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

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 19 41
Rank change year-on-year +12 +22 +133
Permanent jobs citing AI 6,496 2,687 3,422
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 9.73% 9.16% 4.94%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.75% 9.95% 5.95%
Number of salaries quoted 1,747 774 1,256
10th Percentile £33,750 £25,000 £35,000
25th Percentile £46,250 £40,313 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £61,500 £65,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.38% +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 47,254 26,994 57,538
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.81% 92.05% 83.01%
Number of salaries quoted 30,481 13,823 41,125
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £27,003
25th Percentile £37,750 £35,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £52,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% +4.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £58,269 £55,000
% change year-on-year +2.97% +5.94% -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 20 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 20 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 2,200 £67,500 +17.39% 788
Midlands +7 1,692 £52,500 -8.70% 393
North West +50 1,470 £72,500 +3.57% 416
West Midlands +8 1,360 £52,500 -8.70% 235
South East +5 1,177 £60,000 -7.69% 823
East of England +31 604 £60,000 -9.39% 264
Yorkshire +6 587 £65,000 +79.31% 246
South West +4 445 £60,000 +2.13% 286
East Midlands -9 343 £52,500 -8.70% 158
Scotland +10 220 £70,000 +55.56% 217
North East +6 143 £64,038 +28.72% 128
Wales +30 133 £53,171 -21.52% 78
Northern Ireland +14 60 £87,500 - 80
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 56 (0.86%) 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 8 (0.12%) Microsoft Exchange
10 7 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 6 (0.092%) IIS
12 4 (0.062%) 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 (17.72%) 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 (0.062%) 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 (36.61%) Cloud Computing
2 1,992 (30.67%) Azure
3 1,505 (23.17%) Azure AI
4 1,283 (19.75%) Power Platform
5 477 (7.34%) AWS
6 192 (2.96%) SaaS
7 148 (2.28%) GCP
8 132 (2.03%) Azure DevOps
9 128 (1.97%) Microsoft 365
10 117 (1.80%) GitHub
11 110 (1.69%) Adobe Analytics
12 90 (1.39%) Microsoft Copilot
13 76 (1.17%) Snowflake
14 74 (1.14%) Serverless
15 69 (1.06%) Figma
16 66 (1.02%) GitHub Copilot
17 50 (0.77%) Entra ID
18 46 (0.71%) Power Automate
19 42 (0.65%) Azure Synapse Analytics
20 38 (0.58%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 2,326 (35.81%) Internet
2 179 (2.76%) Broadband
3 41 (0.63%) 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%) BGP
13 5 (0.077%) Intranet
13 5 (0.077%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1,201 (18.49%) Power BI
2 1,140 (17.55%) Tableau
3 100 (1.54%) SQL Server
4 83 (1.28%) MongoDB
5 65 (1.00%) Azure SQL Database
6 56 (0.86%) Data Warehouse
7 47 (0.72%) Data Lake
8 46 (0.71%) Metadata
9 43 (0.66%) PostgreSQL
10 28 (0.43%) NoSQL
11 27 (0.42%) Looker
12 25 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
13 23 (0.35%) Big Data
14 21 (0.32%) Redis
15 19 (0.29%) BigQuery
