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 8 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 53 76
Rank change year-on-year +50 +23 +77
Permanent jobs citing AI 6,890 1,543 1,229
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 16.25% 4.22% 3.72%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 20.64% 4.76% 4.19%
Number of salaries quoted 906 717 661
10th Percentile £24,570 £42,500 £40,538
25th Percentile £38,750 £51,698 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £70,000 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +3.70% +10.66%
75th Percentile £83,500 £85,000 £84,056
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £97,290
UK median annual salary £72,500 £77,000 £75,000
% change year-on-year -5.84% +2.67% +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 33,374 32,384 29,323
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 78.73% 88.57% 88.65%
Number of salaries quoted 19,133 14,703 21,772
10th Percentile £27,750 £31,250 £28,407
25th Percentile £33,500 £41,250 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £66,778
90th Percentile £80,000 £83,750 £80,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

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 8 January 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 8 January 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 +56 2,567 £63,487 -6.98% 774
North West +42 1,989 £62,500 -10.07% 323
Midlands +108 1,521 £62,500 -3.85% 515
South East +29 1,396 £52,500 -30.00% 1,404
West Midlands +95 1,259 £65,000 +13.04% 183
East of England +83 623 £47,500 -38.31% 677
Yorkshire +58 470 £72,500 +12.71% 330
Scotland +47 381 £70,000 +17.65% 151
South West +36 323 £62,500 - 546
East Midlands +85 272 £43,750 -43.18% 315
Wales +39 118 £55,000 -12.00% 223
North East +56 108 £55,000 -27.63% 123
Northern Ireland -4 38 £86,250 -2.82% 101
Channel Islands - 8 - - 1
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 (0.74%) SharePoint
2 24 (0.35%) Confluence
3 21 (0.30%) CMS
4 17 (0.25%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 16 (0.23%) Microsoft Exchange
6 12 (0.17%) WordPress
7 10 (0.15%) Apache Spark
8 8 (0.12%) Apache
8 8 (0.12%) Apache Airflow
9 6 (0.087%) Apache Solr
10 5 (0.073%) IIS
10 5 (0.073%) Umbraco
11 3 (0.044%) Drupal
11 3 (0.044%) Joomla!
11 3 (0.044%) Kinematics
12 2 (0.029%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.029%) CICS
12 2 (0.029%) JBoss
12 2 (0.029%) Mendix
12 2 (0.029%) WebSphere
Applications
1 1,057 (15.34%) Chatbot
2 371 (5.38%) Microsoft Excel
3 71 (1.03%) Microsoft Office
4 27 (0.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.087%) Photoshop
6 5 (0.073%) Spreadsheet
7 4 (0.058%) Adobe Premiere
7 4 (0.058%) InDesign
7 4 (0.058%) Weka
8 3 (0.044%) Notion
8 3 (0.044%) Simulink
9 2 (0.029%) S-PLUS
10 1 (0.015%) Acrobat
10 1 (0.015%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.015%) Adobe Illustrator
10 1 (0.015%) Microsoft Project
10 1 (0.015%) MS Visio
10 1 (0.015%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 26 (0.38%) Dynamics CRM
2 20 (0.29%) Oracle ERP
3 15 (0.22%) NetSuite
