AI is ‘sprinkling stardust’ on UK employees and sectors that are best able to use the technology, suggests the results of PwC’s 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer.

Workers in ‘exposed sectors’, those where AI can be readily used for some tasks, were found to be more productive and able to command a 56% wage premium for their AI skills compared to workers in the same job with and without AI skills, up from 25% last year.

Companies are willing to pay more for AI skills for good reason. PwC’s analysis found that industries most exposed to AI have three times higher growth in revenue per employee compared with the least exposed industries.

Although factors beyond AI contributed to these results, the findings also show that growth in revenue per employee for AI-exposed industries surged when large language models became mainstream. 

Revenue growth per employee has nearly quadrupled in industries most exposed to AI, such as software, rising from 7% between 2018 and 2022, to 27% between 2018 and 2024. 

In contrast, revenue growth per employee in industries least exposed to AI, such as mining and hospitality, fell slightly, from 10% between 2018 and 2022, to 9% between 2018 and 2024.

“The higher productivity growth seen in AI-exposed sectors has been driven by super large businesses,” said Mehdi Sahneh, senior economist at PwC UK. 

“These firms are likely to have access to the resources and means to invest in and quickly adopt new and cutting-edge AI advancements.” 

However, the report, based on analysis of close to a billion job ads and thousands of company financial reports across six continents between 2018-2024, shows that all industries (100%) are increasing AI usage, including those less obviously exposed to AI, such as mining and agriculture. 

Wages, too, are growing twice as fast in AI-exposed industries. That includes jobs classed as ‘automatable’, those containing some tasks that can readily be automated, with the highest growth attached to occupations requiring AI skills, at an average premium last year of 11% for UK workers.

In the UK, despite a weakening labour market in 2024, the share of job postings requiring AI skills increased significantly over the previous year, with sectors including information and communication, financial services and professional services all seeing a substantial rise in job postings requiring AI expertise.

Across industries in the UK, job postings for augmented positions (39%) are growing at a faster rate than those for automated roles (32%), however, on average, net skill change is higher for automated jobs, driven largely by a significant increase in AI use among the health and social work sector.

PwC’s report found that AI has accelerated the ‘skills churn’, with the skills sought by employers in occupations most exposed to AI changing 59% faster than those least exposed. Candidates are also now more likely to need to operate AI tools and demonstrate abilities such as critical thinking and collaboration. 

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What it takes to succeed in AI-exposed jobs is changing in other ways, too. 

While employer demand for formal degrees is declining for the most exposed and least exposed jobs, that is happening especially quickly for AI-exposed jobs. The number of AI-exposed jobs that require a degree fell from 64% in 2019 to 56% in 2024, which PwC claims is evidence of a potential shift towards skills-based hiring.

Outside of roles requiring specific AI skills, job growth in AI-exposed occupations has lagged. Between 2019 and 2024, vacancies in these roles grew by just 12%, compared to 50% growth in less exposed jobs, with the gap widening further since the emergence of genAI in 2022.

“There are still many unknowns about AI’s potential,” said Umang Paw, chief technology officer at PwC UK.

“By highlighting a correlation between industries that are using AI the most and revenue growth, job vacancies, and wages, our findings offer a signal of what AI could deliver.

“A concerted effort is needed to expand access to technology and training to ensure the benefits are widely shared. AI can provide stardust to those ready to adapt, but risks leaving others behind.”

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