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While concerns about artificial intelligence making human jobs obsolete have been widespread over the past three years, a new study suggests the opposite may be true. According to PwC, companies are finding that employees who effectively use AI are becoming more valuable, and they’re getting raises as a result.
AI-exposed jobs are driving wage growth
Globally, wages are rising twice as fast in AI-exposed industries — i.e., industries where AI can assist with a wide range of tasks — compared to sectors that can largely only be done manually. This is because those who leverage AI can enhance their productivity and create greater value; AI-exposed industries experience three times higher growth in revenue per employee.
As a result, workers with AI skills, such as prompt engineering, can command a significant wage premium. On average, they earn 56% more than colleagues in the same roles who lack these skills. That premium has more than doubled since last year, when it stood at 25%.
Researchers at PwC analysed nearly a billion job ads across six continents to compile data for its 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer. They found that AI adoption has grown across every industry, including traditionally low-tech sectors such as mining and agriculture. All these sectors pay higher wages for AI skills.
While the payoff is big, keeping up with AI skills is hard work
However, it’s not all sunshine and roses. Having the right AI skills can indeed lead to high wages, but those skill requirements change quickly.
The PwC research found that skills needed to secure an AI-exposed role change 66% faster than for other jobs, up from 25% last year. This reflects the intense race among tech giants like OpenAI and Google to develop new powerful AI tools, which can trickle down to enterprises at a similar pace.
It’s also not enough to simply obtain a degree to secure these AI-exposed roles, as fewer employers are now requiring them in their job advertisements. Between 2019 and 2024, the share of job listings requiring a degree dropped from 53% to 44% for roles where AI can independently perform many of the associated tasks. For jobs where AI simply helps humans perform tasks more effectively, the proportion requiring a degree also declined, from 66% to 59%.
Nevertheless, far fewer jobs in non-AI-exposed industries require degrees — only 11% in 2024. But the gap is narrowing as degree requirements decline across both types of roles.
PwC’s study found that in every country analyzed, more women than men are employed in AI-exposed roles. Therefore, as the pace of change accelerates, they may face greater challenges in keeping their skills up to date, potentially putting their long-term job security at a greater risk than that of their male counterparts.
“AI’s rapid advance is not just re-shaping industries, but fundamentally altering the workforce and the skills required. This is not a situation that employers can easily buy their way out of,” Pete Brown, Global Workforce Leader at PwC, said in a statement. “Even if they can pay the premium required to attract talent with AI skills, those skills can quickly become out of date without investment in the systems to help the workforce learn.”
Read eWeek’s coverage about AI career path opportunities. The average annual salary is provided for each job title.
