AI Job Trends

AI
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring AI skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 4 52 73
Rank change year-on-year +48 +21 +48
Permanent jobs citing AI 9,465 2,677 2,052
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 16.07% 4.71% 4.21%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 19.36% 5.27% 4.49%
Number of salaries quoted 2,090 1,367 1,167
10th Percentile £32,500 £45,000 £44,800
25th Percentile £50,000 £57,500 £53,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £72,500 £77,000 £75,500
Median % change year-on-year -5.84% +1.99% +7.86%
75th Percentile £95,938 £97,500 £93,750
90th Percentile £120,000 £117,500 £119,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £70,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year -14.29% - +16.67%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

AI falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 48,883 50,789 45,720
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 82.99% 89.40% 93.70%
Number of salaries quoted 28,699 25,691 35,102
10th Percentile £28,250 £35,000 £32,000
25th Percentile £36,250 £45,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -2.60%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £48,720 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -11.42% +4.76% -2.78%

AI
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing AI relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

AI job vacancy trend in the UK

AI
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing AI.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing AI

AI
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing AI over the 6 months to 19 December 2025.

Salary histogram for AI in the UK

AI
Top 18 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing AI within the UK over the 6 months to 19 December 2025. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +49 8,567 £72,500 -6.45% 7,027
UK excluding London +56 6,952 £60,000 -14.29% 6,508
Work from Home +61 2,797 £67,500 -10.00% 14,093
North of England +56 2,582 £60,000 -11.11% 1,510
London +37 2,091 £80,000 -10.11% 1,173
North West +45 1,986 £60,000 -11.11% 708
Midlands +110 1,530 £62,500 -3.85% 1,211
South East +27 1,411 £52,500 -30.00% 1,656
West Midlands +101 1,253 £66,250 +15.22% 664
East of England +84 630 £47,500 -38.31% 1,047
Yorkshire +59 484 £75,000 +17.83% 651
Scotland +53 398 £69,248 +18.37% 253
South West +37 315 £60,000 -7.69% 716
East Midlands +83 287 £47,500 -41.36% 479
Wales +38 123 £55,000 -4.35% 150
North East +57 112 £55,000 -27.63% 157
Northern Ireland -4 40 £87,500 -1.41% 59
Channel Islands +10 8 - - 2

