AI Skills Command Significant Salary Premiums Across Industries, New Studies Reveal

Got AI skills? You can earn 43% more in your next job - and not just for tech work

Demand for AI skills is on the rise across industries.A single AI skill makes a huge difference in listed salaries.Different industries are looking for different AI skills. As businesses race to adopt AI, they're placing a higher premium on job candidates who know their way around the technology. A recent study from labor market research firm Lightcast found that jobs requiring AI-related skills offer higher annual salaries than those that don't. This is true not only in tech-heavy industries like IT and computer science but also across a range of other sectors. Also: Jobs for young developers are dwindling, thanks to AI The researchers analyzed billions of job postings from the past 13 years, and identified 300 AI skills, including AI ethics, governance and regulation, natural language processing, and robotics. According to the report, job postings that listed just one AI-related skill offered an average salary that was 28% higher than those that didn't, a difference of around $18,000 per year. That figure jumped to 43% for postings that listed two or more AI skills compared to those that listed none. "Using real-world job postings, we establish how demand for AI is growing throughout the labor market broadly, not limited to a few specific use cases, and we also show jobs that include AI skills demand a salary premium over comparable roles that do not," the authors note in the report. Also: Is AI a job killer or creator? There's a third option: Startup rocket fuel Other recent data, however, has shown that recent college graduates with computer science degrees have been struggling to find work in the tech sector, as AI tools start to automate many of the routine tasks that historically have been delegated to younger workers with less experience. Meanwhile, tech giants have been locked in a ruthless battle for acquiring AI talent, driven by a widely held belief that the future of their industry will be dominated by the first company to successfully build artificial general intelligence (or "superintelligence," in Meta's case). The new Lightcast data indicates that the contest for AI talent is now spilling beyond tech into a raft of other industries. In fact, more than half (51%) of all job postings analyzed in the study that listed AI skills were outside IT and computer science, up from 44% in 2022 and 39% in 2019. Also: These jobs face the highest risk of AI takeover, according to Microsoft AI skills are still in the highest demand within IT and computer science roles, according to the Lightyear study. But they're also increasingly becoming a hiring priority for employers across a wide range of other industries -- especially marketing and PR, and science and research. The industries least likely to be looking for AI skills were hospitality/food/tourism, personal services, and transportation, according to the report. The study also found that the AI skills employers are seeking vary between industries. Transportation jobs tended to prioritize familiarity with autonomous driving, for example, while maintenance jobs sought robotics experience. The upshot for employers, according to the report, is that success in the AI era will hinge largely on an ability to understand which AI skills are most pertinent to their industry, and factor that information into their hiring and employee training processes. Also: 5 entry-level tech jobs AI is already augmenting, according to Amazon "The solution requires precision, not philosophy," the authors write. "The organizations that master this transition -- the educators and HR leaders that can identify which AI skills matter most for their context and deliver targeted training that creates measurable value -- will lead their industries and avoid falling behind."

AI skills add nearly $18,000 a year to salaries -- and not just in tech

Artificial intelligence technology concept with text AI on electronic circuit board. While there's mounting concerns that artificial intelligence is replacing jobs, it's not all bad news for the labor market, particularly for workers with AI skills. Rather than replacing roles with AI, many companies are hiring workers who can leverage artificial intelligence, a new study published in July found. In an analysis of over a billion job postings, labor insight platform LightCast identified not only a surge in demand for AI skills, but also higher average pay for jobs that required them. "Job postings are increasingly emphasizing AI skills and there are signals that employers are willing to pay premium salaries for them," Elena Magrini, head of global research at LightCast, told CNBC. Job postings that mentioned at least one AI skill advertised salaries 28% higher on average than those that listed none, representing roughly $18,000 more per year. For those with at least two AI skills, the premium was 43% higher. The study also noted three fields with the largest premium: customer and client support, sales, and manufacturing and production. Joshua Woo, founder of Recruit Fast, an employment agency in Singapore, made a similar observation that "AI skills are paying above average in this market." He added that they are no longer just nice to have, "they're a differentiator."

