AI skills boost salaries and reshape careers

Two professionals in the same role, performing similar tasks, can earn different salaries in the job market. One increasingly accepted reason for this disparity lies in skills related to artificial intelligence.

This new reality goes beyond creating specialized roles: knowing how to apply AI in one’s career can also change a worker’s perceived value.

The Global AI Jobs Barometer 2026, produced by PwC, analyzed over one billion job postings across 27 countries and found an average salary premium of 62% for professionals with AI skills.

The calculation compares salaries for similar roles that require AI skills with those for roles that do not.

The difference can occur within the same profession

This figure doesn’t mean that anyone using ChatGPT will automatically earn 62% more.

The analysis considers roles requiring specific skills, such as prompt engineering and machine learning, and compares their pay with similar roles that don’t require these skills.

The variation also differs significantly by sector. In the 2026 survey, the salary premium reached 118% in some consumer sectors, while it was only 16% in the public sector.

In short, there’s no universal “AI salary” table. The value depends on the profession, the market, and the type of skill being sought.

Why has this skill become more valuable?

Part of the explanation lies in how companies are reorganizing work.

PwC identified two approaches: in some roles, AI makes it easier to perform tasks previously limited to specialists, while in others, the technology automates routine tasks and increases the importance of human expertise.

In so-called “professionalized” roles, workers use AI to handle the repetitive parts of their work and spend more time on judgment, creativity, leadership, or complex decision-making. According to the study, these occupations saw twice the job growth and 42% faster salary increases than roles classified as “democratized.”

What does this mean for someone who already has a job?

The most valuable skill may not be simply “knowing how to use AI,” but being able to integrate it into one’s own work.

For example, a marketing professional can use tools to analyze data, test ideas, or speed up production steps. A financial analyst, meanwhile, can apply AI to organize and interpret information.

The market is beginning to reflect this shift. According to PwC, roles requiring specific AI skills grew by 69%, compared to 9% in the overall job market analyzed.

On LinkedIn, AI is also seen as a key factor that will accelerate the transformation of skills used in professions: the platform estimates that 70% of skills used in most jobs will change by 2030.

The trend, therefore, is that the difference between professionals in the same role will increasingly depend on what each person can achieve with the new tools.