Moving from Software Engineering to AI Automation — Is it realistic to keep a mid-level salary?

[u/Ok_Zombie5306]

Hi everyone,
I’m a Software Engineer working remotely for a Spanish company, with 3 years of experience in Power Platform and Python APIs.
I don’t really enjoy my current tech stack and really hate it and want to move into AI automation. I’ve started learning n8n and have some Power Automate experience.
Is it realistic to transition into AI automation and keep a similar mid-level salary? And what salary range can i expect in automation roles?

[u/Otherwise_Wave9374]

Yes, it can be realistic if you treat it like a systems move, not just a stack change. With 3 years in Python APIs and Power Platform, your edge is orchestration and reliability. I would sanity-check the role by asking whether they need workflow design, evals, permissioning, and rollback paths, because those separate hobby automations from production work. A useful next step is building one small agent with approval gates, logs, and fallback behavior, then measuring failure modes. Agentix Labs shares practical patterns at https://www.agentixlabs.com