4 11 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
5 7 (0.10%) Shopify
6 3 (0.044%) Oracle Assets
6 3 (0.044%) Oracle Receivables
6 3 (0.044%) SAP Business One
7 2 (0.029%) Dynamics GP
7 2 (0.029%) Oracle General Ledger
8 1 (0.015%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.015%) Integrated Workplace Management System
8 1 (0.015%) Maximo
8 1 (0.015%) Odoo
8 1 (0.015%) Oracle Cash Management
8 1 (0.015%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.015%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.015%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 3,655 (53.05%) Cloud Computing
2 727 (10.55%) Azure
3 486 (7.05%) Power Platform
4 299 (4.34%) Azure AI
5 247 (3.58%) AWS
6 163 (2.37%) SaaS
7 133 (1.93%) Azure DevOps
8 111 (1.61%) Microsoft 365
9 101 (1.47%) GitHub
10 94 (1.36%) GCP
11 86 (1.25%) GitHub Copilot
12 59 (0.86%) Snowflake
13 50 (0.73%) Entra ID
14 43 (0.62%) Azure Data Factory
15 42 (0.61%) Power Automate
16 40 (0.58%) Microsoft Copilot
17 34 (0.49%) dbt
18 26 (0.38%) PowerApps
18 26 (0.38%) Serverless
19 25 (0.36%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 3,656 (53.06%) Internet
2 21 (0.30%) VoIP
3 20 (0.29%) Unified Communications
4 15 (0.22%) Firewall
5 14 (0.20%) Telepresence
5 14 (0.20%) WebEx
6 12 (0.17%) Network Security
7 9 (0.13%) Broadband
8 8 (0.12%) VPN
9 6 (0.087%) DNS
9 6 (0.087%) Intranet
9 6 (0.087%) SAN
10 5 (0.073%) Bluetooth
10 5 (0.073%) DMZ
10 5 (0.073%) Modbus
10 5 (0.073%) TCP/IP
11 4 (0.058%) HTTP
11 4 (0.058%) Intrusion Detection
11 4 (0.058%) VLAN
11 4 (0.058%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 405 (5.88%) Power BI
2 337 (4.89%) Tableau
3 75 (1.09%) Data Warehouse
4 62 (0.90%) SQL Server
5 36 (0.52%) Metadata
6 32 (0.46%) Data Lake
6 32 (0.46%) MongoDB
7 30 (0.44%) NoSQL
8 27 (0.39%) MySQL
9 25 (0.36%) Big Data
10 21 (0.30%) PostgreSQL
11 18 (0.26%) Snowflake Schema
12 17 (0.25%) Data Mining
12 17 (0.25%) Hadoop
13 15 (0.22%) Azure SQL Database
14 14 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 12 (0.17%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 10 (0.15%) Elasticsearch
16 10 (0.15%) Looker
17 8 (0.12%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 74 (1.07%) JIRA
2 53 (0.77%) Git
3 24 (0.35%) Jenkins
4 18 (0.26%) Oracle Forms
5 10 (0.15%) Octopus Deploy
5 10 (0.15%) TeamCity
6 7 (0.10%) Visual Studio
7 6 (0.087%) JUnit
7 6 (0.087%) Selenium
8 5 (0.073%) Burp Suite
8 5 (0.073%) GitBook
9 4 (0.058%) Metasploit
9 4 (0.058%) MLflow
10 3 (0.044%) Cypress.io
10 3 (0.044%) GitLab
10 3 (0.044%) Visual Website Optimizer
11 2 (0.029%) LoadRunner
11 2 (0.029%) SonarQube
11 2 (0.029%) SpecFlow
11 2 (0.029%) WebDriver
General
1 4,562 (66.21%) Social Skills
2 3,939 (57.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 3,681 (53.43%) Banking
4 812 (11.79%) Analytical Skills
5 517 (7.50%) Finance
6 245 (3.56%) Marketing
7 128 (1.86%) Public Sector
8 100 (1.45%) Law
8 100 (1.45%) Retail
9 85 (1.23%) Legal
10 47 (0.68%) Pharmaceutical
11 44 (0.64%) Aviation
11 44 (0.64%) Manufacturing
12 41 (0.60%) Presentation Skills
13 35 (0.51%) Aerospace
13 35 (0.51%) Electronics
