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

6 months to
31 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 54 69
Rank change year-on-year +51 +15 +94
Permanent jobs citing AI 6,998 1,522 1,719
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 15.49% 4.40% 3.75%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 19.98% 4.89% 4.29%
Number of salaries quoted 990 733 960
10th Percentile £24,570 £42,500 £36,250
25th Percentile £38,750 £53,750 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,450 £66,340 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year -10.39% +6.14% +0.67%
75th Percentile £82,500 £85,000 £83,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £96,539
UK median annual salary £70,500 £77,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year -8.44% +10.00% -

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 35,030 31,118 40,043
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 77.52% 90.06% 87.40%
Number of salaries quoted 20,301 13,869 30,593
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £27,000
25th Percentile £34,250 £41,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £83,750 £78,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £56,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +6.19% -9.60%

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 31 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 31 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 +50 2,590 £61,418 -9.01% 281
North West +44 1,999 £61,418 -9.01% 159
Midlands +94 1,525 £60,000 -7.69% 143
South East +33 1,446 £50,000 -35.06% 632
West Midlands +84 1,255 £61,250 +6.52% 90
East of England +44 651 £55,000 -16.96% 156
Yorkshire +60 483 £70,000 +7.69% 93
South West +35 351 £62,500 - 159
Scotland +44 339 £61,250 +2.51% 73
East Midlands +81 280 £42,500 -41.38% 53
Wales +40 124 £54,085 -3.85% 36
North East +54 108 £55,000 -28.57% 32
Northern Ireland -5 49 £90,000 +1.41% 13
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 (0.73%) SharePoint
2 20 (0.29%) CMS
2 20 (0.29%) Confluence
3 17 (0.24%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 13 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
5 11 (0.16%) Apache Spark
6 10 (0.14%) WordPress
7 8 (0.11%) Apache
8 7 (0.10%) Apache Airflow
8 7 (0.10%) Jupyter
9 6 (0.086%) Apache Solr
10 5 (0.071%) IIS
10 5 (0.071%) Umbraco
11 3 (0.043%) Drupal
11 3 (0.043%) Joomla!
12 2 (0.029%) Apache Qpid
12 2 (0.029%) CICS
12 2 (0.029%) JBoss
12 2 (0.029%) Kinematics
12 2 (0.029%) WebSphere
Applications
1 1,005 (14.36%) Chatbot
2 475 (6.79%) Microsoft Excel
3 66 (0.94%) Microsoft Office
4 24 (0.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.086%) Photoshop
6 5 (0.071%) Spreadsheet
7 4 (0.057%) Adobe Premiere
7 4 (0.057%) InDesign
7 4 (0.057%) Weka
8 3 (0.043%) Notion
8 3 (0.043%) Simulink
9 2 (0.029%) MS Visio
9 2 (0.029%) UserZoom
10 1 (0.014%) Acrobat
10 1 (0.014%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.014%) Adobe Illustrator
10 1 (0.014%) Camtasia
10 1 (0.014%) Microsoft Project
10 1 (0.014%) S-PLUS
Business Applications
