AI Job Trends in the UK excluding London

AI
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring AI skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 23 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 43 72
Rank change year-on-year +40 +29 +94
Permanent jobs citing AI 7,031 1,591 1,941
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 14.29% 5.06% 3.82%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 18.71% 5.54% 4.39%
Number of salaries quoted 1,108 790 1,003
10th Percentile £26,400 £39,925 £36,250
25th Percentile £38,750 £52,500 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,450 £66,254 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year -10.27% +6.01% -2.39%
75th Percentile £81,250 £82,500 £82,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £97,290
UK median annual salary £70,000 £75,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year -6.67% +7.14% -

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

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 in the UK excluding London.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 37,570 28,705 44,212
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 76.35% 91.24% 86.93%
Number of salaries quoted 22,192 13,147 33,650
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £27,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £41,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -8.97%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £81,250 £83,750 £78,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%

AI
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

AI job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

AI
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing AI.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing AI

AI
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing AI in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 23 February 2026.

Salary histogram for AI in the UK excluding London

AI
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing AI within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 23 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
North of England +49 2,592 £60,000 -10.81% 345
North West +42 1,978 £61,418 -10.66% 191
Midlands +88 1,523 £55,000 -13.73% 183
South East +36 1,473 £50,000 -33.33% 568
West Midlands +78 1,249 £55,000 -4.35% 105
East of England +25 671 £55,000 -16.96% 149
Yorkshire +41 512 £61,250 -2.00% 103
South West +18 363 £62,500 -3.85% 165
Scotland +33 299 £70,000 +21.74% 85
East Midlands +70 285 £50,000 -23.08% 75
Wales +41 118 £50,335 +0.67% 39
North East +42 102 £55,000 -24.14% 52
Northern Ireland -9 55 £90,000 -5.26% 10
Channel Islands - 8 - -
AI
UK

