{"slug": "5-people-who-pivoted-into-ai-jobs-and-how-they-did-it", "title": "5 people who pivoted into AI jobs — and how they did it", "summary": "Five workers from diverse backgrounds — including a former attorney, a structural engineer, and a data professional — successfully pivoted into artificial intelligence roles at companies like Microsoft, HubSpot, and StackAI. The career transitions come as AI engineer, consultant, and researcher positions rank among the fastest-growing jobs in the U.S., prompting workers to future-proof their careers amid a reshuffling employment market. Each professional took a unique path, leveraging transferable skills, personal projects, and proactive networking to break into the field.", "body_md": "AI is the buzziest word on the job market — and many workers want to know [how to pivot into it](https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-ai-job-career-transition-pivot-startups-2025-11).\n\nAs some [technical workers upskill](https://www.businessinsider.com/googlers-share-transition-to-ai-roles-2026-1) to stay on the cutting edge, others are moving into AI-focused roles from entirely different industries.\n\nMany [companies are pouring an eye-watering](https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-google-meta-microsoft-boost-ai-spending-stocks-2026-2) amount of money into AI, cutting some roles while adding new positions tied to the technology.\n\nAgainst that backdrop, moving into AI could be a way for workers to [future-proof their careers](https://www.businessinsider.com/ways-to-help-ai-proof-your-job-2026-2) as the employment market reshuffles. AI engineers, consultants, strategists, and researchers rank among the top five fastest-growing roles in the US, according to LinkedIn's Jobs On the Rise 2026 report.\n\nThere's no single path into AI, and Business Insider spoke with five workers who took very different ones. Read on to learn how they pivoted their careers.\n\n**Natasha Crampton, Microsoft chief responsible AI officer**\n\n[Natasha Crampton got her start](https://www.businessinsider.com/attorney-pivoted-to-microsoft-first-chief-responsible-ai-officer-2026-3) as an attorney and is now [ Microsoft's](https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft) first chief responsible AI officer.\n\nHer job includes working side-by-side with engineering, sales, and research teams to ensure they uphold principles as they build AI systems. It also includes external work, such as helping establish new laws and standards in the space.\n\nCrampton studied information systems in addition to law, and said she always had an interest in the intersection of technology, law, and society. During the strictly legal phase of her career, she said she always worked on technological issues, such as helping Microsoft draft contracts.\n\nShe said people looking to move into tech from other fields should start by using the technology themselves. She added that many technical skills are learnable, so coming from a different background shouldn't limit someone's ability to help shape it. She said, \"a huge amount of the value\" lies at the intersection of technical knowledge and insights from the social sciences.\n\n## Georgian Tutuianu, Hubspot AI engineer\n\n[Georgian Tutuianu has had several transition](https://www.businessinsider.com/resume-helped-pivot-from-software-engineering-to-ai-2026-3)s in engineering, from structural to traditional to software to AI at HubSpot.\n\nTutuianu said that his ability to get technically in the weeds was an asset during the interview process, and showed he had experience with AI.\n\nHe also [ highlighted that his résumé](https://www.businessinsider.com/google-software-engineer-resume-landed-interview-2024-6) has a section dedicated to personal projects. Tutuianu said he included one AI project, but it was enough. He said it came up naturally in the interview because he was asked about a time he used or built an AI agent.\n\n\"It was a juicy project where I could talk about it, and that was good enough,\" Tutuianu said.\n\nTutuianu said he also had to do a take-home coding assignment and review it with the hiring manager afterward, but there was no algorithmic component to the interview.\n\n\"Instead of the typical software engineering way that these interviews go, which is 'go solve this algorithm in front of me,'\" Tutuianu said. \"It's more of 'can you build the things that we care about? Show me.'\"\n\n## Jai Raj Choudhary, StackAI engineer\n\n[Jai Raj Choudhary transitioned from](https://www.businessinsider.com/software-engineer-landed-job-in-ai-2026-2) a data-focused role to an AI engineer at AI agent startup StackAI.