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 21 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 19 42
Rank change year-on-year +12 +23 +129
Permanent jobs citing AI 6,519 2,677 3,424
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 9.78% 9.16% 4.94%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.80% 9.95% 5.95%
Number of salaries quoted 1,764 761 1,258
10th Percentile £33,750 £25,000 £35,000
25th Percentile £46,250 £40,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,000 £65,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.62% +8.33% -11.11%
75th Percentile £82,500 £75,000 £81,250
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year - - -6.67%

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 47,251 26,904 57,512
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.85% 92.04% 82.98%
Number of salaries quoted 30,493 13,671 41,102
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,336 £27,019
25th Percentile £37,750 £35,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £51,887 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.18% +3.77% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £58,033 £55,000
% change year-on-year +3.39% +5.51% -10.10%

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 21 May 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 21 May 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 +27 2,211 £67,500 +17.39% 995
Midlands +6 1,697 £52,500 -8.70% 547
North West +51 1,475 £72,500 +3.57% 483
West Midlands +7 1,365 £52,500 -8.70% 304
South East +6 1,183 £60,000 -7.69% 961
East of England +33 604 £59,725 -9.81% 321
Yorkshire +6 590 £65,000 +85.71% 336
South West +3 445 £60,000 - 347
East Midlands -9 343 £52,500 -8.70% 231
Scotland +10 219 £70,000 +55.56% 339
North East +8 146 £63,076 +26.78% 178
Wales +28 133 £53,171 -22.38% 162
Northern Ireland +13 62 £87,500 - 128
Channel Islands +1 2 - -
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 57 (0.87%) SharePoint
2 50 (0.77%) Jupyter
3 36 (0.55%) CMS
4 31 (0.48%) Apache Spark
5 30 (0.46%) Apache Airflow
6 26 (0.40%) Confluence
7 21 (0.32%) WordPress
8 16 (0.25%) Apache
9 9 (0.14%) Microsoft Exchange
10 8 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 6 (0.092%) IIS
12 4 (0.061%) Sitecore CMS
13 3 (0.046%) ArcGIS
14 2 (0.031%) Apache Qpid
14 2 (0.031%) JBoss
14 2 (0.031%) WebSphere
15 1 (0.015%) Kinematics
15 1 (0.015%) Moodle
15 1 (0.015%) SAS
15 1 (0.015%) Umbraco
Applications
1 1,151 (17.66%) Microsoft Excel
2 71 (1.09%) Chatbot
3 56 (0.86%) Microsoft Office
4 36 (0.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 16 (0.25%) UserZoom
6 10 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
7 8 (0.12%) Photoshop
8 7 (0.11%) Adobe Illustrator
8 7 (0.11%) Simulink
9 6 (0.092%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.092%) MS Visio
10 3 (0.046%) Adobe After Effects
10 3 (0.046%) Camtasia
10 3 (0.046%) InDesign
11 2 (0.031%) Stateflow
11 2 (0.031%) Weka
12 1 (0.015%) Adobe Premiere
12 1 (0.015%) AutoCAD
12 1 (0.015%) Sketch
