroughs, those who start adapting earlier than others always get the maximum benefits.