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 16 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 36 57
Rank change year-on-year +32 +21 +62
Permanent jobs citing AI 10,068 2,618 3,511
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 13.49% 6.07% 4.14%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 17.32% 6.49% 4.75%
Number of salaries quoted 2,611 1,417 1,847
10th Percentile £33,750 £35,000 £41,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £56,250 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £72,500 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.45% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £93,750 £98,750 £92,500
90th Percentile £110,000 £117,500 £115,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £57,998 £66,212 £60,000
% change year-on-year -12.41% +10.35% -7.69%

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 58,145 40,321 73,905
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 77.92% 93.51% 87.23%
Number of salaries quoted 35,200 22,427 56,120
10th Percentile £29,750 £31,925 £29,000
25th Percentile £39,911 £44,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.78%
75th Percentile £76,299 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £93,750
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 16 March 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 16 March 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 +32 9,226 £70,000 -6.67% 2,650
UK excluding London +29 7,185 £57,998 -12.41% 1,850
North of England +42 2,656 £60,000 -7.69% 408
Work from Home +32 2,432 £65,000 -1.86% 1,310
London +31 2,395 £81,500 -11.89% 1,326
North West +36 1,975 £61,418 -15.29% 206
Midlands +75 1,581 £52,500 -19.23% 201
South East +34 1,424 £50,000 -33.33% 682
West Midlands +69 1,279 £55,000 -8.33% 98
East of England +20 730 £55,000 -16.95% 221
Yorkshire +35 569 £62,500 +38.89% 153
South West +7 381 £60,000 -2.04% 202
East Midlands +60 313 £50,000 -23.08% 102
Scotland +17 283 £70,000 +55.56% 100
Wales +35 121 £47,500 -24.00% 57
North East +39 112 £55,000 -24.14% 51
Northern Ireland -3 61 £90,000 -10.00% 18
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 95 (0.94%) Apache Airflow
2 94 (0.93%) SharePoint
3 92 (0.91%) Apache Spark
4 65 (0.65%) Jupyter
5 54 (0.54%) Confluence
6 52 (0.52%) CMS
7 40 (0.40%) Apache
8 30 (0.30%) ArcGIS
9 29 (0.29%) Palantir Foundry
10 22 (0.22%) WordPress
11 20 (0.20%) Microsoft Exchange
12 17 (0.17%) Appian
13 13 (0.13%) JBoss
13 13 (0.13%) WebSphere
14 12 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 8 (0.079%) SAS
16 5 (0.050%) Apache Pulsar
16 5 (0.050%) Apache Solr
16 5 (0.050%) IIS
16 5 (0.050%) Umbraco
Applications
1 899 (8.93%) Microsoft Excel
2 848 (8.42%) Chatbot
3 86 (0.85%) Microsoft Office
4 50 (0.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 22 (0.22%) MS Visio
5 22 (0.22%) UserZoom
6 20 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
7 11 (0.11%) Maya
8 7 (0.070%) Adobe Premiere
9 6 (0.060%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.060%) Microsoft Project
9 6 (0.060%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.050%) Adobe Illustrator
11 4 (0.040%) Adobe After Effects
11 4 (0.040%) Camtasia
11 4 (0.040%) CapCut
