A new category of jobs where humans and AI work together is rising in China, where the AI industry is growing rapidly. Prominent examples include AI trainers who guide personal workouts at gyms and AI driving instructors who coach students behind the wheel. On the 27th, CCTV reported that such AI technology is expanding its reach across the education and training industry as a whole, moving beyond fitness into driving education.
The role of an AI trainer is to train, evaluate, and manage the AI system itself. In effect, it is a job that works behind the scenes so that AI can provide more precise and practical help when users exercise. "AI trainers have transformed exercise into an activity that can be done anytime, anywhere, not just at the gym," CCTV reported, adding that "it has revolutionized the industry and changed the career paths of many current professionals." The specific working method goes like this. When a trainer films videos of correct and incorrect postures respectively, an engineer converts those videos into data that AI can learn from and injects it into the system. The problem is that AI can occasionally malfunction, which could lead to accidents during exercise. That is why the expertise and experience of trainers and engineers remain important. They also take on the role of managing and supervising AI while checking whether exercise plans run safely and effectively. Trainer Sun Nan described the competitive relationship with AI as "healthy competition that lets me develop my strengths and move forward."
Driving education sites are also changing. Some driving schools in China have introduced a method in which students practice alone in the car without an instructor riding along. The AI instructor demonstrates and coaches, and students say they feel less psychological pressure than when riding with a human instructor. There is also a side effect. As a single AI instructor can now guide up to 27 people simultaneously, instructors' incomes have also risen.
The growth trend is clear when looking at market size. The industry expects that by the end of this year, China's driving education market will exceed 148 billion yuan (about 32.076 trillion won) and the AI fitness market will surpass 100 billion yuan (about 21.673 trillion won). As the market grows, so does the value of "human-AI collaboration" talent equipped with both technical capabilities and practical experience. AI algorithm engineers, who handle AI algorithm development, model training, and data optimization, were found to earn about 20,000 yuan per month (about 4.3346 million won). AI product managers (PMs), who are responsible for improving the functions and user experience of AI products, earn about 10,000 yuan per month (about 2.17 million won), while AI enabling roles, which provide educational assistance and data for AI learning, are known to receive 5,000 to 20,000 yuan per month (about 1.08 million to 4.3346 million won).