AI
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 95 (1.00%) SharePoint
2 67 (0.71%) Apache Spark
3 55 (0.58%) Apache Airflow
4 46 (0.49%) CMS
4 46 (0.49%) Confluence
5 22 (0.23%) Microsoft Exchange
6 19 (0.20%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 18 (0.19%) Apache
8 17 (0.18%) WordPress
9 12 (0.13%) Apache Solr
10 10 (0.11%) Appian
11 9 (0.095%) JBoss
11 9 (0.095%) WebSphere
12 5 (0.053%) Apache Pulsar
12 5 (0.053%) ArcGIS
12 5 (0.053%) nginx
12 5 (0.053%) Umbraco
13 4 (0.042%) Drupal
13 4 (0.042%) Kinematics
13 4 (0.042%) Luigi
Applications
1 1,332 (14.07%) Chatbot
2 432 (4.56%) Microsoft Excel
3 107 (1.13%) Microsoft Office
4 40 (0.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 21 (0.22%) Maya
6 11 (0.12%) Sketch
7 9 (0.095%) Adobe Premiere
8 8 (0.085%) MS Visio
9 7 (0.074%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 7 (0.074%) Notion
9 7 (0.074%) Photoshop
9 7 (0.074%) Spreadsheet
10 6 (0.063%) Adobe XD
11 4 (0.042%) InDesign
11 4 (0.042%) Weka
12 3 (0.032%) Final Cut Pro
12 3 (0.032%) Microsoft Project
12 3 (0.032%) Simulink
12 3 (0.032%) S-PLUS
13 2 (0.021%) Blender
Business Applications
1 52 (0.55%) Dynamics CRM
2 20 (0.21%) Oracle ERP
3 18 (0.19%) NetSuite
4 12 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
4 12 (0.13%) SAP S/4HANA
5 11 (0.12%) Shopify
6 8 (0.085%) Endur
6 8 (0.085%) Oracle EBS
6 8 (0.085%) Workday HCM
7 5 (0.053%) Elite 3E
8 4 (0.042%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 4 (0.042%) Oracle Receivables
8 4 (0.042%) Salesforce CRM
9 3 (0.032%) Distributed Ledger
9 3 (0.032%) Oracle Assets
9 3 (0.032%) SAP Business One
9 3 (0.032%) SAP SCM
10 2 (0.021%) Dynamics GP
10 2 (0.021%) SAP CO
10 2 (0.021%) SAP FI
Cloud Services
1 4,098 (43.30%) Cloud Computing
2 1,304 (13.78%) Azure
3 703 (7.43%) AWS
4 688 (7.27%) Power Platform
5 393 (4.15%) SaaS
6 387 (4.09%) Azure AI
7 325 (3.43%) GCP
8 216 (2.28%) GitHub
9 205 (2.17%) Azure DevOps
10 176 (1.86%) Microsoft 365
11 116 (1.23%) Snowflake
12 106 (1.12%) GitHub Copilot
13 99 (1.05%) Microsoft Copilot
14 95 (1.00%) Serverless
15 89 (0.94%) Azure Data Factory
16 84 (0.89%) Entra ID
17 81 (0.86%) Power Automate
18 78 (0.82%) Vertex AI
19 65 (0.69%) Azure Synapse Analytics
20 60 (0.63%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 4,064 (42.94%) Internet
2 28 (0.30%) Firewall
3 25 (0.26%) Unified Communications
4 24 (0.25%) VoIP
5 23 (0.24%) Network Security
6 20 (0.21%) Broadband
7 17 (0.18%) VPN
8 16 (0.17%) WAN
9 15 (0.16%) Wi-Fi
10 14 (0.15%) DNS
11 13 (0.14%) Telepresence
11 13 (0.14%) WebEx
12 12 (0.13%) Wireless
13 11 (0.12%) HTTP
13 11 (0.12%) TCP/IP
14 9 (0.095%) VLAN
15 8 (0.085%) InfiniBand
15 8 (0.085%) LAN
16 7 (0.074%) DHCP
16 7 (0.074%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 545 (5.76%) Power BI
2 404 (4.27%) Tableau
3 161 (1.70%) Data Warehouse
4 112 (1.18%) NoSQL
5 102 (1.08%) Data Lake
6 101 (1.07%) SQL Server
7 87 (0.92%) Metadata
7 87 (0.92%) PostgreSQL
8 74 (0.78%) MongoDB
9 67 (0.71%) Big Data
10 53 (0.56%) MySQL
11 38 (0.40%) Relational Database
12 32 (0.34%) BigQuery
12 32 (0.34%) DynamoDB
13 29 (0.31%) Delta Lake
13 29 (0.31%) Hadoop
14 28 (0.30%) Azure SQL Database
14 28 (0.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 25 (0.26%) Elasticsearch
15 25 (0.26%) Looker
Development Applications
1 124 (1.31%) Git
2 120 (1.27%) JIRA
3 54 (0.57%) MLflow
4 49 (0.52%) Jenkins
5 23 (0.24%) GitLab
6 21 (0.22%) Octopus Deploy
7 20 (0.21%) TeamCity
8 17 (0.18%) Oracle Forms
9 15 (0.16%) Cypress.io
10 11 (0.12%) Selenium
