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 1 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 49 66
Rank change year-on-year +45 +17 +55
Permanent jobs citing AI 9,708 2,558 2,830
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 15.21% 4.93% 3.99%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 18.99% 5.39% 4.48%
Number of salaries quoted 2,274 1,283 1,670
10th Percentile £35,000 £45,000 £42,500
25th Percentile £51,250 £60,000 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £75,500 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.28% +7.86% -
75th Percentile £95,000 £98,750 £92,500
90th Percentile £118,750 £117,500 £115,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £59,450 £66,296 £62,500
% change year-on-year -10.33% +6.07% +0.67%

All Process & 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 51,122 47,498 63,102
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 80.11% 91.58% 88.88%
Number of salaries quoted 30,201 22,816 49,001
10th Percentile £28,697 £35,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,628 £41,024
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,751
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +7.62% -10.80%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -9.09%

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 1 February 2026.

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 1 February 2026. 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 +43 8,844 £72,500 -5.84% 2,588
UK excluding London +49 7,004 £59,450 -10.33% 1,632
Work from Home +52 2,760 £67,500 -3.57% 1,362
North of England +53 2,598 £61,418 -9.01% 342
London +35 2,263 £80,000 -11.11% 1,436
North West +46 2,005 £60,709 -10.06% 197
Midlands +100 1,525 £60,000 -7.69% 163
South East +35 1,444 £50,000 -35.06% 658
West Midlands +89 1,255 £61,250 +6.52% 103
East of England +43 651 £55,000 -16.96% 169
Yorkshire +56 485 £67,500 +3.85% 112
South West +36 352 £62,500 - 188
Scotland +44 339 £61,250 +2.08% 85
East Midlands +80 280 £42,500 -41.38% 60
Wales +39 123 £53,171 -5.47% 40
North East +53 108 £55,000 -28.57% 36
Northern Ireland -4 49 £90,000 +1.41% 14
Channel Islands - 8 - -

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 98 (1.01%) SharePoint
2 58 (0.60%) Apache Airflow
3 53 (0.55%) Apache Spark
4 47 (0.48%) Confluence
5 41 (0.42%) CMS
6 22 (0.23%) Microsoft Exchange
6 22 (0.23%) Palantir Foundry
7 20 (0.21%) Jupyter
7 20 (0.21%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 17 (0.18%) Appian
9 16 (0.16%) WordPress
10 15 (0.15%) Apache
11 13 (0.13%) JBoss
11 13 (0.13%) WebSphere
12 9 (0.093%) Apache Solr
13 8 (0.082%) ArcGIS
14 6 (0.062%) SAS
15 5 (0.052%) Apache Pulsar
15 5 (0.052%) IIS
15 5 (0.052%) Umbraco
Applications
1 1,211 (12.47%) Chatbot
2 532 (5.48%) Microsoft Excel
3 96 (0.99%) Microsoft Office
4 42 (0.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 21 (0.22%) Maya
6 12 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
7 10 (0.10%) MS Visio
8 7 (0.072%) Adobe Premiere
8 7 (0.072%) Microsoft Project
9 6 (0.062%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.062%) Notion
9 6 (0.062%) Photoshop
10 4 (0.041%) InDesign
10 4 (0.041%) Sketch
