AI is creating a 'two-track' labour market: Jobs Barometer
Highlighting how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the skills employers want most from workers, PwC's 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer said the developing technology is creating a 'two-track' labour market in turn increasing the emphasis on human skills
London: Highlighting how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the skills employers want most from workers, PwC's 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer said the developing technology is creating a 'two-track' labour market in turn increasing the emphasis on human skills.
"AI is creating a 'two-track' labour market - 'professionalised' roles, in which AI automates routine tasks so human judgement and expertise are emphasized – are growing faster than roles 'democratised' by AI – in which AI makes the role itself easier for non-experts to perform", PwC's 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer released three days ago said.
"The 'professionalised' roles (such as radiologists or recruiters) are seeing twice the growth in available jobs and 42% faster salary growth than those categorised as the 'democratised' roles such as IT service managers or medical secretaries", it said.
The Barometer, which analysed more than one billion job ads across six continents, said that AI is rapidly reshaping the skills employers want most from workers – increasing the emphasis on human skills such as judgement, creativity and leadership – as companies most able to use AI continue to expand hiring faster than their peers.
PwC's 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer in its report also found that AI appears to be increasing demand for more 'senior' skills from junior workers at the entry level.
"Based on 2.4 million entry-level jobs analysed in the US, entry-level roles most exposed to AI are now seven times more likely to require traditionally senior-level 'human-intensive' skills like leadership, creativity or face-to-face interactions. Job openings for these 'seniorised' entry-level roles have grown 35% since 2019, while other entry-level roles shrank 10%", it said.
"Super Star Effect"
Commenting on the latest findings, Joe Atkinson, Global Chief AI Officer, PwC, said the world is witnessing a new divide emerging between different models for talent and value creation across the global economy.
"The companies seeing the greatest returns on AI are using it to amplify human expertise, accelerate innovation and create entirely new sources of value. As a result, they are pulling further ahead on productivity and growth than companies that focus primarily on automation", Joe said.
The report also said that AI is driving a productivity boom – and "super-star" companies most able to use AI are pulling ahead significantly.
The report finds widening divergence between companies most and least exposed to AI.
"Companies operating in the most AI-exposed sectors recorded 34% productivity growth in 2025 relative to 2018, compared to 24% for the companies least able to use AI", the report said.
"Within this group, a pronounced "super-star" effect is emerging. The top 20% of the most AI-exposed companies achieved average labour productivity growth of 163% relative to 2018 – nearly five times higher than the most AI-exposed companies overall", the report said.
Wage premium for AI skills up
The report said the average wage premium for AI skills has hit 62% as AI job postings eclipse broader labour market growth.
"As companies continue to boost productivity with AI, the average wage premium for workers with AI skills continued to surge higher – hitting 62%, up from 57% last year", the report said.
The wage premium varies by industry - as high as 118% in some sectors, such as consumer markets, and 16% in government and public sector work.
Jobs requiring specific AI skills – such as prompt engineering or machine learning, have also soared, growing roughly eight times (69%) as fast as the overall jobs market, at 9%. The number of AI jobs is almost twice as high as 2024, with growth in AI jobs outpacing all jobs since 2015.
Sectors including technology, media and telecommunications (11%) and professional services (6%) sectors saw the highest share in AI job growth – with health at the lowest end (less than 1%), the report said.
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