\n\nThe engineer said he got his job by reaching out to StackAI's cofounder multiple times on LinkedIn. Choudhary said he had used the company's platform as a student, so he messaged the cofounder and started posting about StackAI, offering advice to the company.\n\nHe said he thinks he got offers from StackAI was because he understood data quality, the edge cases for the clients, the matrix, and the failure modes of the AI model or any LLM systems that were being used.\n\nHe said moving to San Francisco, where ['996' culture](https://www.businessinsider.com/996-work-culture-silicon-valley-burnout-ai-researchers-2026-2) has become more prevalent, helped open his opportunities in the space.\n\n\"It's not like a 9-to-5 cushy job,\" Choudhary said. \"We work 9-to-9, six days a week. You wake up, you think about the problem that a client had, and you sleep thinking about what is not fixed yet.\"\n\nAlso, taking a job at a startup that helped him grow and devoting himself to continuous learning made a big difference. Choudhary said he spent hours studying every day.\n\n## Brit Morenus, Microsoft senior AI gamification program manager\n\n[Brit Morenus, a senior](https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-manager-explains-how-she-pivoted-from-admin-to-ai-2026-2) AI gamification program manager, studied English, communications, and marketing in college. She started at Microsoft about 13 years ago as an executive assistant, and for the first five and a half years at the company, she was a contract worker.\n\nShe later moved into a role focused on gamification — using game mechanics to teach and market Microsoft's products.\n\nShe spent about a year getting certifications that taught her about game mechanics, and in that position, she became a full-time employee. Six years later, she had the opportunity to start gamifying learning about AI, and spent three months learning about the tech.\n\nHer advice to others who want to transition is to resist letting fear keep you from stepping outside your comfort zone. She also said that with AI roles, you need to learn how the technology works, not just use it.\n\nMorenus added that [she doesn't regret her English degree](https://www.businessinsider.com/english-literature-major-mit-opencourseware-ai-data-science-job-2024-8) because it's now more important than ever to understand how to apply the English language to AI.\n\n## Sajani Lokuge, AI content manager\n\n[Sajani Lokuge started her career](https://www.businessinsider.com/ux-designer-shares-how-she-pivoted-to-ai-communications-2026-5) as a UX designer. Nearly a year ago, she transitioned to lead AI communication and content strategy at her company, where she focuses on broadcasting AI.\n\nShe said the transition felt like the next logical step in her career. She had already studied computer science and spent years inside the company doing design work and translating technical problems to users. She was also building a public __platform on LinkedIn __[ focused on design careers](https://www.businessinsider.com/google-engineer-said-landing-ai-role-took-year-daily-upskilling-2025-12) and AI, which now has about 26,000 followers.\n\nLokuge told Business Insider that her job title may be different, but she's using a lot of the same skillset that was relevant to her as a UX designer. Instead of designing screens and interfaces, she's designing how people understand a new product category.\n\nFor those considering a similar career shift, she advises taking the leap before feeling completely ready. The technology is evolving so quickly that everyone is learning as they go, she said, and AI skills can be learned.\n\nShe also emphasized the importance of building a portfolio that showcases your abilities. For her, posting about AI-related content on social media helped demonstrate that she could clearly communicate technical ideas, which made her a good fit for the role.*An earlier version of this story appeared on April 25, 2026.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/5-people-who-pivoted-into-ai-jobs-and-how-they-did-it", "canonical_source": "https://www.businessinsider.com/4-workers-explain-how-they-added-ai-job-title-2026-4", "published_at": "2026-06-06 09:26:01+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-06 10:15:33.513020+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-ethics", "ai-policy", "ai-research", "ai-startups"], "entities": ["Natasha Crampton", "Microsoft", "LinkedIn", "Business Insider"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/5-people-who-pivoted-into-ai-jobs-and-how-they-did-it", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/5-people-who-pivoted-into-ai-jobs-and-how-they-did-it.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/5-people-who-pivoted-into-ai-jobs-and-how-they-did-it.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/5-people-who-pivoted-into-ai-jobs-and-how-they-did-it.jsonld"}}