14 34 (0.49%) Aeronautics
15 32 (0.46%) Organisational Skills
16 30 (0.44%) German Language
16 30 (0.44%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 2,832 (41.10%) Lecturer
2 1,039 (15.08%) Trainer
3 358 (5.20%) Analyst
4 290 (4.21%) Data Analyst
5 277 (4.02%) Junior
6 270 (3.92%) Junior Analyst
6 270 (3.92%) Junior Data Analyst
7 208 (3.02%) Senior
8 167 (2.42%) Developer
9 148 (2.15%) Lead
10 142 (2.06%) Content Editor
11 121 (1.76%) Architect
12 97 (1.41%) Innovation Manager
13 90 (1.31%) Customer Support Specialist
13 90 (1.31%) Support Specialist
14 84 (1.22%) Research Scientist
15 72 (1.04%) Software Engineer
16 68 (0.99%) Business Manager
17 57 (0.83%) Solutions Architect
17 57 (0.83%) Systems Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 94 (1.36%) .NET
2 68 (0.99%) React
3 54 (0.78%) REST
4 52 (0.75%) HTML
5 50 (0.73%) RESTful
6 34 (0.49%) Node.js
7 31 (0.45%) AngularJS
8 29 (0.42%) CSS
8 29 (0.42%) TensorFlow
9 28 (0.41%) SOAP
10 27 (0.39%) XML
11 26 (0.38%) JSON
12 25 (0.36%) PyTorch
13 24 (0.35%) Vue
14 23 (0.33%) Regular Expression
15 22 (0.32%) Lightning Web Components
16 20 (0.29%) Blazor
16 20 (0.29%) Spring
17 19 (0.28%) OAuth
17 19 (0.28%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 3,670 (53.27%) IoT
2 124 (1.80%) Cloud Native
3 114 (1.65%) Robotics
4 104 (1.51%) Product Ownership
5 101 (1.47%) Onboarding
6 89 (1.29%) Molecular Biology
7 84 (1.22%) Blog
8 60 (0.87%) Life Science
9 55 (0.80%) AI Agents
10 51 (0.74%) Analytical Mindset
10 51 (0.74%) Enterprise Software
11 49 (0.71%) Algorithms
12 45 (0.65%) Self-Motivation
13 38 (0.55%) Greenfield Project
14 35 (0.51%) Low-Code
15 34 (0.49%) Data Centre
15 34 (0.49%) Virtual Team
16 26 (0.38%) Linux Command Line
17 23 (0.33%) Management Information System
18 22 (0.32%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 48 (0.70%) Windows
2 32 (0.46%) Linux
3 23 (0.33%) Unix
4 18 (0.26%) Windows Server
5 13 (0.19%) Android
6 9 (0.13%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.073%) Ubuntu
8 4 (0.058%) Kali Linux
9 3 (0.044%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.029%) Mac OS X
10 2 (0.029%) zOS
11 1 (0.015%) Debian
11 1 (0.015%) OpenVMS
11 1 (0.015%) OpenWrt
11 1 (0.015%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.015%) Robot Operating System
11 1 (0.015%) VMS
11 1 (0.015%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 4,087 (59.32%) Machine Learning
2 3,792 (55.04%) Cybersecurity
3 3,769 (54.70%) User Experience
4 3,656 (53.06%) Web Development
5 1,060 (15.38%) Conversational UI
6 481 (6.98%) Analytics
7 438 (6.36%) Agile
8 432 (6.27%) Business Intelligence
9 389 (5.65%) Continuous Improvement
10 373 (5.41%) Chemistry
11 313 (4.54%) Decision-Making
12 285 (4.14%) Problem-Solving
13 280 (4.06%) Roadmaps
14 264 (3.83%) Software Engineering
15 262 (3.80%) DevOps
16 258 (3.74%) Customer Experience
17 218 (3.16%) CI/CD
18 199 (2.89%) Stakeholder Management
19 198 (2.87%) Customer Service
20 197 (2.86%) Content Writing
Programming Languages
1 652 (9.46%) Python
2 518 (7.52%) SQL
3 103 (1.49%) JavaScript
4 94 (1.36%) Java
5 73 (1.06%) TypeScript