Here's How Much More AI-Skilled Workers Make

Employers are increasingly offering pay boosts for workers with artificial intelligence skills, even in roles beyond tech. How much more? We looked at three different studies to see just how much more artificial intelligence skills will pay. According to CNBC, roles specifying AI competencies are trending across job postings, with employers adding salary incentives for candidates who bring the right mix of AI know-howâ€"even in traditionally non-technical roles. The emerging trend reflects the growing importance of AI literacy across industries, as companies race to keep pace with automation while shoring up talent gaps.  This echoes findings from tech industry research group Lightcast, which analyzed more than 1.3 billion job ads and found that jobs requiring AI skills advertised a 28% premium, equivalent to nearly $18,000 per year. The premium skyrocketed to 43% when job listings specified two or more AI skills. "Job postings are increasingly emphasizing AI skills and there are signals that employers are willing to pay premium salaries for them," Elena Magrini, head of global research at Lightcast, told CNBC. A study by Foote Partners supports this shift. It showed that employers pay 19% to 23% more for practical AI skills compared to a modest 9% to 11% lift for AI certifications, reflecting the value of demonstrated ability over credentials. Global data from PwC’s 2025 AI Jobs Barometer suggests that workers with AI skills earn up to 56% more, a steep rise from the previous year. This trend holds across sectors: even roles in marketing, finance, human resources, and education are increasingly AI-enabled, and rewarded accordingly. In the United Kingdom, CIO Dive reports that job postings with AI skill requirements offered a 23% wage premium, surpassing the value of master’s degrees (13%), though still trailing PhD-level pay (33%). Men and women with AI proficiency were shortlisted with salaries about 12%â€"13% higher than candidates without. Experts argue this reflects a broader shift toward “task-based hiringâ€, where AI-enabled work automates tasks and demands adaptability from human workers. Skills like prompt engineering, critical thinking, and AI judgment increasingly outweigh traditional credentials. However, the transition raises concerns about equity. Research shows that while AI-skilled roles now command significantly higher salaries, most workers, especially outside tech, have yet to upskill. A former OpenAI executive recently warned that AI talent has become the “new star athlete†of the workforce, with HR systems struggling to keep pace. Perhaps more tellingly, the research increasingly supports the idea that AI is no longer a niche technical specialty: it’s becoming a widespread professional credential. Employers are rewarding workers who can harness these tools across business functions, signaling a long-term shift to a skills-first economy. Those who adapt may command top-of-market compensation; those who don’t may find themselves left behind.

You Can Get Paid $18,000 More a Year By Adding AI Skills to Your Resume, According to a New Study

Non-technical roles have seen demand for AI skills increase by 800% since November 2022. A recent study conducted by the job insight website LightCast analyzed over a billion job postings and found that employers are not only looking for workers with AI skills -- they are also paying them more. "Job postings are increasingly emphasizing AI skills, and there are signals that employers are willing to pay premium salaries for them," LightCast's Head of Global Research Elena Magrini told CNBC. Related: Google Reportedly Told Its Staff to Use AI More or Risk Falling Behind: 'It Seems Like a No-Brainer' The study found that job postings that asked for AI skills paid 28% more, or around $18,000, than jobs that didn't require AI. Jobs requiring two or more AI skills paid 43% more. The roles with the highest differences in pay between workers with AI skills and those without were in the fields of customer support, sales, and manufacturing. There are now over 300 possible AI skills, according to LightCast, from generative AI to AI ethics to autonomous driving and robotics. But the most common AI skills employers requested were two of the most mainstream -- ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot. In a surprising twist, non-technical sectors demanded AI skills more than technical ones, according to LightCast's report. Since November 2022, when ChatGPT launched, demand for generative AI skills shot up by 800% for non-technical roles. Related: These 3 Professions Are Most Likely to Vanish in the Next 20 Years Due to AI, According to a New Report A recent report from The Wall Street Journal found that entry-level college graduates are getting six- or seven-figure salaries right out of school because of their proficiency with AI. Databricks, a data analytics firm, is planning to hire triple the number of recent graduates this year compared to last year because of these young workers' ability to use AI, the company told The Journal. While learning AI may give workers a boost in salary negotiations, the technology also has the potential to replace entry-level employees. A Stanford University study released last week found that AI-impacted jobs, like software developers, customer service representatives, and accountants, saw employment for workers ages 22 to 25 decline by 13% over the past three years. "There's definitely evidence that AI is beginning to have a big effect," the study's first author and Stanford Professor Erik Brynjolfsson told Axios about the report.