AI Skills Now Command 62% Pay Premium as Global Jobs Market Splits Into Two Speeds
Published on 06/16/2026 at 09:57 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
A sweeping international study released Monday by PwC reveals that workers with artificial-intelligence expertise are earning an average of 62% more than colleagues without those skills, as the labor market fractures between high-growth, AI-intensive roles and positions left behind.
The “Global AI Jobs Barometer” analyzed hiring and compensation data across multiple economies, showing that job postings requiring specific AI capabilities such as machine learning or prompt engineering have surged 69% since 2019. Over the same period, the overall jobs market grew just 9%.
Professionalized Roles Outpace the Rest
PwC identifies a clear two-speed trajectory. Roles the report calls “professionalized” – such as radiologists or recruitment specialists – are experiencing job growth twice as fast as the market average. Salaries in these positions are rising 42% faster than in occupations with lower AI exposure.
By contrast, “democratized” jobs – for instance, IT service managers or medical secretaries – are seeing efficiency gains from AI, but wage growth has not kept pace.
Companies that have aggressively adopted AI, labeled “superstars” in the study, have widened their advantage sharply. Since 2018, the top 20% of AI-using firms boosted productivity by 163%, a gap that has tripled since 2022. These same employers expanded their workforces by 52%, compared with 36% for less AI-focused firms, and posted 24% wage growth versus 17%.
The 62% pay premium for AI-skilled professionals varies widely by sector. In the consumer goods industry the bonus reaches as high as 118%, while in the public sector it stands at just 16%.
Entry-Level Jobs Get Tougher
The shift is particularly testing for newcomers to the workforce. AI-exposed entry-level roles have grown 35% since 2019, while other junior positions have shrunk by 10%.
An analysis of 2.4 million U.S. entry-level job postings found that AI-heavy positions are seven times more likely to demand competencies once reserved for experienced professionals – including judgment, creativity, and leadership qualities. As AI takes over technical routine tasks, human interpersonal and strategic skills are becoming more valuable.
German Businesses Race to Catch Up
While much of the data in the PwC report is global, a separate survey by the Ifo Institute in May of 3,000 German companies shows the trend has taken hold in Europe’s largest economy. Nearly one in five firms using AI (19.2%) said they consider it possible to replace university-educated workers with AI-assisted staff who lack formal academic training. In the retail sector, that share rises to 28.6%. Still, a majority of 55.4% view such substitution as difficult or impossible.
KPMG research from this spring underlines how quickly attitudes have changed. Fully 98% of German decision-makers now rate AI as relevant to their business – up from just 56% in 2024. Almost every surveyed company has a current AI strategy in place. And 84% of managers believe their workforce is well prepared to work with artificial intelligence.
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