1 25 (0.36%) Dynamics CRM
2 20 (0.29%) Oracle ERP
3 15 (0.21%) NetSuite
4 11 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
5 7 (0.10%) Shopify
6 3 (0.043%) Dynamics GP
6 3 (0.043%) Oracle Assets
6 3 (0.043%) Oracle Receivables
6 3 (0.043%) SAP Business One
7 2 (0.029%) Integrated Workplace Management System
7 2 (0.029%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.029%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
8 1 (0.014%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.014%) FIS Private Capital Suite
8 1 (0.014%) Maximo
8 1 (0.014%) Odoo
8 1 (0.014%) Oracle Cash Management
8 1 (0.014%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.014%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.014%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 3,664 (52.36%) Cloud Computing
2 822 (11.75%) Azure
3 590 (8.43%) Power Platform
4 405 (5.79%) Azure AI
5 234 (3.34%) AWS
6 158 (2.26%) SaaS
7 134 (1.91%) Azure DevOps
8 104 (1.49%) GitHub
8 104 (1.49%) Microsoft 365
9 87 (1.24%) GitHub Copilot
10 67 (0.96%) GCP
11 56 (0.80%) Entra ID
12 54 (0.77%) Snowflake
13 46 (0.66%) Azure Data Factory
14 43 (0.61%) Power Automate
15 42 (0.60%) Microsoft Copilot
16 30 (0.43%) dbt
16 30 (0.43%) Serverless
17 29 (0.41%) PowerApps
18 27 (0.39%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 3,656 (52.24%) Internet
2 32 (0.46%) Broadband
3 30 (0.43%) Unified Communications
4 24 (0.34%) Firewall
5 23 (0.33%) VoIP
6 18 (0.26%) Network Security
7 14 (0.20%) Telepresence
7 14 (0.20%) WebEx
8 12 (0.17%) VPN
9 9 (0.13%) DNS
10 8 (0.11%) TCP/IP
11 7 (0.10%) DMZ
11 7 (0.10%) VLAN
12 6 (0.086%) HTTP
12 6 (0.086%) Intranet
12 6 (0.086%) SAN
12 6 (0.086%) Wireshark
13 5 (0.071%) Modbus
14 4 (0.057%) Bluetooth
14 4 (0.057%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 509 (7.27%) Power BI
2 438 (6.26%) Tableau
3 61 (0.87%) SQL Server
4 51 (0.73%) Data Warehouse
5 40 (0.57%) Metadata
6 34 (0.49%) Data Lake
7 30 (0.43%) NoSQL
8 29 (0.41%) MongoDB
9 26 (0.37%) Big Data
10 21 (0.30%) Azure SQL Database
11 17 (0.24%) Data Mining
11 17 (0.24%) Hadoop
11 17 (0.24%) Snowflake Schema
12 16 (0.23%) MySQL
13 15 (0.21%) PostgreSQL
14 14 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 11 (0.16%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 10 (0.14%) Elasticsearch
17 9 (0.13%) Neo4j
17 9 (0.13%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 66 (0.94%) JIRA
2 58 (0.83%) Git
3 20 (0.29%) Jenkins
4 18 (0.26%) Oracle Forms
5 9 (0.13%) Visual Studio
6 8 (0.11%) Octopus Deploy
6 8 (0.11%) Selenium
6 8 (0.11%) TeamCity
7 7 (0.10%) Visual Studio Code
8 6 (0.086%) JUnit
9 5 (0.071%) Burp Suite
9 5 (0.071%) Cypress.io
9 5 (0.071%) GitBook
9 5 (0.071%) GitLab
10 4 (0.057%) Metasploit
10 4 (0.057%) MLflow
11 3 (0.043%) Visual Website Optimizer
12 2 (0.029%) Claude Code
12 2 (0.029%) SonarQube
12 2 (0.029%) WebDriver
General
1 4,638 (66.28%) Social Skills
2 3,923 (56.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 3,686 (52.67%) Banking
4 740 (10.57%) Analytical Skills
5 525 (7.50%) Finance
6 225 (3.22%) Marketing
7 134 (1.91%) Public Sector