11 4 (0.040%) Weka
12 3 (0.030%) Final Cut Pro
12 3 (0.030%) Sketch
13 1 (0.010%) Blender
Business Applications
1 39 (0.39%) Dynamics CRM
2 18 (0.18%) NetSuite
3 17 (0.17%) SAP S/4HANA
4 14 (0.14%) Oracle ERP
5 12 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
6 10 (0.099%) Workday HCM
7 8 (0.079%) Distributed Ledger
7 8 (0.079%) Shopify
8 7 (0.070%) Endur
8 7 (0.070%) Oracle EBS
8 7 (0.070%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.040%) Dynamics AX
9 4 (0.040%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 4 (0.040%) Oracle Receivables
9 4 (0.040%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
10 3 (0.030%) Oracle Assets
11 2 (0.020%) Dynamics GP
11 2 (0.020%) Integrated Workplace Management System
11 2 (0.020%) SAP Business One
11 2 (0.020%) SAP SCM
Cloud Services
1 4,150 (41.22%) Cloud Computing
2 1,846 (18.34%) Azure
3 1,184 (11.76%) Power Platform
4 885 (8.79%) Azure AI
5 794 (7.89%) AWS
6 460 (4.57%) SaaS
7 330 (3.28%) GCP
8 214 (2.13%) GitHub
9 200 (1.99%) Microsoft 365
10 179 (1.78%) Azure DevOps
11 136 (1.35%) Snowflake
12 126 (1.25%) Adobe Analytics
13 121 (1.20%) Microsoft Copilot
14 115 (1.14%) Azure Data Factory
15 110 (1.09%) GitHub Copilot
16 107 (1.06%) Serverless
17 102 (1.01%) Entra ID
17 102 (1.01%) Power Automate
18 82 (0.81%) Figma
19 75 (0.74%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 4,053 (40.26%) Internet
2 206 (2.05%) Broadband
3 53 (0.53%) Firewall
4 32 (0.32%) Unified Communications
5 28 (0.28%) Network Security
5 28 (0.28%) VPN
6 21 (0.21%) VoIP
7 20 (0.20%) WAN
8 19 (0.19%) TCP/IP
9 18 (0.18%) HTTP
10 17 (0.17%) DNS
11 14 (0.14%) Telepresence
11 14 (0.14%) WebEx
12 13 (0.13%) DHCP
13 10 (0.099%) VLAN
13 10 (0.099%) Wi-Fi
14 8 (0.079%) SD-WAN
15 6 (0.060%) DMZ
15 6 (0.060%) RTP
16 5 (0.050%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1,039 (10.32%) Power BI
2 922 (9.16%) Tableau
3 164 (1.63%) Data Warehouse
4 119 (1.18%) Data Lake
5 102 (1.01%) SQL Server
6 91 (0.90%) PostgreSQL
7 90 (0.89%) Metadata
8 82 (0.81%) MongoDB
9 81 (0.80%) NoSQL
10 68 (0.68%) Big Data
11 52 (0.52%) BigQuery
12 42 (0.42%) Elasticsearch
12 42 (0.42%) Looker
13 39 (0.39%) MySQL
14 37 (0.37%) Pinecone
15 32 (0.32%) Amazon Redshift
15 32 (0.32%) Apache Hive
15 32 (0.32%) Azure SQL Database
15 32 (0.32%) GIS
15 32 (0.32%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 161 (1.60%) Git
2 102 (1.01%) JIRA
3 64 (0.64%) MLflow
4 58 (0.58%) Visual Studio Code
5 49 (0.49%) Jenkins
6 33 (0.33%) GitLab
7 25 (0.25%) IBM UrbanCode
8 23 (0.23%) Selenium
9 22 (0.22%) Cypress.io
10 20 (0.20%) Claude Code
11 15 (0.15%) Postman
12 14 (0.14%) TeamCity
13 13 (0.13%) Octopus Deploy
14 12 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
14 12 (0.12%) Visual Studio
15 11 (0.11%) Bitbucket
16 9 (0.089%) SpecFlow
16 9 (0.089%) Storybook
17 8 (0.079%) Gradle
17 8 (0.079%) JMeter
General
1 5,969 (59.29%) Social Skills
2 4,477 (44.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 4,255 (42.26%) Banking
4 1,184 (11.76%) Finance
5 879 (8.73%) Analytical Skills
6 402 (3.99%) Marketing
7 315 (3.13%) Public Sector
8 310 (3.08%) Legal
9 267 (2.65%) Law
10 260 (2.58%) Retail
11 254 (2.52%) Games
12 170 (1.69%) Manufacturing
