AI Engineer Salary Study Report – India – 2025

India’s artificial intelligence (AI) talent ecosystem continues to evolve rapidly, with compensation trends offering insights into the sector’s maturity, demand, and strategic shifts. According to the insights, salaries for AI professionals in India are shaped by several factors, including job roles, years of experience, industry sectors, company type, and geographic location.

The report provides insights into the compensation across these sections and also highlights the factors on why certain roles are offered substantially higher salaries than other roles. Additionally, it also highlights how certain advanced roles such as AI architects and AI researchers are offered substantial packages, owing to their specialized expertise and strategic value. Moreover, roles such as AI developers and AI consultants have also emerged as high-paying positions, showcasing demand for hands-on AI implementation and advisory capabilities.

Experience plays a crucial role in shaping AI professionals’ compensation, with entry-level salaries significantly lower than those of senior professionals. As individuals advance in their careers, the salary gap widens notably, reflecting the increasing value of technical expertise, strategic acumen, and leadership capabilities. This trend highlights the growing enterprise focus on scaling AI operations, where experienced talent is essential for driving impactful outcomes.

Geographically, Bengaluru remains the most lucrative city for AI professionals, benefiting from its deep-rooted tech ecosystem and dense concentration of AI-driven enterprises. Notably, the study also provides insights on the emergence of niche AI roles such as agentic AI engineers, AI ethics specialists, AI solutions architects, and MLOps engineers, showcasing the growing need for sophisticated system governance, ethical frameworks, and scalable deployment architectures.

Key Highlights

• The median salary of AI engineers in India is around INR 12-15 LPA. The rise in the salaries for AI engineers in India can be attributed to the rise in the adoption of the AI, thereby leading to the rise in the hiring of the AI engineers
• BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance) is one of the highest-paying industries for AI professionals, with a substantial median salary
• Bengaluru offers significantly high median salaries to the AI engineers. This can be attributed to several factors such as the presence of several established tech firms, startups, and global companies. This has led to an increase in the number of AI engineers, driven by a rise in compensation levels
• Senior-level engineers hold pivotal positions in the organizations, spearheading AI initiatives, mentoring junior team members, and fostering innovation. The expertise extends to guiding complex AI solutions, integrating AI into broader business processes, and staying ahead of emerging technologies
• AI Architects, AI Researchers, and AI Consultants earn the highest median salaries due to the demand for expertise in aligning AI with business goals and foundational system design
  

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary

2. Introduction

3. Overview of the Types of AI  Roles

• AI Architect
• AI Consultant
• AI Researcher
• LLM Engineer
• AI Developer
• MLOps Engineer
• Prompt Engineer

4. Compensation Benchmarking

• Compensation breakdown by roles
• Breakdown of compensation by sector
• Compensation breakdown by roles and years of experience – by sectors
• Breakdown of compensation by cities
• Breakdown of compensation by company types
• Compensation breakdown of AI engineers across company type – years of experience
• Future outlook of compensation for AIeEngineers in India: (Emerging job roles after the advent of agentic AI)