12 1 (0.015%) Trello
Business Applications
1 24 (0.37%) Cloudability
2 13 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.12%) NetSuite
3 8 (0.12%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (0.11%) Oracle ERP
5 6 (0.092%) Sage 50
6 4 (0.061%) Dynamics AX
7 3 (0.046%) Dynamics GP
7 3 (0.046%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
8 2 (0.031%) Oracle Assets
8 2 (0.031%) Oracle Payables
8 2 (0.031%) Salesforce CRM
9 1 (0.015%) Maximo
9 1 (0.015%) Oracle Cash Management
9 1 (0.015%) Oracle EBS
9 1 (0.015%) Oracle Receivables
9 1 (0.015%) Primavera
9 1 (0.015%) Sage 200
9 1 (0.015%) SAP Business One
9 1 (0.015%) SAP EHS
Cloud Services
1 2,378 (36.48%) Cloud Computing
2 2,004 (30.74%) Azure
3 1,505 (23.09%) Azure AI
4 1,289 (19.77%) Power Platform
5 488 (7.49%) AWS
6 193 (2.96%) SaaS
7 150 (2.30%) GCP
8 134 (2.06%) Azure DevOps
9 132 (2.02%) Microsoft 365
10 121 (1.86%) GitHub
11 110 (1.69%) Adobe Analytics
12 91 (1.40%) Microsoft Copilot
13 77 (1.18%) Snowflake
14 76 (1.17%) Serverless
15 70 (1.07%) Figma
16 67 (1.03%) GitHub Copilot
17 52 (0.80%) Entra ID
18 47 (0.72%) Power Automate
19 42 (0.64%) Azure Synapse Analytics
20 39 (0.60%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 2,326 (35.68%) Internet
2 179 (2.75%) Broadband
3 42 (0.64%) Firewall
4 24 (0.37%) DNS
4 24 (0.37%) Network Security
5 23 (0.35%) Unified Communications
6 20 (0.31%) VPN
7 16 (0.25%) TCP/IP
8 12 (0.18%) DHCP
8 12 (0.18%) MQTT
9 11 (0.17%) VLAN
10 9 (0.14%) VoIP
11 7 (0.11%) HTTP
11 7 (0.11%) Wireless
12 6 (0.092%) DMZ
12 6 (0.092%) Telepresence
12 6 (0.092%) WebEx
13 5 (0.077%) Intranet
13 5 (0.077%) OSPF
13 5 (0.077%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1,204 (18.47%) Power BI
2 1,140 (17.49%) Tableau
3 101 (1.55%) SQL Server
4 83 (1.27%) MongoDB
5 65 (1.00%) Azure SQL Database
6 57 (0.87%) Data Warehouse
7 48 (0.74%) Data Lake
8 47 (0.72%) Metadata
9 44 (0.67%) PostgreSQL
10 28 (0.43%) NoSQL
11 27 (0.41%) Looker
12 25 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
13 24 (0.37%) Big Data
14 21 (0.32%) Redis
15 19 (0.29%) BigQuery
16 18 (0.28%) Relational Database
17 16 (0.25%) MySQL
18 14 (0.21%) Amazon Redshift
19 13 (0.20%) Amazon RDS
20 12 (0.18%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 83 (1.27%) Git
2 52 (0.80%) Visual Studio Code
3 43 (0.66%) JIRA
4 25 (0.38%) Jenkins
5 24 (0.37%) GitLab
6 22 (0.34%) Snyk
7 19 (0.29%) MLflow
8 17 (0.26%) Claude Code
9 16 (0.25%) Selenium
10 14 (0.21%) JUnit
11 13 (0.20%) Postman
12 12 (0.18%) Cypress.io
13 10 (0.15%) Maven
13 10 (0.15%) Visual Studio
14 9 (0.14%) IBM UrbanCode
15 8 (0.12%) SpecFlow
16 7 (0.11%) Oracle Forms
17 5 (0.077%) Appium
17 5 (0.077%) JMeter
17 5 (0.077%) Mockito
General
1 4,284 (65.72%) Social Skills
2 2,611 (40.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 2,390 (36.66%) Banking
4 518 (7.95%) Finance
5 331 (5.08%) Analytical Skills
6 265 (4.07%) Marketing
7 203 (3.11%) Games
8 159 (2.44%) Retail
9 119 (1.83%) Public Sector
10 118 (1.81%) Legal
11 109 (1.67%) Manufacturing
