The 62% premium: the skills that are being paid for right now.

The short version

The average wage premium for workers with AI skills is 62%, up from 57% the year before. Required skills are changing more than twice as fast (2.2x) in the most AI-exposed jobs as in the least exposed, up from 66% faster the year before. Job postings for AI specialist roles rose 69% between 2024 and 2025 while total postings grew 9%. Source: PwC, 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer. PwC's 2025 edition reported 56%, up from 25%; the 2026 edition restates the 2025 figure as 57%.

Credentials are losing to demonstrated skill

Between 2019 and 2024 the share of AI-augmented jobs requiring a formal degree fell from 66% to 59%. For jobs classed as AI-automated it fell from 53% to 44% (PwC, 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer; the 2026 edition does not update this measure). Employers are asking "can you do it" more often than "where did you study", which is good news for anyone who can show their work and bad news for anyone relying on a piece of paper from ten years ago.

Half the list is human

The World Economic Forum's ranking of skills rising fastest to 2030 starts with AI and big data, cybersecurity and technological literacy. Then it turns: creative thinking, resilience and flexibility, curiosity and lifelong learning, leadership and social influence, talent management, analytical thinking. Six of the top ten are things a person does, not things a tool does. They are also the things that are hardest to prove on a resume, which is exactly why they pay.

What to practise

Pick one tool and use it on real work every week until you can explain where it is wrong. That is technological literacy. Then practise the human half in public: run a meeting, write the recommendation, make the call when the model gives you three options. The premium goes to people who can do both halves in the same afternoon.

Common questions

How much more do workers with AI skills earn?

The average wage premium for workers with AI skills is 62%, up from 57% the year before (PwC, Global AI Jobs Barometer, 2026).

What are the fastest growing skills to 2030?

AI and big data, networks and cybersecurity, technological literacy, creative thinking, resilience and flexibility, curiosity and lifelong learning, leadership, talent management, analytical thinking and environmental stewardship (WEF Future of Jobs 2025).

Do I need a degree for an AI-augmented job?

Less often than before. The share of AI-augmented jobs requiring a degree fell from 66% to 59% between 2019 and 2024 (PwC, 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer; the 2026 edition does not update this measure).

Do AI skills increase your salary?

Yes, on average. The average wage premium for workers with AI skills is 62%, up from 57% the year before (PwC, Global AI Jobs Barometer, 2026).

What jobs will AI create?

Mostly new work inside existing jobs: supervising AI output, designing workflows and governing risk. The WEF expects 77% of employers to upskill staff by 2030.