How to Optimize Your UX Design Resume for AI Roles

Table of Contents

• AI Jobs & Salaries for UX Designers
• Who’s Hiring AI/UX Designers?
• 7 Tips for Updating Your UX Design Resume for AI Roles

If you’re a UX/UI designer, incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) tools into your skillset is an excellent way to ensure that the experiences you design are easy-to-use, intuitive, and modern. But how can you reflect your new AI skills on your UX resume? There are actually 7 tricks to optimize your UX design resume and LinkedIn to show recruiters and hiring managers that you’re comfortable with AI. Plus, learn more about the new UX/AI roles companies are hiring for now!

AI Jobs & Salaries for UX Designers

UX designer jobs center around how to make an application or software intuitive and easy to use — This is known as “user experience” (UX). But with the increase in the use of AI to mimic that human aspect of UX design to influence the user experience, you might fear that UX design jobs are on the way out. At this point, AI can’t replicate the human capacity for creativity or strategy, but it may be worth it to explore how AI can be combined with your UX skills to enhance your career viability (and increase your value) in the tech world. 

There are a few jobs that blend the best of both worlds, combining the person-focused UX experience with the capabilities of AI to become a “liaison” between the data scientist and developers creating the apps and the UX designers optimizing the user experience. Knowledge of both fields is key to making this happen.

Examples of UX/AI positions include:

• AI Interaction Designer — They combine machine learning, AI, and UX to improve interactions between the user and AI “assistants,” or bots, to make interactions with the AI sound conversational and helpful, like interacting with a real person.  💰 Average Salary: $95,695

• AI User Researcher — These tech professionals UX research methods to find user behavior patterns, which are then given to the UX designers to improve the overall experience. 💰 Average Salary: $113,102

• AI Content Strategists — These folks work to improve the content for AI applications, working as a “go-between” for AI scientists and content creators. 💰 Average Salary: $229,000

Who’s Hiring AI/UX Designers?

Unless you’re looking to completely move away from UX design and into AI, you can find a position that incorporates AI tools into UX design, freeing you from some of the more routine tasks so you can focus more of your energy on creativity and innovation. 

AI for UX designers might look like:

• Using data to make predictions about customers' habits and behavior.

• Incorporating chatbots into an app or website that can answer common questions, freeing up human representatives for other, more important work.

• Using AI as a content editor, creating short bits of copy or social media posts.

• Automating prototypes, wireframes, and design layouts.

What fields hire AI-trained UX designers? Most UX designers work in tech, but they may also be employed in the finance, healthcare, government/military, media, advertising, telecommunications, and retail sectors.

A clear understanding of all these AI functions will increase your value as a UX designer, leading to new and better opportunities in the field. One of the best ways to learn both UX and AI skills is through a bootcamp, which will teach you the skills you need, help you build a portfolio, and teach you the interviewing skills you’ll need to land a new position.

7 Tips for Updating Your UX Design Resume for AI Roles

One of the most important tools you have in your job-search toolbox is surprisingly low-tech: your resume. A resume is a 1-2 page document in which you provide an overview of your skills, work experience, and education to show a potential employer why you’re a good fit for a job. It’s not a detailed replay of everything you’ve ever done; rather, it’s your “highlight reel” that provides your relevant skills, accomplishments, and work experience. Once you have created a solid, basic resume, you’ll want to optimize it to showcase both your UX design and AI skills to set yourself apart from the crowd. 

1. Do a personal inventory of your skills and abilities

Make a list of your tech skills, along with your abilities and positive traits. Think about what you like to do, what you’re good at, and what your goals are. By putting your skills and talents front and center, you can begin to update your resume in a way that shows the positive impact you’ve had in your previous positions and the value you would bring to a new employer.

2. Use keywords effectively

To land a job in AI, you’ll have to get past…AI. Sounds contradictory, but keep in mind that most companies, no matter the field, use AI to screen their applicants. These AI systems are called Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and they are used by companies to streamline the hiring process. This includes the use of keywords in their job postings, and if a resume doesn't have the correct keywords (usually found in the job description) it will get discarded.

To avoid this, make sure you’ve scanned the job description to identify the words and phrases that describe the experience, skills, and qualifications the hiring manager is looking for, and incorporate them into each section of your resume. (if you actually have the skills, of course!).

Examples of keywords for AI roles might include:

• Machine learning
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Natural Language Processing (NLP)
• Algorithms
• Image processing

Remember, don’t add these keywords to your resume unless you possess experience in these areas. If you don’t, consider a bootcamp to strengthen your UX and AI skills and broaden your job possibilities.

3. Create an eye-catching professional summary

In most resume formats, the professional summary is one of the first things a hiring manager will see. It’s a concise summary of your most relevant skills, accomplishments, and goals, and should encourage the hiring manager to keep reading. It’s usually located under your contact information, and it’s a good place to incorporate those keywords.

4. Highlight your skills effectively

Of course, you’ll list your skills in the Skills section of your resume, but you can also weave them throughout your resume. In clear concise bullet points, give an overview of your responsibilities, accomplishments, and the positive outcomes of your work. If you used AI tools, don’t forget to include them, providing information on how you incorporate them into your work, and any positive results you had (using quantifiable data when possible). 

While hard skills, such as wireframing, ChatGPT, Midjourney, and ResearchAI are important to include, don’t forget soft skills, like communication, problem-solving, strategic thinking, design thinking, teamwork, and ethics.

5. Incorporate AI into your resume

If you want to move into an AI role, you’ll need to show that you have the required experience and skills. In your work history, for example, if you used AI tools, you can showcase your experience by:

• Giving the name of the AI tool you used.
• Concisely explaining the problem, issue, or process that the AI tool was being used for.
• Including any programming languages or specialized tech you used (such as TensorFlow, Uizard, Miro Assist, Neurons, MonkeyLearn, or Galileo AI).
• Providing the outcome of the project, using quantifiable data and metrics when possible, like improved accuracy rates or product improvements.

6. Don’t forget your education section

In this section, you’ll include any college degrees you’ve earned, but don’t forget about relevant certifications, training, workshops, and the like. If you’re transitioning into AI from UX design, make sure to highlight any transferable skills, bootcamps, projects, and courses that you’ve taken that demonstrate your hands-on experience as well as your commitment to growing your skills in AI. 

7. Create (or update) your online portfolio

If you’ve been in tech for any length of time, you most likely already have an online portfolio that showcases your most outstanding work, such as samples, technical documentation, project descriptions, photos, visual demonstrations, and so on. If you don’t already have one, make sure you build one (sites such as Squarespace can help you do this quickly and easily if you don’t have a background in web design). If you do have a portfolio, make sure you update it with AI-based projects and tools you’ve used, along with positive outcomes. Don’t forget to include a link to your portfolio in your contact information at the top of your resume so hiring managers can see it.