Many people fear their jobs will become obsolete as the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) develops in the workplace.
And whilst there’s undoubtedly going to be a shift in skills needed for the future of the workforce, new data from PwC’s 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer suggests that companies that embrace AI innovation are ‘creating more jobs, not less’.
“We looked at nearly a billion job postings across 20 countries, 80 different sector classifications.
“This is a massive pool of data to see whether or not this thing that we all worry about is AI destroying jobs, is happening. And the headline is exactly the opposite,” Joe Atkinson, PwC’s Global Chief AI Officer, told Euronews.
How is AI affecting the job market?
The companies that use AI to increase productivity are seeing a 3 fold increase in their revenue per employee.
Generally speaking, when a company is doing well, life for its employees is usually better too. The results of the barometer support this, with employees in AI-exposed industries seeing their salaries growing twice as quickly as elsewhere.
“Those individuals that can augment their skills with AI skills, not only secure their jobs because their jobs will change, they also earn a greater wage. And the wage premium in this year's study was as high as 56 per cent,” Atkinson added.
Managing an AI team
Most of us wouldn’t decline a bigger salary, and that 56 per cent increase is up from 25 per cent last year.
So, what do we need to do to optimise this workplace opportunity?
“AI, I always describe it as a practical skill, in addition to a knowledge skill. You have to understand the AI, but you also have to use the AI,” Atkinson told Euronews.
“So the thing that workers can do, I think, is the exact same thing that employers can do, which is get your teams working in AI. Learn it not just by analysis, learn it by doing, and see how these tools apply”.
The barometer also suggests accessibility to these sorts of jobs is on track to increase. Degree requirements for jobs in AI-exposed sectors are still high but appear to be falling faster than in other sectors.
Managerial roles could also change with the adoption of AI, in particular agentic AI.
“Most of us in five or ten years will be managing many more [AI] agents than we will people,” said Atkinson.
“And that combination of agentic capability and workforce is a skill that, frankly, doesn't even really exist in the workforce today. We're going to have to build that. Employers are going to partner with their people to develop that kind of capability,” he added.