8 106 (1.51%) Retail
9 87 (1.24%) Legal
10 80 (1.14%) Law
11 54 (0.77%) Manufacturing
12 49 (0.70%) Pharmaceutical
13 47 (0.67%) Games
14 42 (0.60%) Presentation Skills
15 38 (0.54%) Aviation
16 36 (0.51%) Electronics
17 35 (0.50%) Aeronautics
18 34 (0.49%) Aerospace
19 32 (0.46%) Telecoms
20 30 (0.43%) German Language
Job Titles
1 2,835 (40.51%) Lecturer
2 986 (14.09%) Trainer
3 461 (6.59%) Analyst
4 395 (5.64%) Data Analyst
5 386 (5.52%) Junior
6 378 (5.40%) Junior Analyst
6 378 (5.40%) Junior Data Analyst
7 215 (3.07%) Senior
8 185 (2.64%) Lead
9 178 (2.54%) Developer
10 142 (2.03%) Content Editor
11 90 (1.29%) Customer Support Specialist
11 90 (1.29%) Support Specialist
12 87 (1.24%) Architect
13 79 (1.13%) Research Scientist
14 73 (1.04%) Software Engineer
15 69 (0.99%) Business Manager
16 66 (0.94%) Data Engineer
17 61 (0.87%) Solutions Architect
18 57 (0.81%) Systems Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 106 (1.51%) .NET
2 74 (1.06%) React
3 61 (0.87%) REST
4 59 (0.84%) HTML
5 50 (0.71%) RESTful
6 37 (0.53%) CSS
7 35 (0.50%) AngularJS
8 34 (0.49%) TensorFlow
9 33 (0.47%) Node.js
10 31 (0.44%) PyTorch
11 29 (0.41%) SOAP
12 27 (0.39%) Vue
12 27 (0.39%) XML
13 26 (0.37%) JSON
14 25 (0.36%) Lightning Web Components
14 25 (0.36%) Spring
15 23 (0.33%) Spring Boot
16 22 (0.31%) Blazor
16 22 (0.31%) OAuth
16 22 (0.31%) Regular Expression
Miscellaneous
1 3,670 (52.44%) IoT
2 135 (1.93%) Cloud Native
3 118 (1.69%) Robotics
4 107 (1.53%) Onboarding
4 107 (1.53%) Product Ownership
5 89 (1.27%) Molecular Biology
6 86 (1.23%) Blog
7 69 (0.99%) Life Science
8 60 (0.86%) Algorithms
9 49 (0.70%) AI Agents
9 49 (0.70%) Self-Motivation
10 48 (0.69%) Analytical Mindset
10 48 (0.69%) Enterprise Software
11 40 (0.57%) Social Media
12 39 (0.56%) Low-Code
13 35 (0.50%) Greenfield Project
14 32 (0.46%) Virtual Team
15 27 (0.39%) Data Centre
16 26 (0.37%) Management Information System
17 25 (0.36%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 51 (0.73%) Windows
2 38 (0.54%) Linux
3 23 (0.33%) Unix
4 20 (0.29%) Android
4 20 (0.29%) Windows Server
5 15 (0.21%) Apple iOS
6 7 (0.10%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.057%) Kali Linux
7 4 (0.057%) VMS
8 3 (0.043%) Robot Operating System
8 3 (0.043%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (0.029%) Mac OS X
9 2 (0.029%) zOS
10 1 (0.014%) Debian
10 1 (0.014%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 4,104 (58.65%) Machine Learning
2 3,790 (54.16%) Cybersecurity
3 3,779 (54.00%) User Experience
4 3,657 (52.26%) Web Development
5 1,008 (14.40%) Conversational UI
6 537 (7.67%) Business Intelligence
7 474 (6.77%) Agile
8 462 (6.60%) Analytics
9 343 (4.90%) Chemistry
10 329 (4.70%) Continuous Improvement
11 303 (4.33%) Problem-Solving
12 284 (4.06%) Decision-Making
12 284 (4.06%) DevOps
12 284 (4.06%) Software Engineering
13 260 (3.72%) Roadmaps
14 247 (3.53%) CI/CD
15 229 (3.27%) Customer Experience
16 197 (2.82%) Content Writing
17 195 (2.79%) Computer Science
18 193 (2.76%) Data Science
Programming Languages
1 785 (11.22%) Python
2 625 (8.93%) SQL