11 10 (0.11%) Bitbucket
12 8 (0.085%) Subversion
12 8 (0.085%) Visual Studio
13 7 (0.074%) Burp Suite
13 7 (0.074%) JMeter
13 7 (0.074%) Vite
13 7 (0.074%) WebDriver
14 6 (0.063%) ERwin
14 6 (0.063%) Postman
15 5 (0.053%) LoadRunner
General
1 5,564 (58.78%) Social Skills
2 4,486 (47.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 4,198 (44.35%) Banking
4 1,203 (12.71%) Analytical Skills
5 1,068 (11.28%) Finance
6 412 (4.35%) Marketing
7 316 (3.34%) Law
8 284 (3.00%) Public Sector
9 249 (2.63%) Legal
10 215 (2.27%) Retail
11 125 (1.32%) Games
12 111 (1.17%) Telecoms
13 110 (1.16%) Manufacturing
14 103 (1.09%) Presentation Skills
15 93 (0.98%) Pharmaceutical
16 69 (0.73%) Aviation
16 69 (0.73%) Financial Institution
17 68 (0.72%) Organisational Skills
18 67 (0.71%) Influencing Skills
19 66 (0.70%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 3,155 (33.33%) Lecturer
2 1,286 (13.59%) Trainer
3 649 (6.86%) Senior
4 487 (5.15%) Analyst
5 369 (3.90%) Developer
6 362 (3.82%) Lead
7 353 (3.73%) Data Analyst
8 303 (3.20%) Junior
9 294 (3.11%) Architect
10 276 (2.92%) Junior Analyst
10 276 (2.92%) Junior Data Analyst
11 201 (2.12%) Consultant
12 166 (1.75%) Software Engineer
13 155 (1.64%) Content Editor
14 125 (1.32%) Data Engineer
15 118 (1.25%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
16 106 (1.12%) Support Specialist
17 104 (1.10%) Solutions Architect
18 98 (1.04%) Customer Support Specialist
19 97 (1.02%) Innovation Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 218 (2.30%) React
2 169 (1.79%) .NET
3 161 (1.70%) REST
4 133 (1.41%) PyTorch
5 127 (1.34%) TensorFlow
6 113 (1.19%) Node.js
7 101 (1.07%) RESTful
8 96 (1.01%) HTML
9 91 (0.96%) LangChain
10 78 (0.82%) FastAPI
11 72 (0.76%) scikit-learn
12 71 (0.75%) Kafka
13 66 (0.70%) AngularJS
13 66 (0.70%) Django
14 60 (0.63%) CSS
15 59 (0.62%) Pandas
16 54 (0.57%) Vue
17 53 (0.56%) Flask
18 51 (0.54%) JSON
19 48 (0.51%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 4,075 (43.05%) IoT
2 259 (2.74%) Cloud Native
3 184 (1.94%) Onboarding
4 177 (1.87%) Product Ownership
5 151 (1.60%) Robotics
6 141 (1.49%) AI Agents
7 140 (1.48%) Algorithms
8 123 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
9 121 (1.28%) Enterprise Software
10 109 (1.15%) Blog
11 103 (1.09%) Molecular Biology
12 95 (1.00%) Management Information System
13 88 (0.93%) Distributed Systems
14 86 (0.91%) Legacy Systems
14 86 (0.91%) Life Science
15 82 (0.87%) Analytical Mindset
16 79 (0.83%) Low-Code
17 73 (0.77%) Greenfield Project
18 70 (0.74%) Virtual Team
19 63 (0.67%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 85 (0.90%) Windows
2 71 (0.75%) Linux
3 69 (0.73%) Unix
4 65 (0.69%) Android
5 46 (0.49%) Apple iOS
6 38 (0.40%) Windows Server
7 11 (0.12%) Mac OS
7 11 (0.12%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.053%) Kali Linux
9 3 (0.032%) OpenWrt
10 2 (0.021%) Mac OS X
10 2 (0.021%) VMS
10 2 (0.021%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.021%) zOS
11 1 (0.011%) Debian
11 1 (0.011%) OpenVMS
11 1 (0.011%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.011%) Robot Operating System
11 1 (0.011%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 5,030 (53.14%) Machine Learning
2 4,327 (45.72%) Cybersecurity
3 4,308 (45.52%) User Experience
4 4,069 (42.99%) Web Development
5 1,385 (14.63%) Conversational UI
6 1,000 (10.57%) Analytics
7 871 (9.20%) Agile
8 729 (7.70%) Problem-Solving
9 679 (7.17%) Business Intelligence
10 607 (6.41%) Roadmaps
11 591 (6.24%) Continuous Improvement
12 579 (6.12%) Decision-Making
