Summary
AI reaches into almost every part of the Los Angeles economy, from animation studios and ad agencies to ports, aerospace plants and hotel kitchens. LA's jobs are about as exposed to AI as the nation's. Its signature industries sit at the two extremes: film, music and media work that AI already touches, and logistics, manufacturing and hospitality work it barely reaches.
LA's AI-producing side is large in total. LA County is 9th of 1,840 U.S. counties on jobs in AI-producing industries, the LA metro has the fourth-most data scientists of any metro, and 115 public companies in the county used an AI phrase in their 2026 annual reports.
It is thin for a region this size. LA County holds about 2.9% of the U.S. population but only 1.3% to 2.2% of U.S. jobs in each AI-producing industry. All six AI occupations tracked here are less common in the LA metro than nationally, and all six pay more. In the latest Census reading, California firms used AI at exactly the national rate.
Jobs and AI exposure
The LA metro has 6.2 million jobs. Anthropic's economists score each occupation for observed exposure: the share of its work time that goes to tasks already showing up in work-related Claude use. The score describes AI use, not job loss. The March 2026 paper that introduced it found no systematic rise in unemployment among highly exposed workers since late 2022.
Weighted by jobs, the LA metro scores 0.132 and the U.S. 0.131. About 1.03 million LA jobs, or 19.2%, are in occupations that score 0.30 or higher, against 18.9% nationally.
Observed exposure by job family
Average score weighted by jobs, LA metro and U.S. A score of 0.30 means about 30% of the work, weighted by time.
LA's creative work splits. Arts, design and media jobs are 2.2 times as concentrated in LA as nationally, 182,910 of them. Special effects artists and animators score 0.36 and graphic designers 0.37. Actors score 0.10 and musicians 0. Because LA's creative workforce leans toward performance and production, its arts family averages 0.16, below the national arts average of 0.18.
Most of the jobs that move LA's goods and feed its visitors barely register. Hospitality, food and tourism has about 907,000 LA jobs and scores 0.01. Logistics and transportation has about 572,000 and also scores 0.01.
AI industry jobs by county
No industry code isolates AI. Four come closest: computer systems design, data processing and hosting, scientific research and development, and software publishing. Together they employ 74,707 people in LA County, 9th of 1,840 counties. King County, Wash., and Santa Clara County, Calif., lead the list.
Largest counties by AI industry jobs
Private employment in the four AI-producing industries, 2026 Q1.
LA County is in the top 10 by size and below average by concentration. All four industries have a location quotient below 1.0 in the county, meaning a smaller share of local jobs than nationally. Computer systems design, the largest of the four, is at 0.45. Data processing and hosting pays $6,099 a week in LA against $4,332 nationally.
LA businesses in these industries run small. A software publisher in LA County employs 37 people on average, against 55 nationally.
AI talent
The occupation data counts people by what they do, wherever they work, so a software developer at a studio counts even though the studio is not an AI company. On headcount the LA metro ranks in the top 10 for all six AI occupations. Every one is less concentrated in LA than nationally, and every one pays more. Software developers earn a median $160,920 in the LA metro, 18% above the U.S. median.
AI occupations in the LA metro
Rank is among U.S. metros by headcount. Concentration is the location quotient, where 1.0 matches the U.S.
| Occupation | LA jobs | Metro rank | Concentration | LA median pay | U.S. median pay |
|---|
Public company filings
So far in 2026, 114 of the 177 public companies headquartered in LA County that filed a 10-K annual report used the phrase "artificial intelligence." That is 64%, up from 4% in 2019. Across California the share is 70%.
LA has closed most of that gap on the broad phrase but not on the newer ones. Among LA filers, 18% mention "generative AI," against 30% statewide. Counting "agentic," "agentic AI" and "AI agents," the 2026 tally is four LA filers (ServiceTitan, BlackLine, Onar and XMax) against 67 across California. LA has about a fifth of the state's filers, so a proportional share would be about 13.
Share of annual report filers using each phrase
LA-area filers and all California filers, by filing year. 2026 is year to date. The dashed line projects "artificial intelligence" for LA filers on a logistic curve.
The companies span far more than tech: banks, utilities, landlords, a toy maker, restaurant chains and biotech firms all mention AI in their filings. Outside the city of Los Angeles, Santa Monica has the most filers, followed by Westlake Village and Beverly Hills.