3 118 (1.69%) JavaScript
4 98 (1.40%) Java
5 75 (1.07%) TypeScript
6 66 (0.94%) C#
7 50 (0.71%) PowerShell
8 37 (0.53%) C++
9 35 (0.50%) R
10 28 (0.40%) Bash
11 23 (0.33%) Apex Code
12 18 (0.26%) C
13 17 (0.24%) PL/SQL
13 17 (0.24%) Shell Script
14 16 (0.23%) T-SQL
15 15 (0.21%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 13 (0.19%) Rust
17 11 (0.16%) Go
18 10 (0.14%) Bicep
18 10 (0.14%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 5,054 (72.22%) Degree
2 4,209 (60.15%) Master's Degree
3 4,192 (59.90%) PhD
4 3,650 (52.16%) Postgraduate
5 392 (5.60%) Azure Certification
6 172 (2.46%) Security Cleared
7 143 (2.04%) SC Cleared
8 57 (0.81%) Computer Science Degree
9 42 (0.60%) AWS Certification
10 40 (0.57%) BPSS Clearance
11 30 (0.43%) DBS Check
12 25 (0.36%) DV Cleared
13 22 (0.31%) PMP
14 16 (0.23%) Six Sigma Green Belt
15 14 (0.20%) Microsoft Certification
16 10 (0.14%) ACCA
16 10 (0.14%) HNC
16 10 (0.14%) HND
17 7 (0.10%) MBA
18 6 (0.086%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 86 (1.23%) Accessibility
2 71 (1.01%) Data Quality
3 50 (0.71%) QA
4 42 (0.60%) GxP
5 34 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 32 (0.46%) GDPR
7 18 (0.26%) NIST
8 17 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
8 17 (0.24%) WCAG
9 15 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 14 (0.20%) PMO
11 11 (0.16%) PCI DSS
12 10 (0.14%) CDISC
12 10 (0.14%) HL7
13 9 (0.13%) EU AI Act
13 9 (0.13%) NCSC
14 8 (0.11%) GRC
15 7 (0.10%) Cyber Essentials
15 7 (0.10%) ISO 9001
15 7 (0.10%) JSP 440
System Software
1 58 (0.83%) Docker
2 31 (0.44%) Active Directory
3 20 (0.29%) Virtual Desktop
3 20 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
4 13 (0.19%) VMware Infrastructure
5 11 (0.16%) vSphere
6 4 (0.057%) Firmware
6 4 (0.057%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.043%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 3 (0.043%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.029%) Ceph
8 2 (0.029%) Kamailio
8 2 (0.029%) Lustre
8 2 (0.029%) RACF
Systems Management
1 96 (1.37%) Terraform
2 60 (0.86%) Kubernetes
3 35 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
4 26 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
5 14 (0.20%) Ansible
5 14 (0.20%) Cisco CUCM
6 8 (0.11%) SCCM
7 7 (0.10%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 6 (0.086%) Prometheus
9 5 (0.071%) Grafana
9 5 (0.071%) vCenter Server
10 4 (0.057%) Argo
10 4 (0.057%) Nessus
10 4 (0.057%) Nmap
10 4 (0.057%) Proxmox
11 3 (0.043%) Kubeflow
11 3 (0.043%) SolarWinds Orion
12 2 (0.029%) Control-M
12 2 (0.029%) HP Fortify
12 2 (0.029%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
Vendors
1 986 (14.09%) PayPal
2 845 (12.07%) Microsoft
3 79 (1.13%) Cisco
4 68 (0.97%) Oracle
5 63 (0.90%) Adobe
6 61 (0.87%) Dell
7 55 (0.79%) Databricks
8 46 (0.66%) Salesforce
9 38 (0.54%) Google
10 32 (0.46%) Blue Prism
11 27 (0.39%) Apple
12 23 (0.33%) VMware
13 20 (0.29%) HubSpot
14 19 (0.27%) OpenAI
15 18 (0.26%) SAP
16 14 (0.20%) Splunk
17 12 (0.17%) Fortinet
18 10 (0.14%) BT
18 10 (0.14%) Palo Alto
19 8 (0.11%) CrowdStrike