AI reshapes global labour market into two distinct paths, rewarding human skills: PwC 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer

AI is rapidly reshaping the skills employers want most from workers—increasing the emphasis on human skills such as judgement, creativity and leadership—as companies most able to use AI continue to expand hiring faster than their peers. New research also finds that AI is driving a ‘two-track’ global labour market in which ‘professionalised’ roles—in which AI automates routine tasks so human judgement and expertise are emphasized—are growing faster than roles ‘democratised’ by AI—in which AI makes the role itself easier for non-experts to perform. ‘Professionalised’ roles (such as radiologists or recruiters) are seeing twice the growth in available jobs and 42% faster salary growth than those categorised as ‘democratised’ (such as IT service managers or medical secretaries). At the entry level, AI appears to be increasing demand for more ‘senior’ skills from junior workers. Based on 2.4 million entry-level jobs analysed in the US, entry-level roles most exposed to AI are now seven times more likely to require traditionally senior-level ‘human-intensive’ skills like leadership, creativity or face-to-face interactions. Job openings for these ‘seniorised’ entry-level roles have grown 35% since 2019, while other entry-level roles shrank 10%.