10 4 (0.041%) Weka
11 3 (0.031%) Final Cut Pro
11 3 (0.031%) Simulink
11 3 (0.031%) UserZoom
12 1 (0.010%) Camtasia
12 1 (0.010%) S-PLUS
Business Applications
1 51 (0.53%) Dynamics CRM
2 20 (0.21%) Oracle ERP
3 18 (0.19%) NetSuite
4 12 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
5 11 (0.11%) SAP S/4HANA
5 11 (0.11%) Shopify
6 10 (0.10%) Workday HCM
7 8 (0.082%) Endur
8 7 (0.072%) Distributed Ledger
8 7 (0.072%) Oracle EBS
8 7 (0.072%) Salesforce CRM
9 5 (0.052%) Elite 3E
10 4 (0.041%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
10 4 (0.041%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.031%) Dynamics GP
11 3 (0.031%) Oracle Assets
11 3 (0.031%) SAP Business One
12 2 (0.021%) SAP CO
12 2 (0.021%) SAP FI/CO
12 2 (0.021%) SAP SCM
Cloud Services
1 4,104 (42.27%) Cloud Computing
2 1,458 (15.02%) Azure
3 809 (8.33%) Power Platform
4 697 (7.18%) AWS
5 497 (5.12%) Azure AI
6 432 (4.45%) SaaS
7 323 (3.33%) GCP
8 224 (2.31%) GitHub
9 203 (2.09%) Azure DevOps
10 190 (1.96%) Microsoft 365
11 116 (1.19%) Snowflake
12 113 (1.16%) GitHub Copilot
13 108 (1.11%) Azure Data Factory
14 107 (1.10%) Microsoft Copilot
15 104 (1.07%) Serverless
16 99 (1.02%) Entra ID
17 93 (0.96%) Power Automate
18 73 (0.75%) Vertex AI
19 62 (0.64%) Azure Synapse Analytics
20 61 (0.63%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 4,061 (41.83%) Internet
2 52 (0.54%) Broadband
3 43 (0.44%) Firewall
4 30 (0.31%) Network Security
4 30 (0.31%) Unified Communications
5 26 (0.27%) VoIP
6 21 (0.22%) VPN
7 17 (0.18%) HTTP
8 15 (0.15%) DNS
8 15 (0.15%) TCP/IP
9 14 (0.14%) Telepresence
9 14 (0.14%) WAN
9 14 (0.14%) WebEx
9 14 (0.14%) Wi-Fi
10 13 (0.13%) VLAN
11 11 (0.11%) DHCP
12 8 (0.082%) InfiniBand
12 8 (0.082%) Intranet
12 8 (0.082%) Wireless
13 7 (0.072%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 656 (6.76%) Power BI
2 517 (5.33%) Tableau
3 152 (1.57%) Data Warehouse
4 110 (1.13%) NoSQL
5 105 (1.08%) SQL Server
6 102 (1.05%) Data Lake
7 84 (0.87%) Metadata
8 76 (0.78%) PostgreSQL
9 74 (0.76%) MongoDB
10 69 (0.71%) Big Data
11 42 (0.43%) BigQuery
12 40 (0.41%) MySQL
13 39 (0.40%) Pinecone
14 35 (0.36%) Hadoop
15 34 (0.35%) Relational Database
16 33 (0.34%) Elasticsearch
17 30 (0.31%) SQL Server Integration Services
18 27 (0.28%) Looker
19 25 (0.26%) Azure SQL Database
20 24 (0.25%) Data Mining
Development Applications
1 135 (1.39%) Git
2 118 (1.22%) JIRA
3 51 (0.53%) MLflow
4 47 (0.48%) Jenkins
5 28 (0.29%) GitLab
6 19 (0.20%) Octopus Deploy
6 19 (0.20%) TeamCity
7 18 (0.19%) Cypress.io
7 18 (0.19%) Oracle Forms
8 14 (0.14%) Selenium
8 14 (0.14%) Visual Studio
9 10 (0.10%) Visual Studio Code
10 9 (0.093%) Bitbucket
10 9 (0.093%) Postman
11 8 (0.082%) Subversion
11 8 (0.082%) Vite
12 7 (0.072%) Burp Suite
12 7 (0.072%) Storybook
12 7 (0.072%) WebDriver
13 6 (0.062%) Claude Code
General
1 5,630 (57.99%) Social Skills
2 4,491 (46.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 4,223 (43.50%) Banking
4 1,148 (11.83%) Finance
5 1,091 (11.24%) Analytical Skills
6 394 (4.06%) Marketing
7 298 (3.07%) Public Sector
8 283 (2.92%) Law
9 265 (2.73%) Legal
10 205 (2.11%) Retail
11 141 (1.45%) Games
12 121 (1.25%) Manufacturing
13 103 (1.06%) Telecoms