AI
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 48 (0.68%) SharePoint
2 43 (0.61%) Jupyter
3 22 (0.31%) CMS
4 18 (0.26%) Confluence
5 15 (0.21%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 11 (0.16%) Microsoft Exchange
7 10 (0.14%) WordPress
8 9 (0.13%) Apache Airflow
8 9 (0.13%) Apache Spark
9 7 (0.100%) Apache
10 5 (0.071%) IIS
10 5 (0.071%) Umbraco
11 4 (0.057%) Apache Solr
12 3 (0.043%) Drupal
12 3 (0.043%) Joomla!
13 2 (0.028%) Apache Qpid
13 2 (0.028%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
13 2 (0.028%) CICS
13 2 (0.028%) JBoss
13 2 (0.028%) WebSphere
Applications
1 798 (11.35%) Chatbot
2 638 (9.07%) Microsoft Excel
3 61 (0.87%) Microsoft Office
4 26 (0.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.085%) Spreadsheet
6 5 (0.071%) Photoshop
7 4 (0.057%) Weka
8 3 (0.043%) Adobe Illustrator
8 3 (0.043%) Simulink
9 2 (0.028%) MS Visio
9 2 (0.028%) UserZoom
10 1 (0.014%) Acrobat
10 1 (0.014%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.014%) Adobe Premiere
10 1 (0.014%) Camtasia
10 1 (0.014%) InDesign
10 1 (0.014%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 21 (0.30%) Dynamics CRM
2 18 (0.26%) Oracle ERP
3 16 (0.23%) NetSuite
4 11 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
5 4 (0.057%) Shopify
6 3 (0.043%) Oracle Assets
6 3 (0.043%) Oracle Receivables
6 3 (0.043%) SAP Business One
6 3 (0.043%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
7 2 (0.028%) Dynamics AX
7 2 (0.028%) Dynamics GP
7 2 (0.028%) Integrated Workplace Management System
7 2 (0.028%) Maximo
7 2 (0.028%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.028%) Salesforce CRM
8 1 (0.014%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.014%) Odoo
8 1 (0.014%) Oracle Cash Management
8 1 (0.014%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.014%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 3,702 (52.65%) Cloud Computing
2 973 (13.84%) Azure
3 754 (10.72%) Power Platform
4 568 (8.08%) Azure AI
5 283 (4.03%) AWS
6 159 (2.26%) SaaS
7 118 (1.68%) Azure DevOps
8 106 (1.51%) Microsoft 365
9 104 (1.48%) GitHub
10 83 (1.18%) GitHub Copilot
11 71 (1.01%) GCP
12 56 (0.80%) Entra ID
13 53 (0.75%) Snowflake
14 46 (0.65%) Azure Data Factory
15 44 (0.63%) Microsoft Copilot
15 44 (0.63%) Power Automate
16 37 (0.53%) Adobe Analytics
17 31 (0.44%) Figma
17 31 (0.44%) PowerApps
17 31 (0.44%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 3,654 (51.97%) Internet
2 61 (0.87%) Broadband
3 32 (0.46%) Unified Communications
4 30 (0.43%) Firewall
5 23 (0.33%) VoIP
6 17 (0.24%) Network Security
7 15 (0.21%) VPN
8 14 (0.20%) Telepresence
8 14 (0.20%) WebEx
9 11 (0.16%) DNS
10 9 (0.13%) TCP/IP
11 8 (0.11%) VLAN
12 7 (0.100%) DMZ
12 7 (0.100%) HTTP
12 7 (0.100%) Wireshark
13 5 (0.071%) DHCP
13 5 (0.071%) Intranet
13 5 (0.071%) Modbus
14 4 (0.057%) Bluetooth
14 4 (0.057%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 670 (9.53%) Power BI
2 596 (8.48%) Tableau
3 56 (0.80%) SQL Server
4 45 (0.64%) Metadata
5 44 (0.63%) Data Warehouse
6 34 (0.48%) NoSQL
7 29 (0.41%) MongoDB
8 28 (0.40%) Data Lake
9 25 (0.36%) Big Data
10 23 (0.33%) PostgreSQL
11 21 (0.30%) Azure SQL Database
12 18 (0.26%) Data Mining
13 15 (0.21%) Snowflake Schema
14 14 (0.20%) Hadoop
15 13 (0.18%) MySQL
15 13 (0.18%) SQL Server Reporting Services
16 11 (0.16%) Elasticsearch
17 10 (0.14%) Looker
17 10 (0.14%) Relational Database
18 8 (0.11%) Redis
Development Applications
1 59 (0.84%) JIRA
2 57 (0.81%) Git