6 55 (0.80%) C#
7 51 (0.74%) PowerShell
8 37 (0.54%) R
9 34 (0.49%) C++
10 24 (0.35%) Bash
11 22 (0.32%) Apex Code
12 20 (0.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 17 (0.25%) C
13 17 (0.25%) PL/SQL
13 17 (0.25%) Shell Script
13 17 (0.25%) T-SQL
14 11 (0.16%) Rust
15 10 (0.15%) Bicep
15 10 (0.15%) MATLAB
16 7 (0.10%) Scala
Qualifications
1 5,108 (74.14%) Degree
2 4,257 (61.79%) Master's Degree
3 4,240 (61.54%) PhD
4 3,650 (52.98%) Postgraduate
5 280 (4.06%) Azure Certification
6 164 (2.38%) Security Cleared
7 142 (2.06%) SC Cleared
8 53 (0.77%) Computer Science Degree
9 40 (0.58%) BPSS Clearance
10 30 (0.44%) AWS Certification
11 22 (0.32%) PMP
12 20 (0.29%) DV Cleared
13 19 (0.28%) DBS Check
14 17 (0.25%) Six Sigma Green Belt
15 13 (0.19%) HNC
16 12 (0.17%) HND
17 11 (0.16%) ACCA
17 11 (0.16%) Microsoft Certification
18 8 (0.12%) MBA
19 6 (0.087%) Six Sigma Black Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 82 (1.19%) Data Quality
2 55 (0.80%) Accessibility
3 44 (0.64%) QA
4 38 (0.55%) GxP
5 28 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 24 (0.35%) GDPR
7 18 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
8 14 (0.20%) NIST
8 14 (0.20%) PMO
9 12 (0.17%) SLA
9 12 (0.17%) WCAG
10 11 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials
10 11 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 10 (0.15%) CDISC
11 10 (0.15%) HL7
12 7 (0.10%) EU AI Act
12 7 (0.10%) ISO 9001
12 7 (0.10%) NCSC
12 7 (0.10%) PCI DSS
13 5 (0.073%) GRC
System Software
1 67 (0.97%) Docker
2 28 (0.41%) Active Directory
3 21 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
4 17 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
5 12 (0.17%) VMware Infrastructure
6 8 (0.12%) vSphere
7 6 (0.087%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.058%) Firmware
9 3 (0.044%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 3 (0.044%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.029%) Ceph
10 2 (0.029%) Lustre
10 2 (0.029%) RACF
11 1 (0.015%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 91 (1.32%) Terraform
2 53 (0.77%) Kubernetes
3 38 (0.55%) Microsoft Intune
4 26 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
5 14 (0.20%) Cisco CUCM
6 10 (0.15%) Ansible
7 8 (0.12%) SCCM
8 4 (0.058%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 4 (0.058%) Nessus
8 4 (0.058%) Nmap
9 3 (0.044%) Prometheus
10 2 (0.029%) Argo
10 2 (0.029%) Control-M
10 2 (0.029%) Functional Safety
10 2 (0.029%) HP Fortify
10 2 (0.029%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
10 2 (0.029%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.015%) Grafana
11 1 (0.015%) Kubeflow
11 1 (0.015%) Kustomize
Vendors
1 1,039 (15.08%) PayPal
2 738 (10.71%) Microsoft
3 80 (1.16%) Cisco
4 68 (0.99%) Oracle
5 60 (0.87%) Adobe
6 59 (0.86%) Dell
7 52 (0.75%) Databricks
8 46 (0.67%) Salesforce
9 40 (0.58%) Google
10 39 (0.57%) Apple
11 32 (0.46%) Blue Prism
12 23 (0.33%) HubSpot
13 22 (0.32%) Palo Alto
14 19 (0.28%) OpenAI
14 19 (0.28%) SAP
15 18 (0.26%) VMware
16 13 (0.19%) ServiceNow
16 13 (0.19%) Splunk
17 11 (0.16%) Foundry
18 8 (0.12%) Fortinet