14 96 (0.99%) Presentation Skills
15 94 (0.97%) Pharmaceutical
16 77 (0.79%) Financial Institution
17 76 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
18 72 (0.74%) Organisational Skills
19 65 (0.67%) Electronics
20 61 (0.63%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 3,164 (32.59%) Lecturer
2 1,165 (12.00%) Trainer
3 699 (7.20%) Senior
4 598 (6.16%) Analyst
5 462 (4.76%) Data Analyst
6 414 (4.26%) Lead
7 407 (4.19%) Junior
8 405 (4.17%) Developer
9 386 (3.98%) Junior Analyst
9 386 (3.98%) Junior Data Analyst
10 273 (2.81%) Architect
11 215 (2.21%) Consultant
12 176 (1.81%) Software Engineer
13 155 (1.60%) Content Editor
13 155 (1.60%) Data Engineer
14 135 (1.39%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
15 116 (1.19%) Solutions Architect
16 106 (1.09%) Support Specialist
17 98 (1.01%) Customer Support Specialist
18 96 (0.99%) Senior Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 235 (2.42%) React
2 181 (1.86%) .NET
3 177 (1.82%) REST
4 146 (1.50%) PyTorch
5 126 (1.30%) TensorFlow
6 117 (1.21%) Node.js
7 115 (1.18%) RESTful
8 107 (1.10%) LangChain
9 103 (1.06%) HTML
10 84 (0.87%) FastAPI
11 75 (0.77%) CSS
12 72 (0.74%) AngularJS
13 71 (0.73%) Django
14 69 (0.71%) Kafka
15 61 (0.63%) scikit-learn
16 59 (0.61%) Vue
17 56 (0.58%) OAuth
18 55 (0.57%) Flask
18 55 (0.57%) Next.js
19 54 (0.56%) Hugging Face
Miscellaneous
1 4,077 (42.00%) IoT
2 276 (2.84%) Cloud Native
3 185 (1.91%) Product Ownership
4 181 (1.86%) Onboarding
5 158 (1.63%) Robotics
6 151 (1.56%) AI Agents
7 139 (1.43%) Algorithms
8 129 (1.33%) Self-Motivation
9 117 (1.21%) Enterprise Software
10 114 (1.17%) Blog
11 99 (1.02%) Management Information System
12 97 (1.00%) Life Science
12 97 (1.00%) Molecular Biology
13 93 (0.96%) Low-Code
14 87 (0.90%) Distributed Systems
15 81 (0.83%) Legacy Systems
16 70 (0.72%) Greenfield Project
17 69 (0.71%) Analytical Mindset
18 62 (0.64%) Social Media
18 62 (0.64%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 83 (0.85%) Windows
2 78 (0.80%) Linux
3 61 (0.63%) Android
4 55 (0.57%) Unix
5 37 (0.38%) Apple iOS
6 31 (0.32%) Windows Server
7 14 (0.14%) Ubuntu
8 9 (0.093%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.052%) Kali Linux
10 4 (0.041%) Robot Operating System
10 4 (0.041%) VMS
11 3 (0.031%) OpenWrt
11 3 (0.031%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.021%) Mac OS X
12 2 (0.021%) zOS
13 1 (0.010%) Debian
13 1 (0.010%) FreeRTOS
13 1 (0.010%) Solaris
13 1 (0.010%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 5,064 (52.16%) Machine Learning
2 4,333 (44.63%) Cybersecurity
3 4,316 (44.46%) User Experience
4 4,072 (41.94%) Web Development
5 1,254 (12.92%) Conversational UI
6 1,044 (10.75%) Analytics
7 927 (9.55%) Agile
8 792 (8.16%) Business Intelligence
9 749 (7.72%) Problem-Solving
10 618 (6.37%) Roadmaps
11 590 (6.08%) CI/CD
12 581 (5.98%) Decision-Making
12 581 (5.98%) DevOps
13 580 (5.97%) Software Engineering
14 559 (5.76%) Continuous Improvement
15 485 (5.00%) Generative AI
16 475 (4.89%) Data Science
17 472 (4.86%) Computer Science
18 460 (4.74%) LLM
19 401 (4.13%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 1,455 (14.99%) Python
2 980 (10.09%) SQL
3 258 (2.66%) JavaScript