3 43 (0.61%) Visual Studio Code
4 20 (0.28%) Jenkins
5 16 (0.23%) Oracle Forms
6 10 (0.14%) Selenium
7 9 (0.13%) Visual Studio
8 7 (0.100%) Cypress.io
9 6 (0.085%) JUnit
10 5 (0.071%) Burp Suite
10 5 (0.071%) GitBook
10 5 (0.071%) GitLab
10 5 (0.071%) MLflow
11 4 (0.057%) JMeter
11 4 (0.057%) Metasploit
11 4 (0.057%) Octopus Deploy
11 4 (0.057%) TeamCity
12 3 (0.043%) Postman
12 3 (0.043%) REST Assured
12 3 (0.043%) Visual Website Optimizer
General
1 4,800 (68.27%) Social Skills
2 3,915 (55.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 3,692 (52.51%) Banking
4 689 (9.80%) Analytical Skills
5 554 (7.88%) Finance
6 230 (3.27%) Marketing
7 144 (2.05%) Retail
8 127 (1.81%) Public Sector
9 100 (1.42%) Legal
10 94 (1.34%) Manufacturing
11 84 (1.19%) Law
12 78 (1.11%) Games
13 48 (0.68%) Pharmaceutical
13 48 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
14 37 (0.53%) Telecoms
15 36 (0.51%) Aviation
16 35 (0.50%) Aeronautics
16 35 (0.50%) Aerospace
16 35 (0.50%) Electronics
17 31 (0.44%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 2,833 (40.29%) Lecturer
2 746 (10.61%) Trainer
3 628 (8.93%) Analyst
4 559 (7.95%) Data Analyst
5 548 (7.79%) Junior
6 541 (7.69%) Junior Analyst
6 541 (7.69%) Junior Data Analyst
7 234 (3.33%) Senior
8 215 (3.06%) Lead
9 187 (2.66%) Developer
10 94 (1.34%) Content Editor
11 90 (1.28%) Architect
12 81 (1.15%) Software Engineer
13 77 (1.10%) Research Scientist
14 71 (1.01%) Business Manager
15 68 (0.97%) Customer Support Specialist
15 68 (0.97%) Data Engineer
15 68 (0.97%) Support Specialist
16 64 (0.91%) Solutions Architect
17 59 (0.84%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 103 (1.46%) .NET
2 79 (1.12%) React
3 63 (0.90%) HTML
4 59 (0.84%) REST
5 58 (0.82%) scikit-learn
6 50 (0.71%) NumPy
7 49 (0.70%) Hugging Face
7 49 (0.70%) Pandas
8 48 (0.68%) RESTful
9 45 (0.64%) Matplotlib
10 42 (0.60%) Streamlit
11 39 (0.55%) CSS
12 38 (0.54%) TensorFlow
13 36 (0.51%) AngularJS
14 35 (0.50%) PyTorch
15 29 (0.41%) SOAP
16 28 (0.40%) Node.js
17 27 (0.38%) Vue
17 27 (0.38%) XML
18 26 (0.37%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 3,675 (52.27%) IoT
2 131 (1.86%) Cloud Native
3 128 (1.82%) Robotics
4 111 (1.58%) Onboarding
5 102 (1.45%) Algorithms
6 100 (1.42%) Product Ownership
7 91 (1.29%) Blog
8 81 (1.15%) Molecular Biology
9 68 (0.97%) Social Media
10 66 (0.94%) Life Science
11 54 (0.77%) Self-Motivation
12 49 (0.70%) AI Agents
13 47 (0.67%) Enterprise Software
14 44 (0.63%) Analytical Mindset
15 41 (0.58%) Low-Code
16 33 (0.47%) Greenfield Project
17 30 (0.43%) Management Information System
18 29 (0.41%) Virtual Team
19 27 (0.38%) Distributed Systems
20 25 (0.36%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 52 (0.74%) Windows
2 40 (0.57%) Linux
3 29 (0.41%) Android
4 28 (0.40%) Apple iOS
5 24 (0.34%) Unix
6 19 (0.27%) Windows Server
7 7 (0.100%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.071%) VMS
9 4 (0.057%) Kali Linux
9 4 (0.057%) Windows Server 2016
10 3 (0.043%) Robot Operating System
11 2 (0.028%) Mac OS X
11 2 (0.028%) zOS
12 1 (0.014%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 4,136 (58.83%) Machine Learning
2 3,795 (53.98%) Cybersecurity
3 3,775 (53.69%) User Experience
4 3,656 (52.00%) Web Development
5 801 (11.39%) Conversational UI
6 703 (10.00%) Business Intelligence
7 494 (7.03%) Agile
8 489 (6.95%) Analytics
9 331 (4.71%) Continuous Improvement
10 313 (4.45%) Problem-Solving
11 302 (4.30%) Software Engineering