13 116 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
14 103 (1.02%) Telecoms
15 99 (0.98%) Influencing Skills
16 86 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
17 83 (0.82%) Financial Institution
18 82 (0.81%) Pharmaceutical
19 48 (0.48%) German Language
20 47 (0.47%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 3,159 (31.38%) Lecturer
2 993 (9.86%) Analyst
3 842 (8.36%) Data Analyst
4 797 (7.92%) Junior
5 772 (7.67%) Junior Analyst
5 772 (7.67%) Junior Data Analyst
6 765 (7.60%) Trainer
7 756 (7.51%) Senior
8 519 (5.15%) Lead
9 425 (4.22%) Developer
10 312 (3.10%) Architect
11 271 (2.69%) Consultant
12 189 (1.88%) Software Engineer
13 166 (1.65%) Data Engineer
14 139 (1.38%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
15 138 (1.37%) Solutions Architect
16 103 (1.02%) Data Scientist
17 102 (1.01%) Content Editor
18 92 (0.91%) Senior Manager
19 89 (0.88%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 250 (2.48%) React
2 177 (1.76%) PyTorch
3 164 (1.63%) .NET
4 162 (1.61%) REST
5 136 (1.35%) TensorFlow
6 124 (1.23%) Node.js
7 123 (1.22%) HTML
7 123 (1.22%) RESTful
8 118 (1.17%) scikit-learn
9 104 (1.03%) Pandas
10 97 (0.96%) LangChain
11 95 (0.94%) CSS
12 91 (0.90%) Hugging Face
13 90 (0.89%) Kafka
14 86 (0.85%) FastAPI
15 78 (0.77%) Django
15 78 (0.77%) NumPy
16 66 (0.66%) AngularJS
17 63 (0.63%) PySpark
17 63 (0.63%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 4,079 (40.51%) IoT
2 292 (2.90%) Cloud Native
3 203 (2.02%) Onboarding
4 184 (1.83%) Algorithms
5 176 (1.75%) Social Media
6 171 (1.70%) Product Ownership
7 170 (1.69%) AI Agents
8 138 (1.37%) Self-Motivation
9 137 (1.36%) Robotics
10 128 (1.27%) Blog
11 106 (1.05%) Distributed Systems
12 100 (0.99%) Management Information System
13 99 (0.98%) Enterprise Software
14 96 (0.95%) Low-Code
15 89 (0.88%) Molecular Biology
16 86 (0.85%) Life Science
17 82 (0.81%) Mobile App
18 65 (0.65%) Public Cloud
19 64 (0.64%) Virtual Team
20 61 (0.61%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 90 (0.89%) Linux
2 89 (0.88%) Windows
3 87 (0.86%) Android
4 60 (0.60%) Apple iOS
4 60 (0.60%) Unix
5 30 (0.30%) Windows Server
6 15 (0.15%) Ubuntu
7 9 (0.089%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.050%) VMS
9 4 (0.040%) Robot Operating System
9 4 (0.040%) Windows Server 2016
10 3 (0.030%) OpenWrt
11 2 (0.020%) Kali Linux
11 2 (0.020%) Mac OS X
11 2 (0.020%) zOS
12 1 (0.010%) FreeRTOS
12 1 (0.010%) Solaris
12 1 (0.010%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 5,136 (51.01%) Machine Learning
2 4,328 (42.99%) User Experience
3 4,321 (42.92%) Cybersecurity
4 4,072 (40.44%) Web Development
5 1,208 (12.00%) Analytics
6 1,187 (11.79%) Business Intelligence
7 970 (9.63%) Agile
8 909 (9.03%) Conversational UI
9 741 (7.36%) Problem-Solving
10 725 (7.20%) Roadmaps
11 658 (6.54%) CI/CD
12 614 (6.10%) Decision-Making
13 608 (6.04%) Continuous Improvement
14 570 (5.66%) Software Engineering
15 554 (5.50%) DevOps
16 532 (5.28%) LLM
17 527 (5.23%) Generative AI
18 521 (5.17%) Data Science
19 483 (4.80%) Mentoring
20 394 (3.91%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 1,995 (19.82%) Python
2 1,381 (13.72%) SQL
3 248 (2.46%) Java
4 241 (2.39%) JavaScript
5 226 (2.24%) TypeScript
6 173 (1.72%) C#
