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

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 45 74
Rank change year-on-year +42 +29 +92
Permanent jobs citing AI 7,093 1,589 1,820
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 14.69% 4.92% 3.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 19.14% 5.41% 4.18%
Number of salaries quoted 1,088 796 991
10th Percentile £24,871 £40,000 £36,250
25th Percentile £38,750 £53,659 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £66,254 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year -9.44% +6.01% -
75th Percentile £82,500 £82,500 £82,500
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 37,053 29,378 43,585
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 76.72% 90.93% 86.88%
Number of salaries quoted 21,805 13,220 33,294
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% -8.90%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £81,250 £83,750 £78,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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 18 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 18 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 +46 2,603 £60,709 -9.44% 348
North West +39 1,992 £60,709 -13.27% 195
Midlands +90 1,530 £55,000 -15.38% 183
South East +38 1,485 £50,000 -34.21% 546
West Midlands +83 1,251 £59,527 +1.32% 105
East of England +28 668 £55,000 -16.96% 138
Yorkshire +41 508 £67,500 +12.50% 108
South West +22 368 £62,500 -3.85% 161
Scotland +38 330 £70,000 +21.74% 84
East Midlands +69 290 £50,000 -23.08% 77
Wales +41 122 £51,585 +3.17% 38
North East +48 103 £55,000 -24.14% 46
Northern Ireland -6 54 £90,000 -5.26% 12
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 51 (0.72%) SharePoint
2 28 (0.39%) Jupyter
3 21 (0.30%) CMS
4 20 (0.28%) Confluence
5 16 (0.23%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 12 (0.17%) Microsoft Exchange
7 10 (0.14%) WordPress
8 9 (0.13%) Apache Spark
9 8 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
10 7 (0.099%) Apache
11 6 (0.085%) Apache Solr
12 5 (0.070%) IIS
12 5 (0.070%) Umbraco
13 3 (0.042%) Drupal
13 3 (0.042%) Joomla!
14 2 (0.028%) Apache Qpid
14 2 (0.028%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
14 2 (0.028%) CICS
14 2 (0.028%) JBoss
14 2 (0.028%) WebSphere
Applications
1 843 (11.88%) Chatbot
2 638 (8.99%) Microsoft Excel
3 60 (0.85%) Microsoft Office
4 24 (0.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.085%) Spreadsheet
6 5 (0.070%) Photoshop
7 4 (0.056%) Weka
8 3 (0.042%) Simulink
9 2 (0.028%) Adobe Illustrator
9 2 (0.028%) Adobe Premiere
9 2 (0.028%) InDesign
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%) Camtasia
10 1 (0.014%) Microsoft Project
10 1 (0.014%) S-PLUS
Business Applications
1 24 (0.34%) Dynamics CRM
2 19 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
3 16 (0.23%) NetSuite
4 11 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
5 6 (0.085%) Shopify
6 3 (0.042%) Oracle Assets
6 3 (0.042%) Oracle Receivables
6 3 (0.042%) SAP Business One
6 3 (0.042%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
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 AX
8 1 (0.014%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.014%) FIS Private Capital Suite
8 1 (0.014%) Odoo
8 1 (0.014%) Oracle Cash Management
8 1 (0.014%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 3,687 (51.98%) Cloud Computing
2 990 (13.96%) Azure
3 755 (10.64%) Power Platform
4 567 (7.99%) Azure AI
5 275 (3.88%) AWS
6 164 (2.31%) SaaS
7 126 (1.78%) Azure DevOps
8 109 (1.54%) Microsoft 365
9 105 (1.48%) GitHub
10 84 (1.18%) GitHub Copilot
11 73 (1.03%) GCP
12 62 (0.87%) Entra ID
13 54 (0.76%) Snowflake
14 47 (0.66%) Azure Data Factory
15 45 (0.63%) Power Automate
16 43 (0.61%) Microsoft Copilot
17 31 (0.44%) Adobe Analytics
17 31 (0.44%) PowerApps
18 30 (0.42%) dbt
18 30 (0.42%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 3,656 (51.54%) Internet