12 300 (4.27%) Chemistry
13 292 (4.15%) Roadmaps
14 285 (4.05%) Decision-Making
15 272 (3.87%) DevOps
16 256 (3.64%) CI/CD
17 237 (3.37%) Customer Experience
18 212 (3.02%) Data Science
18 212 (3.02%) LLM
19 206 (2.93%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 1,007 (14.32%) Python
2 783 (11.14%) SQL
3 118 (1.68%) JavaScript
4 107 (1.52%) Java
5 77 (1.10%) TypeScript
6 72 (1.02%) C#
7 44 (0.63%) PowerShell
8 39 (0.55%) C++
9 37 (0.53%) R
10 26 (0.37%) Bash
11 23 (0.33%) Apex Code
12 18 (0.26%) C
13 17 (0.24%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 16 (0.23%) Shell Script
15 15 (0.21%) PL/SQL
15 15 (0.21%) T-SQL
16 14 (0.20%) Go
17 13 (0.18%) Rust
18 10 (0.14%) MATLAB
19 9 (0.13%) Swift
Qualifications
1 4,812 (68.44%) Degree
2 4,152 (59.05%) Master's Degree
3 4,134 (58.80%) PhD
4 3,651 (51.93%) Postgraduate
5 559 (7.95%) Azure Certification
6 179 (2.55%) Security Cleared
7 142 (2.02%) SC Cleared
8 83 (1.18%) AWS Certification
9 50 (0.71%) Computer Science Degree
10 42 (0.60%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 41 (0.58%) BPSS Clearance
12 35 (0.50%) DBS Check
13 32 (0.46%) DV Cleared
14 23 (0.33%) PMP
15 15 (0.21%) Six Sigma Green Belt
16 12 (0.17%) Microsoft Certification
17 11 (0.16%) ACCA
18 8 (0.11%) HNC
18 8 (0.11%) HND
19 7 (0.100%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 111 (1.58%) Accessibility
2 78 (1.11%) Data Quality
3 60 (0.85%) QA
4 40 (0.57%) GDPR
5 39 (0.55%) GxP
6 38 (0.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 21 (0.30%) NIST
8 19 (0.27%) WCAG
9 18 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
10 15 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 15 (0.21%) PCI DSS
11 13 (0.18%) PMO
12 10 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials
12 10 (0.14%) GRC
13 9 (0.13%) EU AI Act
14 8 (0.11%) NCSC
15 7 (0.100%) CDISC
15 7 (0.100%) HL7
15 7 (0.100%) JSP 440
16 6 (0.085%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 61 (0.87%) Docker
2 33 (0.47%) Active Directory
3 18 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
4 15 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
5 11 (0.16%) VMware Infrastructure
6 9 (0.13%) vSphere
7 4 (0.057%) Firmware
8 3 (0.043%) Kamailio
9 2 (0.028%) Ceph
9 2 (0.028%) Lustre
9 2 (0.028%) RACF
9 2 (0.028%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 2 (0.028%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.014%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 91 (1.29%) Terraform
2 73 (1.04%) Kubernetes
3 32 (0.46%) Microsoft Intune
4 25 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
5 14 (0.20%) Ansible
5 14 (0.20%) Cisco CUCM
6 9 (0.13%) Grafana
7 7 (0.100%) Prometheus
8 6 (0.085%) Proxmox
8 6 (0.085%) SCCM
8 6 (0.085%) vCenter Server
9 5 (0.071%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 5 (0.071%) Argo
10 4 (0.057%) Nessus
10 4 (0.057%) Nmap
10 4 (0.057%) SolarWinds Orion
11 3 (0.043%) Kubeflow
12 2 (0.028%) Control-M
12 2 (0.028%) HP Fortify
12 2 (0.028%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
Vendors
1 1,027 (14.61%) Microsoft
2 743 (10.57%) PayPal
3 77 (1.10%) Cisco
4 74 (1.05%) Adobe
5 64 (0.91%) Dell
6 60 (0.85%) Oracle
7 57 (0.81%) Databricks
8 53 (0.75%) Google
9 42 (0.60%) Salesforce
10 31 (0.44%) Blue Prism
11 24 (0.34%) Apple
12 21 (0.30%) OpenAI
12 21 (0.30%) VMware
13 20 (0.28%) HubSpot
13 20 (0.28%) SAP
14 14 (0.20%) Splunk
15 12 (0.17%) BT
15 12 (0.17%) ServiceNow
16 10 (0.14%) Fortinet
16 10 (0.14%) Instagram