7 77 (0.76%) C++
8 72 (0.72%) PowerShell
9 71 (0.71%) Go
10 66 (0.66%) Bash
11 53 (0.53%) R
12 41 (0.41%) Kotlin
13 37 (0.37%) PHP
14 31 (0.31%) Rust
15 26 (0.26%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 25 (0.25%) Scala
17 22 (0.22%) Apex Code
18 18 (0.18%) Swift
19 16 (0.16%) Bicep
19 16 (0.16%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 5,609 (55.71%) Degree
2 4,591 (45.60%) Master's Degree
3 4,538 (45.07%) PhD
4 4,052 (40.25%) Postgraduate
5 829 (8.23%) Azure Certification
6 296 (2.94%) Security Cleared
7 198 (1.97%) SC Cleared
8 185 (1.84%) Computer Science Degree
9 118 (1.17%) AWS Certification
10 93 (0.92%) DV Cleared
11 70 (0.70%) DBS Check
12 56 (0.56%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
13 51 (0.51%) PMP
14 50 (0.50%) CISSP
15 45 (0.45%) ACCA
16 40 (0.40%) Microsoft Certification
17 36 (0.36%) PMI Certification
18 32 (0.32%) Cisco Certification
19 31 (0.31%) Numerate Degree
20 25 (0.25%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 307 (3.05%) Accessibility
2 258 (2.56%) Data Quality
3 159 (1.58%) QA
4 145 (1.44%) GDPR
5 71 (0.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 56 (0.56%) WCAG
7 47 (0.47%) EU AI Act
8 37 (0.37%) HIPAA
8 37 (0.37%) NIST
9 36 (0.36%) GRC
9 36 (0.36%) IFRS
10 29 (0.29%) GxP
11 25 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
11 25 (0.25%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 25 (0.25%) PMO
12 24 (0.24%) Solvency II
13 23 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
14 22 (0.22%) SLA
15 21 (0.21%) PSD2
16 17 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 262 (2.60%) Docker
2 82 (0.81%) Active Directory
3 19 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
4 14 (0.14%) VMware Infrastructure
5 13 (0.13%) Firmware
6 11 (0.11%) Virtual Desktop
7 10 (0.099%) vSphere
8 4 (0.040%) Lustre
8 4 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 3 (0.030%) Kamailio
9 3 (0.030%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.020%) Ceph
10 2 (0.020%) GPFS
10 2 (0.020%) RACF
11 1 (0.010%) Hyper-V
11 1 (0.010%) NFS
11 1 (0.010%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 250 (2.48%) Kubernetes
2 221 (2.20%) Terraform
3 59 (0.59%) Ansible
4 42 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
5 41 (0.41%) Prometheus
6 39 (0.39%) Grafana
7 37 (0.37%) Microsoft Intune
8 14 (0.14%) Cisco CUCM
9 9 (0.089%) Argo
10 7 (0.070%) Proxmox
10 7 (0.070%) vCenter Server
11 6 (0.060%) Kubeflow
12 4 (0.040%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 4 (0.040%) Control-M
12 4 (0.040%) RSA Archer
12 4 (0.040%) SolarWinds Orion
13 3 (0.030%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
13 3 (0.030%) HP Fortify
13 3 (0.030%) SCCM
14 2 (0.020%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
Vendors
1 1,591 (15.80%) Microsoft
2 756 (7.51%) PayPal
3 209 (2.08%) Databricks
4 196 (1.95%) Google
5 181 (1.80%) Adobe
6 113 (1.12%) OpenAI
7 112 (1.11%) Dell
8 109 (1.08%) Oracle
9 97 (0.96%) Salesforce
10 80 (0.79%) Cisco
11 71 (0.71%) SAP
12 59 (0.59%) Foundry
13 55 (0.55%) Palantir
14 47 (0.47%) Alteryx
15 43 (0.43%) ServiceNow
16 33 (0.33%) Bloomberg
17 31 (0.31%) Apple
18 30 (0.30%) Fortinet
18 30 (0.30%) Informatica
18 30 (0.30%) Red Hat