Artificial Intelligence Specialist Contracts

AI Specialist
UK

The median AI Specialist daily rate in the UK is £600, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 August 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Aug 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 545 556 666
Rank change year-on-year +11 +110 -
Contract jobs requiring an Artificial Intelligence Specialist 11 6 2
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.033% 0.015% 0.004%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.036% 0.017% 0.004%
Number of daily rates quoted 7 3 2
10th Percentile £413 £445 -
25th Percentile £463 £475 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £550 £800
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -31.25% -
75th Percentile £850 £638 -
90th Percentile - £676 -
UK excluding London median daily rate - £625 -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 30,315 36,280 50,499
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.42% 92.94% 94.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,223 23,530 34,843
10th Percentile £281 £300 £306
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -0.46%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - +2.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,498 2,061 1,518
10th Percentile £13.64 £14.16 £14.50
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.12 £19.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £42.75
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% +0.58% +66.47%
75th Percentile £53.99 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £72.90 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £43.90 £39.55
% change year-on-year -42.71% +11.00% +86.12%

Artificial Intelligence Specialist
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Artificial Intelligence Specialist in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Artificial Intelligence Specialist in the UK

Artificial Intelligence Specialist
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Artificial Intelligence Specialist.

Daily rate trend for Artificial Intelligence Specialist in the UK

Artificial Intelligence Specialist
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Artificial Intelligence Specialist over the 6 months to 3 August 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Artificial Intelligence Specialist in the UK

Artificial Intelligence Specialist
Top 3 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Artificial Intelligence Specialist within the UK over the 6 months to 3 August 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +23 7 £525 -4.55% 16
London +16 7 £525 +16.67% 10
Work from Home +28 5 £850 - 8

Artificial Intelligence Specialist Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 3 August 2025, Artificial Intelligence Specialist contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Artificial Intelligence Specialist in the job title.

1 11 (100.00%) Artificial Intelligence
2 10 (90.91%) Python
3 7 (63.64%) Machine Learning
3 7 (63.64%) LLM
4 6 (54.55%) Generative AI
4 6 (54.55%) Agile
5 5 (45.45%) AWS
5 5 (45.45%) Decision-Making
6 4 (36.36%) Azure
6 4 (36.36%) Finance
6 4 (36.36%) Unit Testing
6 4 (36.36%) Integration Testing
6 4 (36.36%) Security Cleared
6 4 (36.36%) End-to-End Testing
6 4 (36.36%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
6 4 (36.36%) Data Science
6 4 (36.36%) Architectural Design
6 4 (36.36%) FastAPI
7 3 (27.27%) Prompt Engineering
7 3 (27.27%) Data Pipeline
7 3 (27.27%) User Research
7 3 (27.27%) Power Automate
7 3 (27.27%) Data Integration
7 3 (27.27%) SC Cleared
7 3 (27.27%) Computer Science
7 3 (27.27%) Degree
7 3 (27.27%) PhD
7 3 (27.27%) Data Modelling
7 3 (27.27%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (27.27%) Power Platform

Artificial Intelligence Specialist Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 2 (18.18%) Apache Spark
2 1 (9.09%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 1 (9.09%) Chatbot
Cloud Services
1 5 (45.45%) AWS
2 4 (36.36%) Azure
3 3 (27.27%) Power Automate
3 3 (27.27%) Power Platform
4 2 (18.18%) Azure Data Factory
4 2 (18.18%) Azure Logic Apps
4 2 (18.18%) Azure Machine Learning
5 1 (9.09%) AWS Data Pipeline
5 1 (9.09%) Azure AI
5 1 (9.09%) Microsoft Copilot
5 1 (9.09%) PowerApps
5 1 (9.09%) Prefect
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (18.18%) Apache Hive
1 2 (18.18%) Hadoop
1 2 (18.18%) MySQL
1 2 (18.18%) Power BI
1 2 (18.18%) Power Query
1 2 (18.18%) SQL Server
General
1 4 (36.36%) Finance
2 2 (18.18%) Analytical Skills
2 2 (18.18%) Banking
2 2 (18.18%) Social Skills
3 1 (9.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 1 (9.09%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (36.36%) FastAPI
2 2 (18.18%) PySpark
2 2 (18.18%) TensorFlow
3 1 (9.09%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 2 (18.18%) Credit Risk
2 1 (9.09%) AI Agents
2 1 (9.09%) Algorithms
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (100.00%) Artificial Intelligence
2 7 (63.64%) LLM
2 7 (63.64%) Machine Learning
3 6 (54.55%) Agile
3 6 (54.55%) Generative AI
4 5 (45.45%) Decision-Making
5 4 (36.36%) Architectural Design
5 4 (36.36%) Data Science
5 4 (36.36%) End-to-End Testing
5 4 (36.36%) Integration Testing
5 4 (36.36%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
5 4 (36.36%) Unit Testing
6 3 (27.27%) Analytics
6 3 (27.27%) Computer Science
6 3 (27.27%) Data Integration
6 3 (27.27%) Data Modelling
6 3 (27.27%) Data Pipeline
6 3 (27.27%) Prompt Engineering
6 3 (27.27%) User Research
7 2 (18.18%) AutoML
Programming Languages
1 10 (90.91%) Python
2 2 (18.18%) Data Analysis Expressions
2 2 (18.18%) SQL
Qualifications
1 4 (36.36%) Security Cleared
2 3 (27.27%) Computer Science Degree
2 3 (27.27%) Degree
2 3 (27.27%) PhD
2 3 (27.27%) SC Cleared
3 2 (18.18%) Master's Degree
Vendors
1 1 (9.09%) Microsoft
1 1 (9.09%) OpenAI