2 54 (0.76%) Broadband
3 32 (0.45%) Unified Communications
4 30 (0.42%) Firewall
5 24 (0.34%) VoIP
6 18 (0.25%) Network Security
7 14 (0.20%) Telepresence
7 14 (0.20%) VPN
7 14 (0.20%) WebEx
8 11 (0.16%) DNS
9 9 (0.13%) TCP/IP
10 8 (0.11%) VLAN
11 7 (0.099%) DMZ
11 7 (0.099%) HTTP
11 7 (0.099%) Wireshark
12 6 (0.085%) Intranet
13 5 (0.070%) DHCP
13 5 (0.070%) Modbus
14 4 (0.056%) Bluetooth
14 4 (0.056%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 672 (9.47%) Power BI
2 599 (8.44%) Tableau
3 61 (0.86%) SQL Server
4 50 (0.70%) Data Warehouse
5 46 (0.65%) Metadata
6 36 (0.51%) NoSQL
7 32 (0.45%) MongoDB
8 29 (0.41%) Data Lake
9 28 (0.39%) Big Data
10 21 (0.30%) Azure SQL Database
10 21 (0.30%) PostgreSQL
11 18 (0.25%) Data Mining
12 17 (0.24%) Hadoop
13 16 (0.23%) Snowflake Schema
14 15 (0.21%) MySQL
15 13 (0.18%) SQL Server Reporting Services
16 12 (0.17%) Elasticsearch
17 10 (0.14%) Relational Database
18 9 (0.13%) Neo4j
18 9 (0.13%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 63 (0.89%) JIRA
2 58 (0.82%) Git
3 28 (0.39%) Visual Studio Code
4 20 (0.28%) Jenkins
5 17 (0.24%) Oracle Forms
6 10 (0.14%) Selenium
7 9 (0.13%) Visual Studio
8 7 (0.099%) Cypress.io
9 6 (0.085%) JUnit
10 5 (0.070%) Burp Suite
10 5 (0.070%) GitBook
10 5 (0.070%) GitLab
10 5 (0.070%) Octopus Deploy
10 5 (0.070%) TeamCity
11 4 (0.056%) JMeter
11 4 (0.056%) Metasploit
11 4 (0.056%) MLflow
12 3 (0.042%) Postman
12 3 (0.042%) REST Assured
12 3 (0.042%) Visual Website Optimizer
General
1 4,818 (67.93%) Social Skills
2 3,917 (55.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 3,691 (52.04%) Banking
4 706 (9.95%) Analytical Skills
5 540 (7.61%) Finance
6 234 (3.30%) Marketing
7 129 (1.82%) Retail
8 128 (1.80%) Public Sector
9 97 (1.37%) Legal
10 87 (1.23%) Law
11 77 (1.09%) Manufacturing
12 72 (1.02%) Games
13 48 (0.68%) Pharmaceutical
14 47 (0.66%) Presentation Skills
15 36 (0.51%) Aviation
15 36 (0.51%) Telecoms
16 35 (0.49%) Aeronautics
16 35 (0.49%) Aerospace
16 35 (0.49%) Electronics
17 30 (0.42%) German Language
Job Titles
1 2,833 (39.94%) Lecturer
2 805 (11.35%) Trainer
3 629 (8.87%) Analyst
4 559 (7.88%) Data Analyst
5 548 (7.73%) Junior
6 541 (7.63%) Junior Analyst
6 541 (7.63%) Junior Data Analyst
7 228 (3.21%) Senior
8 206 (2.90%) Lead
9 190 (2.68%) Developer
10 112 (1.58%) Content Editor
11 89 (1.25%) Architect
12 82 (1.16%) Software Engineer
13 77 (1.09%) Research Scientist
14 71 (1.00%) Business Manager
14 71 (1.00%) Customer Support Specialist
14 71 (1.00%) Data Engineer
14 71 (1.00%) Support Specialist
15 64 (0.90%) Solutions Architect
16 57 (0.80%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 107 (1.51%) .NET
2 79 (1.11%) React
3 63 (0.89%) HTML
4 60 (0.85%) REST
5 49 (0.69%) RESTful
6 42 (0.59%) scikit-learn
7 40 (0.56%) CSS
8 36 (0.51%) TensorFlow
9 35 (0.49%) AngularJS
9 35 (0.49%) NumPy
10 34 (0.48%) Hugging Face
10 34 (0.48%) Pandas
11 33 (0.47%) PyTorch
12 32 (0.45%) Node.js
13 30 (0.42%) Matplotlib
14 29 (0.41%) SOAP
15 27 (0.38%) Streamlit
15 27 (0.38%) Vue
15 27 (0.38%) XML
16 26 (0.37%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 3,674 (51.80%) IoT
2 136 (1.92%) Cloud Native
3 126 (1.78%) Robotics
4 114 (1.61%) Onboarding
5 106 (1.49%) Product Ownership
6 90 (1.27%) Blog
7 88 (1.24%) Algorithms
8 83 (1.17%) Molecular Biology
9 68 (0.96%) Life Science
10 55 (0.78%) Social Media
11 54 (0.76%) Self-Motivation
12 50 (0.70%) AI Agents
13 49 (0.69%) Enterprise Software
14 47 (0.66%) Analytical Mindset
15 44 (0.62%) Low-Code
16 34 (0.48%) Greenfield Project
17 30 (0.42%) Management Information System
17 30 (0.42%) Virtual Team
18 26 (0.37%) Distributed Systems
19 25 (0.35%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 55 (0.78%) Windows
2 42 (0.59%) Linux
3 28 (0.39%) Android
4 27 (0.38%) Apple iOS
5 24 (0.34%) Unix
6 21 (0.30%) Windows Server
7 8 (0.11%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.070%) VMS
9 4 (0.056%) Kali Linux
