Artificial intelligence is pulling the global labour market in two opposite directions, rewarding companies that use AI to enhance human skills, while leaving those who use it merely to cut costs further behind, a new study suggests.
Roles requiring specific AI skills increased almost eight times faster than the total job market in 2025, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP study. Such roles are also seeing higher wage growth, the PwC 2026 AI Jobs Barometer report showed.
Jobs that can use AI to amplify human skills such as creativity and judgment are rising the fastest, with PwC naming radiologists and recruiters as examples. Jobs where AI makes the task easier for non-experts to perform, such as IT service managers and medical secretaries, are seeing much slower growth.
"The companies seeing the greatest returns on AI are using it to amplify human expertise, accelerate innovation and create entirely new sources of value,” said Joe Atkinson, PwC’s global chief AI officer. "They’re pulling further ahead on productivity and growth than companies that focus primarily on automation.”
The report drew on data including over one billion job postings across 27 countries and territories, combining labour-market, financial and occupational information to track how AI is reshaping work, skills, wages and productivity.
Entry-level AI-exposed positions increasingly require what have traditionally been senior human competencies, such as judgment, empathy, ethics, creativity and leadership, PwC said. Roles requiring such skills have grown 35% since 2019, while so-called "non-seniorised” entry-level positions, which don’t require such skills, have shrunk by 10%.
Meanwhile, PwC’s latest Global CEO Survey found that 49% of chief executive officers expect AI adoption to reduce junior hiring over the next three years, compared with just 12% who expect the same for senior roles.
"AI is removing some of the routine work that once acted as an apprenticeship,” said Pete Brown, PwC’s global workforce leader. Meanwhile, it’s "increasing demand for judgment, leadership and adaptability much earlier in careers. Organisations will have to rethink how they develop talent.”
Perhaps surprisingly, PwC found that greater AI exposure correlated with faster headcount growth, not job losses. Companies most exposed to AI increased employment 52% from 2018 levels, versus 36% for the least-exposed firms.
Roles requiring specialised AI skills — such as machine learning and prompt engineering — grew 69% last year, about eight times faster than the 9% growth of the overall job market. The wage premium for those roles widened to 62% from 57% the prior year. That premium varies sharply by sector: as high as 118% in consumer markets, but just 16% in government and the public sector.
Professional roles such as radiologists, air traffic controllers and recruiters saw job growth twice as rapid, and salary growth 42% faster, than categories like IT service managers, loan officers and medical secretaries. Technology, media and telecommunications led AI-driven job growth last year at 11%, followed by professional services at 6%, while health care lagged at under 1%.
Financial analysts offered a notable case study: rather than being displaced, they have gained powerful new AI tools that let them conduct far more complex analysis. The study showed that financial analyst employment has continued to climb as new specialisations emerge, many commanding higher wages.
Companies in the most AI-exposed sectors posted 34% productivity growth in 2025 compared with 2018, versus 24% for the least-exposed companies.
The top 20% of companies by AI exposure achieved labour productivity gains of 163% relative to 2018, which is nearly five times the average for AI-exposed companies overall.
In the age of AI, "winning is not just about using technology, it is about human skills,” PwC said. "The more AI is deployed, the more distinctly human expertise is valued.” — Bloomberg