16 17 (0.26%) Relational Database
17 15 (0.23%) MySQL
18 14 (0.22%) Amazon Redshift
19 12 (0.18%) Amazon RDS
19 12 (0.18%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 80 (1.23%) Git
2 51 (0.79%) Visual Studio Code
3 42 (0.65%) JIRA
4 25 (0.38%) Jenkins
5 24 (0.37%) GitLab
6 22 (0.34%) Snyk
7 18 (0.28%) MLflow
8 16 (0.25%) Selenium
9 15 (0.23%) Claude Code
10 13 (0.20%) Postman
11 12 (0.18%) JUnit
12 11 (0.17%) Cypress.io
13 10 (0.15%) Visual Studio
14 9 (0.14%) IBM UrbanCode
15 8 (0.12%) Maven
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%) SonarQube
General
1 4,277 (65.84%) Social Skills
2 2,611 (40.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 2,390 (36.79%) Banking
4 514 (7.91%) Finance
5 325 (5.00%) Analytical Skills
6 266 (4.09%) Marketing
7 203 (3.13%) Games
8 158 (2.43%) Retail
9 119 (1.83%) Public Sector
10 116 (1.79%) Legal
11 109 (1.68%) Manufacturing
12 88 (1.35%) Law
13 59 (0.91%) Organisational Skills
14 55 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
15 46 (0.71%) Automotive
16 34 (0.52%) Electronics
17 26 (0.40%) Pharmaceutical
17 26 (0.40%) Telecoms
18 23 (0.35%) Aerospace
19 22 (0.34%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 1,752 (26.97%) Lecturer
2 1,217 (18.73%) Analyst
3 1,097 (16.89%) Junior
4 1,093 (16.83%) Data Analyst
5 1,082 (16.66%) Junior Analyst
6 1,081 (16.64%) Junior Data Analyst
7 410 (6.31%) Senior
8 393 (6.05%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
9 356 (5.48%) Lead
10 308 (4.74%) Developer
11 192 (2.96%) Architect
12 149 (2.29%) Software Engineer
13 120 (1.85%) Data Engineer
14 76 (1.17%) Solutions Architect
15 69 (1.06%) .NET Developer
16 68 (1.05%) Consultant
17 66 (1.02%) Designer
18 61 (0.94%) Python Engineer
19 58 (0.89%) Software Developer
20 56 (0.86%) Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 186 (2.86%) .NET
2 130 (2.00%) React
3 100 (1.54%) HTML
4 94 (1.45%) CSS
5 79 (1.22%) REST
6 66 (1.02%) scikit-learn
7 64 (0.99%) Node.js
7 64 (0.99%) RESTful
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 (0.82%) Hugging Face
13 52 (0.80%) AngularJS
13 52 (0.80%) Matplotlib
14 50 (0.77%) Streamlit
15 49 (0.75%) ML.NET
16 41 (0.63%) Blazor
16 41 (0.63%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 2,337 (35.98%) IoT
2 161 (2.48%) Social Media
3 139 (2.14%) Cloud Native
4 113 (1.74%) Robotics
5 111 (1.71%) Product Ownership
6 106 (1.63%) Onboarding
7 102 (1.57%) Algorithms
8 67 (1.03%) Distributed Systems
9 64 (0.99%) Self-Motivation
10 59 (0.91%) Mobile App
11 57 (0.88%) AI Agents
12 56 (0.86%) Low-Code
13 55 (0.85%) Enterprise Software
14 51 (0.79%) Data Centre
15 48 (0.74%) Blog
15 48 (0.74%) Life Science
16 47 (0.72%) Management Information System
17 33 (0.51%) Virtual Team
18 32 (0.49%) Public Cloud
19 29 (0.45%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 67 (1.03%) Windows
2 56 (0.86%) Linux
3 48 (0.74%) Android
4 38 (0.58%) Apple iOS
5 27 (0.42%) 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 2,921 (44.97%) Machine Learning
2 2,525 (38.87%) Cybersecurity
3 2,481 (38.19%) User Experience
4 2,343 (36.07%) Web Development
5 1,249 (19.23%) Business Intelligence
6 601 (9.25%) Agile
7 578 (8.90%) Analytics
8 414 (6.37%) CI/CD
9 410 (6.31%) Roadmaps
10 390 (6.00%) Artificial Intelligence Engineering
11 375 (5.77%) Problem-Solving
