The impact of artificial intelligence on the labour market may be taking a more complex path than the usual narrative of job replacement suggests. According to PwC’s 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer, companies and workers most exposed to AI are seeing significant gains in productivity, wages and hiring — while the skills demanded by employers are changing rapidly. The research analysed more than one billion job advertisements across 27 countries and territories, alongside company financial and occupational data, to examine how AI is reshaping jobs, skills and productivity.

A two-track labour market

One of the report’s central findings is the emergence of what PwC describes as a “two-track” labour market. Some roles are being professionalised by AI: routine tasks are increasingly automated, leaving people to focus on expertise, judgement and more complex responsibilities. Others are being democratised, as AI lowers the level of specialist knowledge required to perform certain tasks.

The difference is already visible in the data. Jobs being professionalised by AI represent around 22% of advertised roles and are growing twice as fast as democratised jobs, while experiencing 42% higher wage growth since 2021.

Productivity is rising — and so are headcounts

The relationship between AI and employment is also more nuanced than simple displacement. PwC found that companies in the sectors most exposed to AI recorded 34% productivity growth in 2025 compared with 2018, versus 24% among the least exposed. Among the top 20% of AI-exposed companies, the increase reached 163% — a “superstar” effect that suggests the economic benefits of AI are becoming increasingly concentrated among organisations that know how to deploy it effectively.

At the same time, the most AI-exposed companies recorded stronger headcount growth than the least exposed: 52% versus 36%. Wage growth followed the same pattern: 24% versus 17%. The findings suggest that the organisations capturing the greatest value from AI are not necessarily using it simply to reduce labour. They are using it to redesign work, increase productivity and create new sources of value.

The human skills premium

The skills required for the most AI-exposed jobs are changing more than twice as fast as those required for the least exposed roles. New tasks requiring distinctly human capabilities — including empathy, judgement and creativity — are being added 2.5 times faster in highly AI-exposed jobs.

The change is particularly visible at the beginning of careers. Analysis of US entry-level positions found that AI-exposed junior roles are now seven times more likely to require traditionally senior skills, such as leadership and strategic thinking. These “seniorised” entry-level roles grew 35% since 2019, while other entry-level roles declined.

The leadership question

For organisations, the implication goes beyond adopting new tools. If AI can increasingly perform routine and technical tasks, the differentiator may shift towards the capabilities that remain harder to automate: judgement, creativity, leadership, adaptability and the ability to work with others. The competitive question, therefore, may no longer be simply how much AI an organisation uses — but how intelligently it redesigns work around it.

As PwC puts it in its 2026 AI Jobs Barometer, the companies seeing the greatest returns are using AI to “amplify human expertise, accelerate innovation and create entirely new sources of value.”

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Source: AI Jobs Barometer | PwC