4 249 (2.56%) TypeScript
5 205 (2.11%) Java
6 150 (1.55%) C#
7 87 (0.90%) PowerShell
8 81 (0.83%) C++
9 69 (0.71%) Bash
10 64 (0.66%) Go
11 58 (0.60%) R
12 38 (0.39%) PHP
13 35 (0.36%) Rust
14 32 (0.33%) Scala
15 28 (0.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 26 (0.27%) Kotlin
17 23 (0.24%) Apex Code
17 23 (0.24%) C
18 21 (0.22%) PL/SQL
19 19 (0.20%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 6,107 (62.91%) Degree
2 4,800 (49.44%) Master's Degree
3 4,733 (48.75%) PhD
4 4,049 (41.71%) Postgraduate
5 431 (4.44%) Azure Certification
6 323 (3.33%) Security Cleared
7 259 (2.67%) SC Cleared
8 215 (2.21%) Computer Science Degree
9 79 (0.81%) DV Cleared
10 70 (0.72%) AWS Certification
11 62 (0.64%) DBS Check
12 47 (0.48%) CISSP
13 46 (0.47%) BPSS Clearance
13 46 (0.47%) PMP
14 38 (0.39%) Microsoft Certification
15 34 (0.35%) ACCA
16 31 (0.32%) PMI Certification
17 30 (0.31%) CISA
17 30 (0.31%) Numerate Degree
18 28 (0.29%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 225 (2.32%) Data Quality
2 161 (1.66%) Accessibility
3 133 (1.37%) QA
4 117 (1.21%) GDPR
5 75 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 43 (0.44%) GxP
7 38 (0.39%) EU AI Act
8 33 (0.34%) NIST
9 29 (0.30%) IFRS
10 26 (0.27%) SLA
11 25 (0.26%) HIPAA
12 24 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
12 24 (0.25%) GRC
13 22 (0.23%) PMO
13 22 (0.23%) Solvency II
13 22 (0.23%) WCAG
14 21 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
14 21 (0.22%) PSD2
15 18 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 42001
16 16 (0.16%) GAAP
System Software
1 236 (2.43%) Docker
2 73 (0.75%) Active Directory
3 22 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
3 22 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
4 18 (0.19%) VMware Infrastructure
5 16 (0.16%) Firmware
6 14 (0.14%) vSphere
7 7 (0.072%) Lustre
8 5 (0.052%) GPFS
8 5 (0.052%) Hyper-V
8 5 (0.052%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 4 (0.041%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.021%) Ceph
10 2 (0.021%) Kamailio
10 2 (0.021%) NFS
10 2 (0.021%) RACF
11 1 (0.010%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 232 (2.39%) Terraform
2 219 (2.26%) Kubernetes
3 52 (0.54%) Ansible
4 47 (0.48%) Microsoft Intune
5 44 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
6 32 (0.33%) Prometheus
7 25 (0.26%) Grafana
8 14 (0.14%) Cisco CUCM
9 10 (0.10%) Kubeflow
10 9 (0.093%) Argo
11 8 (0.082%) SCCM
12 7 (0.072%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 6 (0.062%) vCenter Server
14 4 (0.041%) Nessus
14 4 (0.041%) Nmap
14 4 (0.041%) Proxmox
15 3 (0.031%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
15 3 (0.031%) RSA Archer
15 3 (0.031%) SolarWinds Orion
16 2 (0.021%) Puppet
Vendors
1 1,188 (12.24%) Microsoft
2 1,163 (11.98%) PayPal
3 184 (1.90%) Google
4 168 (1.73%) Databricks
5 118 (1.22%) OpenAI
6 102 (1.05%) Oracle
7 97 (1.00%) Salesforce
8 96 (0.99%) Adobe
9 95 (0.98%) Cisco
10 85 (0.88%) Dell
11 71 (0.73%) SAP
12 47 (0.48%) Blue Prism
13 45 (0.46%) Alteryx
13 45 (0.46%) Foundry
14 42 (0.43%) Palantir
15 38 (0.39%) HubSpot
16 37 (0.38%) Fortinet
17 35 (0.36%) Apple
18 34 (0.35%) Bloomberg
19 30 (0.31%) VMware