13 573 (6.05%) DevOps
14 542 (5.73%) CI/CD
15 529 (5.59%) Software Engineering
16 466 (4.92%) Chemistry
16 466 (4.92%) Data Science
17 435 (4.60%) Generative AI
18 419 (4.43%) Computer Science
18 419 (4.43%) LLM
Programming Languages
1 1,251 (13.22%) Python
2 868 (9.17%) SQL
3 232 (2.45%) JavaScript
4 229 (2.42%) TypeScript
5 168 (1.77%) Java
6 140 (1.48%) C#
7 83 (0.88%) PowerShell
8 75 (0.79%) C++
9 54 (0.57%) Bash
10 50 (0.53%) R
11 45 (0.48%) Go
12 31 (0.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 31 (0.33%) Kotlin
13 30 (0.32%) PHP
14 27 (0.29%) Rust
15 25 (0.26%) Scala
16 23 (0.24%) Bicep
17 21 (0.22%) Apex Code
17 21 (0.22%) C
18 19 (0.20%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 6,215 (65.66%) Degree
2 4,937 (52.16%) Master's Degree
3 4,834 (51.07%) PhD
4 4,048 (42.77%) Postgraduate
5 313 (3.31%) Azure Certification
6 280 (2.96%) Security Cleared
7 235 (2.48%) SC Cleared
8 209 (2.21%) Computer Science Degree
9 65 (0.69%) DV Cleared
10 49 (0.52%) AWS Certification
10 49 (0.52%) DBS Check
11 48 (0.51%) BPSS Clearance
12 44 (0.46%) PMP
13 39 (0.41%) CISSP
14 38 (0.40%) ACCA
15 36 (0.38%) Microsoft Certification
16 32 (0.34%) Numerate Degree
17 27 (0.29%) CISM
17 27 (0.29%) PMI Certification
18 26 (0.27%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 210 (2.22%) Data Quality
2 116 (1.23%) Accessibility
2 116 (1.23%) QA
3 104 (1.10%) GDPR
4 66 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 36 (0.38%) EU AI Act
5 36 (0.38%) GxP
6 30 (0.32%) SLA
7 29 (0.31%) NIST
8 28 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
9 25 (0.26%) IFRS
10 24 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
11 23 (0.24%) GAAP
11 23 (0.24%) HIPAA
12 22 (0.23%) Solvency II
13 21 (0.22%) PSD2
14 19 (0.20%) PMO
15 16 (0.17%) GRC
16 15 (0.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
17 14 (0.15%) WCAG
System Software
1 252 (2.66%) Docker
2 54 (0.57%) Active Directory
3 23 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
4 20 (0.21%) VMware Infrastructure
5 18 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
6 12 (0.13%) Firmware
7 11 (0.12%) Hyper-V
7 11 (0.12%) vSphere
8 7 (0.074%) Lustre
9 5 (0.053%) GPFS
9 5 (0.053%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 4 (0.042%) VMware ESXi
11 2 (0.021%) Ceph
11 2 (0.021%) NFS
11 2 (0.021%) RACF
12 1 (0.011%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.011%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 238 (2.51%) Terraform
2 221 (2.33%) Kubernetes
3 49 (0.52%) Microsoft Intune
4 48 (0.51%) Ansible
5 39 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
6 31 (0.33%) Kubeflow
7 21 (0.22%) Prometheus
8 13 (0.14%) Cisco CUCM
8 13 (0.14%) Grafana
9 8 (0.085%) SCCM
10 7 (0.074%) Argo
11 4 (0.042%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 4 (0.042%) Nessus
11 4 (0.042%) Nmap
12 3 (0.032%) Functional Safety
12 3 (0.032%) vCenter Server
13 2 (0.021%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
13 2 (0.021%) Kustomize
13 2 (0.021%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
13 2 (0.021%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 1,284 (13.57%) PayPal
2 1,087 (11.48%) Microsoft
3 201 (2.12%) Google
4 170 (1.80%) Databricks
5 103 (1.09%) Oracle
6 100 (1.06%) Cisco
7 94 (0.99%) OpenAI
8 93 (0.98%) Salesforce
9 92 (0.97%) Adobe
10 88 (0.93%) Dell
11 77 (0.81%) SAP
12 52 (0.55%) Foundry
13 51 (0.54%) Alteryx
14 49 (0.52%) Palo Alto
15 48 (0.51%) Apple
16 47 (0.50%) Blue Prism
17 42 (0.44%) HubSpot
18 36 (0.38%) Fortinet
19 35 (0.37%) Bloomberg
20 32 (0.34%) Palantir