12 366 (5.63%) Software Engineering
13 344 (5.30%) DevOps
14 326 (5.02%) Continuous Improvement
15 294 (4.53%) Decision-Making
16 269 (4.14%) Customer Experience
17 262 (4.03%) LLM
18 252 (3.88%) Mentoring
19 212 (3.26%) Data Science
20 199 (3.06%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 2,008 (30.91%) Python
2 1,387 (21.35%) SQL
3 187 (2.88%) C#
4 175 (2.69%) JavaScript
5 138 (2.12%) Java
6 86 (1.32%) TypeScript
7 61 (0.94%) C++
8 41 (0.63%) PowerShell
9 35 (0.54%) Bash
10 34 (0.52%) R
11 27 (0.42%) C
12 23 (0.35%) Go
13 16 (0.25%) Kotlin
14 15 (0.23%) PHP
15 14 (0.22%) T-SQL
16 13 (0.20%) Apex Code
16 13 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 12 (0.18%) Bicep
17 12 (0.18%) Scala
18 11 (0.17%) Rust
Qualifications
1 2,634 (40.55%) Degree
2 2,383 (36.68%) Master's Degree
3 2,353 (36.22%) PhD
4 2,320 (35.71%) Postgraduate
5 1,423 (21.91%) Azure Certification
6 149 (2.29%) Security Cleared
7 110 (1.69%) AWS Certification
8 88 (1.35%) SC Cleared
9 60 (0.92%) DV Cleared
10 59 (0.91%) Computer Science Degree
11 49 (0.75%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 48 (0.74%) ACCA
13 46 (0.71%) CIMA
14 45 (0.69%) DBS Check
15 26 (0.40%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 18 (0.28%) CISSP
17 10 (0.15%) BPSS Clearance
18 9 (0.14%) CISA
18 9 (0.14%) CISM
18 9 (0.14%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 199 (3.06%) Accessibility
2 135 (2.08%) Data Quality
3 87 (1.34%) GDPR
3 87 (1.34%) QA
4 47 (0.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 45 (0.69%) WCAG
6 39 (0.60%) GRC
7 31 (0.48%) NIST
8 23 (0.35%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 23 (0.35%) SLA
9 17 (0.26%) PCI DSS
10 14 (0.22%) GxP
11 13 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials
11 13 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 11 (0.17%) IFRS
13 10 (0.15%) SOC 2
14 9 (0.14%) Actionable Recommendations
14 9 (0.14%) GAAP
14 9 (0.14%) NCSC
14 9 (0.14%) PMO
System Software
1 125 (1.92%) Docker
2 51 (0.79%) Virtual Machines
3 40 (0.62%) Active Directory
4 15 (0.23%) Firmware
5 7 (0.11%) Embedded Firmware
5 7 (0.11%) VMware Infrastructure
6 6 (0.092%) vSphere
7 3 (0.046%) Kamailio
8 1 (0.015%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.015%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 128 (1.97%) Kubernetes
2 95 (1.46%) Terraform
3 25 (0.38%) Grafana
3 25 (0.38%) Microsoft Intune
4 24 (0.37%) Ansible
5 19 (0.29%) Prometheus
6 14 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
7 8 (0.12%) Proxmox
8 7 (0.11%) Podman
9 6 (0.092%) Cisco CUCM
9 6 (0.092%) Kubeflow
10 5 (0.077%) Functional Safety
10 5 (0.077%) Nagios
10 5 (0.077%) Puppet
11 4 (0.062%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 4 (0.062%) SolarWinds Orion
11 4 (0.062%) vCenter Server
12 3 (0.046%) Argo
13 2 (0.031%) ZABBIX
14 1 (0.015%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 1,642 (25.28%) Microsoft
2 178 (2.74%) Adobe
3 104 (1.60%) Databricks
4 91 (1.40%) Google
5 71 (1.09%) Dell
6 59 (0.91%) Cisco
7 57 (0.88%) Salesforce
8 56 (0.86%) Apple
9 46 (0.71%) OpenAI
10 45 (0.69%) ServiceNow
11 43 (0.66%) Oracle
12 26 (0.40%) CrowdStrike
13 25 (0.38%) Tenable
14 24 (0.37%) SAP
15 22 (0.34%) HubSpot
15 22 (0.34%) Palo Alto
16 19 (0.29%) VMware
17 14 (0.22%) Sage
18 13 (0.20%) Splunk
19 11 (0.17%) BT