AI job postings
The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) tracked LA County job postings that mention AI. They went from 1,873 in 2015 to 18,919 in 2024. As a share of all postings, AI went from 0.3% to 2.4%.
LAEDC has not published 2025 or 2026. Indeed's tracker of U.S. postings that mention AI doubled in the past year, from 3.6% in September 2025 to 7.2% in September 2026. Scale LA's 2024 share by that national series and LA comes out near 3.5% in 2025 and 6.8% in 2026. If the national pace of the past one to three years holds, LA reaches 11% to 13% in 2027.
Share of LA County postings that mention AI
2015 to 2024 as published. Dashed bars for 2025 to 2027 scale LA's 2024 share by Indeed's U.S. series; the 2027 whisker spans the national pace of the last one to three years.
By sector, information, communication and digital media postings mention AI at 15.4%, three times the next sector. Retail, hospitality and tourism sits at 0.3%.
Postings that mention AI by LA priority sector
LA County, 2024.
Business adoption
Every two weeks the Census Bureau asks businesses whether they used AI in any business function. It publishes the answer by state, so California stands in for LA here. In the period ending October 4, 2026, 24.6% of California firms said yes, and so did 24.6% of U.S. firms. California ran ahead of the U.S. in 23 of the last 24 periods and ranks 21st of 50 states and D.C. on the latest one.
Asked about the next six months, 29.1% of California firms expect to use AI, against 28.6% nationally. Read the level as a floor: the survey counts every firm equally, and most firms are small.
Firms using AI in California and the U.S.
Share of firms, by two-week reference period. Diamonds show the share that expect to use AI within six months.
Claude usage puts California much higher. On the Anthropic Economic Index, which divides a state's share of Claude usage by its share of working-age population, California is at 1.62, second only to D.C. So California ranks 21st on how many firms use AI and 2nd on how much people use Claude. Computer and math tasks lead California's Claude use at 21.1%, the same as the U.S.
Implications for product and engineering leaders
If you sell AI into LA's own industries, the opening is uneven. Film, music, advertising and design work already shows real AI use, and those are the industries where LA is most specialized. The largest blocs of LA jobs, in health care, hospitality, logistics and manufacturing, score near zero on observed exposure, so the products that reach them will look different from the writing and coding tools that dominate AI use today.
If you sell AI products or services in LA, the market is large and spread out across small firms and industries outside tech. The 115 public companies that mention AI include banks, utilities, real estate trusts and restaurant chains.
If you hire AI talent in LA, expect to pay above national rates. Every AI occupation pays more here, and the region has fewer of those workers per job than the U.S. Data scientists come closest to even, at a concentration of 0.93.
Brookings placed the LA metro among 28 "Star Hubs" in its July 2025 AI readiness study, the second of six tiers, behind San Francisco and San Jose. The data here fits that tier: large in total, behind the leaders on concentration.
About the data
For more detail, read AI in Los Angeles on the Cardinal Element blog. The full post covers every occupation, the 10-K filers by name, and the forecast methods.
- Jobs and exposure: BLS OEWS May 2025, joined by occupation code to Anthropic's observed exposure scores. 86% of LA jobs are in occupations with a published score.
- AI industry jobs: BLS QCEW, 2026 Q1, and Census County Business Patterns, 2023.
- AI talent: BLS OEWS May 2025, six occupations: data scientists, software developers, computer and information research scientists, statisticians, computer systems analysts, and computer and information systems managers.
- Public company filings: SEC EDGAR full-text search for 10-K filings with a California business address, through October 26, 2026. The projection is a logistic fit from 2019 to 2026.
- Job postings: Lightcast data as published by LAEDC. Estimates scale LA's 2024 share by Indeed Hiring Lab's U.S. series.
- Business adoption: Census Business Trends and Outlook Survey, state file, through October 4, 2026. Claude usage: Anthropic Economic Index, state level, period beginning May 1, 2026.
Nothing here shows that AI caused any change in jobs or pay.
LA Tech Connect 2026
Product and engineering leaders from Los Angeles and Orange County meet Thursday, November 12, at the UCLA Faculty Club. $199 with breakfast and lunch.
Adapted from research by Scott Ewalt, Cardinal Element. Data pulled October 26, 2026.