As humans entrust AI with greater decision-making power, companies are embracing responsible AI (RAI) systems that can address the ethical, legal and social questions associated with the technology. And with RAI has come a rising demand for specialists who develop and implement those processes . A recent Hiring Lab report shows the number of job listings related to responsible AI has jumped from virtually 0% in 2019 to about 0.9% of total AI postings in 2025. Titles like “AI governance lead,” “model risk manager” and “responsible AI officer” have emerged across various industries — from banking to law to education — as companies work to maintain trust with customers and regulators alike. Moreover, the demand for RAI skills grew by about 256% from July 2024 to June 2025 in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, among others.
The reason for this may be a couple multiple converging factors, including regulatory, ethical, legal, reputational and operational imperatives. These could include potential violations of fair lending laws; concerns about systemic bias and exclusion; or damage to public trust.”These complexities require more than satisfying checklists or avoiding regulatory penalties,” says Marianna B. Ganapini, associate professor at UNC Charlotte and co-founder of LogicaNow, which helps companies build RAI frameworks that align with industry and legal standards. ”The challenges responsible AI aims to address aren’t just technical problems. They’re moral, cognitive and governance ones, too.”To meet this moment, companies are creating new roles to monitor the entire AI lifecycle. Organizations have established AI governance programs, and they are hiring dedicated executives to oversee risk management, policy implementation and the ongoing monitoring of AI systems. These new roles sit at the intersection of technology, ethics and business strategy.For Ganapini, this kind of holistic approach integrating ethical reflection and long-term thinking into the business itself is what truly impactful RAI demands. And companies expect candidates hired for these teams to be multiskilled. “Though technical proficiency is a prerequisite, [candidates] need to be adept at ethics and governance as well,“ she says. A lack of familiarity with the ongoing AI-related ethical issues can lead teams to take shortcuts that will later fail in the real world. ”AI is uncertain by design. Everything changes rapidly, and there are no fixed playbooks.” 

Inside the new roles in keeping AI accountable

Ganapini’s journey into this field stems from a deeper inquiry into how humans think and trust technology. She’s particularly interested in how people interact with AI systems in real-world contexts and ways that trust, bias and model uncertainty shape those interactions.To that end, she has collaborated with the Montreal AI Ethics Institute, contributing to global technical and policy analysis to shape the future of ethical AI. “I wanted to reduce the gap between philosophy and practice by helping make AI systems socially useful,“ she says.A major step towards ensuring that happens is to begin putting these broad ethical principles to the test in a corporate setting — something that Colleen Dorsey has been working on.As the former Chief Ethics Officer at Cogniva Labs, Dorsey developed AI policies for go-to-market strategies and communications guidelines. She defined the company’s stance on RAI practices and outlined long-term objectives. The most demanding aspect of this role, she says, was balancing resources for compliance and business growth.Dorsey agrees with Ganapini that the work exists in an environment that’s still being defined. “One of the key traits for anyone working in responsible AI is to be comfortable with uncertainty,” she says. “They should show a willingness to work in an area that isn’t going to give them definitive answers.” She adds that much of the work on responsible AI is taking shape in real time. A good approach to entering the field would be to understand the overall business goals and be familiar with its various workflows to embed AI ethics into areas where it makes most sense and has the least friction. She also recommends that anyone interested in breaking into the field take free courses increasingly offered by tech and AI-focused companies,  which offer a mix of technical and practical knowledge.Ganapini expects that in the next three years, responsible AI will become as integral as cybersecurity. Regulations like the EU AI Act and ISO 42001 are already accelerating demand for professionals who can connect ethical reasoning with business outcomes. ISO 42001 for instance, is the first international standard that provides a framework to improve AI management systems in organizations to ensure responsible AI development, deployment and use.

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