12 88 (1.35%) Law
13 59 (0.91%) Organisational Skills
14 56 (0.86%) Influencing Skills
15 46 (0.71%) Automotive
16 35 (0.54%) Electronics
17 26 (0.40%) Pharmaceutical
18 25 (0.38%) Telecoms
19 23 (0.35%) Aerospace
20 22 (0.34%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 1,752 (26.88%) Lecturer
2 1,218 (18.68%) Analyst
3 1,097 (16.83%) Junior
4 1,094 (16.78%) Data Analyst
5 1,082 (16.60%) Junior Analyst
6 1,081 (16.58%) Junior Data Analyst
7 416 (6.38%) Senior
8 395 (6.06%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
9 358 (5.49%) Lead
10 312 (4.79%) Developer
11 194 (2.98%) Architect
12 153 (2.35%) Software Engineer
13 122 (1.87%) Data Engineer
14 77 (1.18%) Solutions Architect
15 69 (1.06%) .NET Developer
15 69 (1.06%) Consultant
16 65 (1.00%) Designer
17 63 (0.97%) Python Engineer
18 58 (0.89%) Software Developer
19 56 (0.86%) Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 187 (2.87%) .NET
2 135 (2.07%) React
3 101 (1.55%) HTML
4 95 (1.46%) CSS
5 83 (1.27%) REST
6 68 (1.04%) Node.js
7 66 (1.01%) RESTful
7 66 (1.01%) scikit-learn
8 63 (0.97%) ASP.NET
9 61 (0.94%) .NET Core
10 59 (0.91%) Pandas
11 58 (0.89%) ASP.NET Core
11 58 (0.89%) NumPy
12 53 (0.81%) AngularJS
12 53 (0.81%) Hugging Face
13 52 (0.80%) Matplotlib
14 50 (0.77%) Streamlit
15 49 (0.75%) ML.NET
16 42 (0.64%) TensorFlow
17 41 (0.63%) Blazor
Miscellaneous
1 2,337 (35.85%) IoT
2 161 (2.47%) Social Media
3 142 (2.18%) Cloud Native
4 113 (1.73%) Product Ownership
4 113 (1.73%) Robotics
5 108 (1.66%) Onboarding
6 102 (1.56%) Algorithms
7 68 (1.04%) Distributed Systems
8 65 (1.00%) Self-Motivation
9 60 (0.92%) AI Agents
9 60 (0.92%) Mobile App
10 57 (0.87%) Enterprise Software
10 57 (0.87%) Low-Code
11 52 (0.80%) Management Information System
12 51 (0.78%) Data Centre
13 48 (0.74%) Blog
13 48 (0.74%) Life Science
14 33 (0.51%) Virtual Team
15 32 (0.49%) Public Cloud
16 30 (0.46%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 69 (1.06%) Windows
2 59 (0.91%) Linux
3 48 (0.74%) Android
4 38 (0.58%) Apple iOS
5 28 (0.43%) Windows Server
6 11 (0.17%) Unix
6 11 (0.17%) VMS
7 5 (0.077%) Mac OS
7 5 (0.077%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.077%) Windows Server 2016
8 3 (0.046%) Robot Operating System
9 1 (0.015%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.015%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 2,925 (44.87%) Machine Learning
2 2,529 (38.79%) Cybersecurity
3 2,482 (38.07%) User Experience
4 2,344 (35.96%) Web Development
5 1,251 (19.19%) Business Intelligence
6 608 (9.33%) Agile
7 582 (8.93%) Analytics
8 423 (6.49%) CI/CD
9 412 (6.32%) Roadmaps
10 392 (6.01%) Artificial Intelligence Engineering
11 384 (5.89%) Problem-Solving
12 373 (5.72%) Software Engineering
13 346 (5.31%) DevOps
14 330 (5.06%) Continuous Improvement
15 296 (4.54%) Decision-Making
16 269 (4.13%) Customer Experience
17 268 (4.11%) LLM
18 258 (3.96%) Mentoring
19 214 (3.28%) Data Science
20 203 (3.11%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 2,020 (30.99%) Python
2 1,394 (21.38%) SQL