9 4 (0.056%) Windows Server 2016
10 3 (0.042%) Robot Operating System
11 2 (0.028%) Mac OS X
11 2 (0.028%) zOS
12 1 (0.014%) Debian
12 1 (0.014%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 4,133 (58.27%) Machine Learning
2 3,797 (53.53%) Cybersecurity
3 3,779 (53.28%) User Experience
4 3,655 (51.53%) Web Development
5 846 (11.93%) Conversational UI
6 705 (9.94%) Business Intelligence
7 504 (7.11%) Agile
8 500 (7.05%) Analytics
9 350 (4.93%) Continuous Improvement
10 313 (4.41%) Problem-Solving
11 305 (4.30%) Software Engineering
12 300 (4.23%) Chemistry
13 299 (4.22%) Decision-Making
14 290 (4.09%) Roadmaps
15 286 (4.03%) DevOps
16 262 (3.69%) CI/CD
17 245 (3.45%) Customer Experience
18 205 (2.89%) Data Science
18 205 (2.89%) Project Management
19 191 (2.69%) LLM
Programming Languages
1 994 (14.01%) Python
2 789 (11.12%) SQL
3 124 (1.75%) JavaScript
4 107 (1.51%) Java
5 80 (1.13%) TypeScript
6 71 (1.00%) C#
7 50 (0.70%) PowerShell
8 40 (0.56%) C++
9 37 (0.52%) R
10 28 (0.39%) Bash
11 23 (0.32%) Apex Code
12 19 (0.27%) C
13 17 (0.24%) Shell Script
14 16 (0.23%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 16 (0.23%) PL/SQL
15 15 (0.21%) T-SQL
16 14 (0.20%) Go
17 13 (0.18%) Rust
18 10 (0.14%) MATLAB
18 10 (0.14%) PHP
Qualifications
1 4,877 (68.76%) Degree
2 4,157 (58.61%) Master's Degree
3 4,138 (58.34%) PhD
4 3,650 (51.46%) Postgraduate
5 559 (7.88%) Azure Certification
6 180 (2.54%) Security Cleared
7 146 (2.06%) SC Cleared
8 68 (0.96%) AWS Certification
9 54 (0.76%) Computer Science Degree
10 40 (0.56%) BPSS Clearance
11 35 (0.49%) DBS Check
12 30 (0.42%) DV Cleared
13 27 (0.38%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
14 23 (0.32%) PMP
15 16 (0.23%) Six Sigma Green Belt
16 12 (0.17%) Microsoft Certification
17 10 (0.14%) ACCA
18 8 (0.11%) HNC
18 8 (0.11%) HND
19 7 (0.099%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 107 (1.51%) Accessibility
2 76 (1.07%) Data Quality
3 60 (0.85%) QA
4 40 (0.56%) GxP
5 39 (0.55%) GDPR
6 37 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 20 (0.28%) NIST
8 19 (0.27%) WCAG
9 18 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
10 15 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 14 (0.20%) PCI DSS
12 13 (0.18%) PMO
13 9 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials
13 9 (0.13%) EU AI Act
14 8 (0.11%) CDISC
14 8 (0.11%) GRC
14 8 (0.11%) HL7
14 8 (0.11%) NCSC
15 7 (0.099%) ISO 9001
15 7 (0.099%) JSP 440
System Software
1 65 (0.92%) Docker
2 33 (0.47%) Active Directory
3 20 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
4 18 (0.25%) Virtual Desktop
5 11 (0.16%) VMware Infrastructure
6 9 (0.13%) vSphere
7 4 (0.056%) Firmware
8 3 (0.042%) Kamailio
8 3 (0.042%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.028%) Ceph
9 2 (0.028%) Lustre
9 2 (0.028%) RACF
9 2 (0.028%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.014%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 98 (1.38%) Terraform
2 72 (1.02%) Kubernetes
3 34 (0.48%) Microsoft Intune
4 26 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
5 16 (0.23%) Ansible
6 14 (0.20%) Cisco CUCM
7 9 (0.13%) Grafana
8 8 (0.11%) Prometheus
9 7 (0.099%) SCCM
10 6 (0.085%) Proxmox
10 6 (0.085%) vCenter Server
11 5 (0.070%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (0.070%) Argo
12 4 (0.056%) Nessus
12 4 (0.056%) Nmap
12 4 (0.056%) SolarWinds Orion
13 3 (0.042%) Kubeflow
14 2 (0.028%) Control-M
14 2 (0.028%) HP Fortify
14 2 (0.028%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
Vendors
1 1,027 (14.48%) Microsoft
2 803 (11.32%) PayPal
3 76 (1.07%) Cisco
4 69 (0.97%) Adobe
5 66 (0.93%) Oracle
6 63 (0.89%) Dell
7 58 (0.82%) Databricks
8 50 (0.70%) Google
9 46 (0.65%) Salesforce
10 32 (0.45%) Blue Prism
11 24 (0.34%) Apple
12 22 (0.31%) SAP
13 21 (0.30%) HubSpot
13 21 (0.30%) VMware
14 20 (0.28%) OpenAI
15 14 (0.20%) Splunk
16 12 (0.17%) BT
17 11 (0.16%) Fortinet
18 9 (0.13%) New Relic
19 8 (0.11%) NVIDIA