AI skills are in high demand — and employers are willing to pay a premium for them

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.”

Lightcast’s report identified over 300 AI skills ranging from AI ethics and generative AI to machine learning. 

The study also found that different career areas required fundamentally different AI skills. For example, roles in transportation were likely to require autonomous driving skills, while maintenance positions prioritized robotics capabilities. 

Though many of the AI skills required high technical expertise, the most commonly-listed ones were often quite general, such as proficiency in the use of ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot. 

These basic skills are becoming more prevalent and accessible in the job market, according to Bridget Wong, head of human relations at Accenture Singapore. 

“While positions like decision scientist or LLM/data architect demand deep technical expertise, many operational and junior employees are also being equipped to work effectively with AI-enabled processes,” Wong said.

Thus, “there is no wrong stage in a career to learn AI—opportunities exist at every level, and organizations should invest in training and exposure to empower employees,” she added. 

Notably, Lightcast’s study found that demand for AI skills was higher in non-tech sectors than in IT and computer science, which are normally associated with AI.

Since 2022, the year OpenAI launched ChatGPT, job postings mentioning generative AI skills were up 800% for non-tech roles, the study found.

While IT and computer science still reigned the list of sectors demanding AI skills, marketing and public relations came in second place. This was followed by science & research, and social analysis and planning.

“It’s not just software developers or the data scientists that are benefiting from AI skills; It’s something people in everything from marketing to finance to HR should be thinking about,” Magrini said.

AI skills “are coming to every job function, to every career area, but at different paces,” which means everybody needs a layer of AI literacy, Magrini said.

Recruit Fast’s Woo noted that AI skills are likely less relevant as prerequisites in blue-collar jobs as compared to other fields.

Still, Magrini said that “AI is coming, but we don’t need to be scared. We need to be prepared.”

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