3 190 (2.91%) C#
4 181 (2.78%) JavaScript
5 141 (2.16%) Java
6 89 (1.37%) TypeScript
7 60 (0.92%) C++
8 45 (0.69%) PowerShell
9 37 (0.57%) Bash
10 34 (0.52%) R
11 27 (0.41%) C
12 23 (0.35%) Go
13 16 (0.25%) Kotlin
14 15 (0.23%) PHP
15 14 (0.21%) T-SQL
16 13 (0.20%) Apex Code
16 13 (0.20%) Bicep
16 13 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 12 (0.18%) Scala
18 11 (0.17%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 2,635 (40.42%) Degree
2 2,383 (36.55%) Master's Degree
3 2,353 (36.09%) PhD
4 2,320 (35.59%) Postgraduate
5 1,423 (21.83%) Azure Certification
6 151 (2.32%) Security Cleared
7 110 (1.69%) AWS Certification
8 90 (1.38%) SC Cleared
9 59 (0.91%) Computer Science Degree
9 59 (0.91%) DV Cleared
10 49 (0.75%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 48 (0.74%) ACCA
12 46 (0.71%) CIMA
13 45 (0.69%) DBS Check
14 26 (0.40%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 19 (0.29%) CISSP
16 10 (0.15%) BPSS Clearance
16 10 (0.15%) CISM
17 9 (0.14%) CISA
17 9 (0.14%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 200 (3.07%) Accessibility
2 137 (2.10%) Data Quality
3 89 (1.37%) QA
4 88 (1.35%) GDPR
5 50 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 46 (0.71%) WCAG
7 39 (0.60%) GRC
8 33 (0.51%) NIST
9 23 (0.35%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 23 (0.35%) SLA
10 17 (0.26%) PCI DSS
11 15 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
12 14 (0.21%) GxP
13 13 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 42001
14 11 (0.17%) IFRS
15 10 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
15 10 (0.15%) PMO
15 10 (0.15%) SOC 2
16 9 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 9 (0.14%) NCSC
System Software
1 128 (1.96%) Docker
2 51 (0.78%) Virtual Machines
3 41 (0.63%) Active Directory
4 16 (0.25%) Firmware
5 8 (0.12%) VMware Infrastructure
6 7 (0.11%) Embedded Firmware
7 6 (0.092%) vSphere
8 3 (0.046%) Kamailio
9 1 (0.015%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.015%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 131 (2.01%) Kubernetes
2 97 (1.49%) Terraform
3 26 (0.40%) Microsoft Intune
4 25 (0.38%) Grafana
5 24 (0.37%) Ansible
6 19 (0.29%) Prometheus
7 14 (0.21%) Single Sign-On
8 8 (0.12%) Proxmox
9 7 (0.11%) Podman
10 6 (0.092%) Cisco CUCM
10 6 (0.092%) Kubeflow
11 5 (0.077%) Functional Safety
11 5 (0.077%) Nagios
11 5 (0.077%) Puppet
12 4 (0.061%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 4 (0.061%) SolarWinds Orion
12 4 (0.061%) vCenter Server
13 3 (0.046%) Argo
14 2 (0.031%) ZABBIX
15 1 (0.015%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 1,648 (25.28%) Microsoft
2 178 (2.73%) Adobe
3 104 (1.60%) Databricks
4 92 (1.41%) Google
5 71 (1.09%) Dell
6 59 (0.91%) Cisco
7 57 (0.87%) Salesforce
8 56 (0.86%) Apple
9 47 (0.72%) OpenAI
10 46 (0.71%) ServiceNow
11 45 (0.69%) Oracle
12 26 (0.40%) CrowdStrike
13 25 (0.38%) Tenable
14 23 (0.35%) SAP
15 22 (0.34%) HubSpot
15 22 (0.34%) Palo Alto
16 20 (0.31%) VMware
17 14 (0.21%) Sage
17 14 (0.21%) Splunk
18 11 (0.17%) BT