Workers with AI skills earn a 62% wage premium

PwC's '2026 AI Jobs Barometer', which analysed more than a billion job postings across six continents, shows how AI is splitting the global labour market on both pay and employment. According to Marketing Türkiye's report, the study's headline finding is that workers with AI skills now earn an average wage premium of 62%.

How much wider is the gap between AI-driven companies and the rest?

According to the research, companies that benefit most from AI grew their headcount by 52%, while the least AI-exposed companies saw employment growth of only 36%. Over the same period, pay grew by 24% and 17% respectively. PwC attributes the gap less to automation and more to the fact that the leading companies use AI to strengthen human expertise.

Which roles are growing fastest?

The research points to two different role dynamics: 'professionalised roles', where AI takes over routine tasks and human judgement becomes more critical (radiologists and HR specialists, for example), and 'democratised roles', where AI lowers the expertise threshold and opens a job to a wider pool of workers. Positions requiring specific AI skills, such as systems engineering and machine learning, grew 69%, compared with 9% growth for the overall job market.

What does this mean for HR teams?

Commenting on the findings, a PwC senior partner noted that AI's impact on business is now visible in concrete economic data: companies getting the highest returns from AI aren't just using it to automate routine work and cut costs, but to strengthen human expertise, accelerate innovation and open up new sources of value. For HR teams, that means revisiting pay bands by AI skill level, prioritising internal upskilling programmes in fast-growing areas such as systems engineering and machine learning, and being clear in job postings about which roles are being 'professionalised' and which are being 'democratised'.

• Review your pay policy with AI skills as a distinct factor.
• Prioritise internal upskilling programmes in fast-growing areas such as systems engineering and machine learning.
• Build AI literacy into entry-level job descriptions, and prepare junior talent for complex decision-making earlier in their careers.