PwC's 2026 AI Jobs Barometer: Dual-Track Labor Market Emerges as Professionalised Positions Outpace in Salary and Job Growth

PwC has released its "2026 AI Jobs Barometer", analyzing more than one billion job postings across 6 continents to examine the impact of artificial intelligence on job structures, skills demand, productivity, and labor markets worldwide. The report finds that AI is rapidly reshaping job responsibilities and talent requirements, while increasing employers' emphasis on distinctly human capabilities such as judgment, creativity, leadership, and adaptability.

The report identifies a growing "dual-track labor market" driven by AI, characterized by 2 categories of roles: "Professionalised" and "Democratised" jobs. In professionalised roles, AI automates routine and foundational tasks, enabling employees to focus on higher-value work that requires deeper expertise and judgment. In democratised roles, AI assumes portions of specialized work, while human workers perform more execution-oriented and foundational tasks.

Based on an analysis of 2.4 million entry-level positions in the United States, the report finds that occupations most affected by AI are seven times more likely to require traditionally senior-level competencies, including leadership, creativity, and interpersonal skills. Since 2019, the number of these 'up-skilled” entry-level positions has increased by 35%, while other entry-level roles have declined by 10%.

In addition, demand for positions requiring AI-specific expertise—such as prompt engineering and machine learning—has grown by 69%, approximately eight times the overall labor market growth rate. The average wage premium for workers with AI-related skills has risen to 62%, reaching 118% in the consumer sector and 84% in the technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) industry.

The report also highlights a widening gap in AI-driven performance among companies. Using 2018 as a baseline, firms with the highest levels of AI exposure achieved a 34% increase in employee productivity by 2025. Among these organizations, the top-performing 20% of large enterprises demonstrated particularly significant gains, with productivity increasing by 163% compared with 2018—approximately five times the average growth rate of their peers.

Chih-Hao Lu (盧志浩), Chairman of PwC Innovation Consulting, stated that as "Agentic AI" becomes increasingly integrated into enterprise environments, organizations will place greater emphasis on employees' cross-functional capabilities. Future workers will need not only to collaborate with new forms of digital colleagues, but also to lead and manage AI agents while addressing complex challenges that span functions and disciplines.

Lu noted that the companies deriving the greatest value from AI are not those that merely deploy the technology to automate isolated processes. Rather, they are organizations that leverage AI to fundamentally redesign workflows and operating models, thereby driving enterprise-wide transformation.

Chu-An Kuei (桂竹安), Chairman of PwC Human Resource Services Consulting, added that AI is reshaping the traditional relationship between experience and expertise. As routine tasks that once served as entry-level training opportunities gradually disappear, organizations must rethink their talent development strategies. Companies should proactively cultivate employees' judgment, creativity, leadership, adaptability, and integrative problem-solving capabilities to help them thrive in an AI-driven dual-track labor market.

【About PwC Taiwan】
PwC Taiwan provides integrated, one-stop professional services across six cities in Taiwan and employs more than 4,000 professionals nationwide. Globally, the PwC network comprises over 364,000 professionals across 136 countries.
PwC Taiwan is committed to delivering high-quality services in Assurance, Tax and Legal, Deals, and Consulting. Through these services, PwC helps clients build trust and drive reinvention, transforming challenges into competitive advantages while establishing, accelerating, and sustaining long-term growth.

【About the Report】
PwC's 2026 AI Jobs Barometer
The report is available for download at: www.pwc.com/aijobsbarometer

Source: PwC