Jobs requiring AI skills associated with average 11% wage premium, finds report
Arming themselves with artificial intelligence (AI) skills can be profitable for workers, according to a recent PwC report.
Overall, jobs that require AI skills are associated with an average 11% wage premium, compared to other markets, according to the report.
And the demand for workers with such skills has risen over the past decade or so: In 2012, six in 1,000 job posts required AI skills; 10 years later, 11 in 1,000 job posts required AI skills.
For the information and communication sector, fewer than two in 100 job posts required AI skills in 2012; 11 years later, the sector had around five in 100 job posts requiring AI skills.
The health and social sector increased its share of job postings by two percentage points; the share for the financial, professional and manufacturing services sectors decreased significantly by an average of 3.5 percentage points during this period.
Meanwhile, the education and construction sectors remained relatively stable during the period, with limited change in their share of postings
Three in four employees across the world are now using generative AI at work despite reluctance among employers in adopting the technology, according to a previous joint report from Microsoft and LinkedIn.
AI skills in demand
There was a positive correlation between occupations being exposed to AI and their net-skill change, according to PwC’s report based on an analysis of over half a billion job ads from 15 countries.
“This suggests that workers in occupations highly exposed to AI may have to acquire more new skills over the course of their career than do workers in lower exposed occupations,” says PwC.
And job postings demanding AI skills were associated with an 11% wage premium in Canada. Job posts for graphic and multimedia designers and database and network professionals were associated with the larger wage premium for roles demanding AI skills.
Meanwhile, jobs with lower AI exposure saw very little difference in wages for postings demanding AI-related skills.
More than two in five (43%) of Canadians say they know very little or nothing about AI, according to a previous report.
Canada ‘runs the risk of falling behind’
Despite the upside of gaining AI skills, Canadian businesses may run the risk of losing critical talent and skills in a competitive global market, according to PwC. That’s because Canada has seen slower growth in the demand for AI skills in job postings compared to the US and the UK.
In fact, the change in share of job postings requiring AI skills from 2012–22 grew by only 1.8 times in Canada, compared to the US rate of 2.8 and the UK rate of 3.
Also, while the average wage premium for in-demand AI skills is 11% in Canada, it stood at 25% in the US and at 14% in the UK.
“This may be a signal that Canada runs the risk of falling behind on adoption and may be undervaluing in-demand global skills,” says PwC.
As the “honeymoon phase” (as the World Economic Forum calls it) of generative AI development progresses, employers are regularly given the urgent message that they must train their workforces now to be nimble adopters of tech, or risk being left behind in the “new age of AI,” according to a previous report.