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

6 months to
23 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 16 42
Rank change year-on-year +9 +26 +129
Permanent jobs citing AI 6,546 2,743 3,426
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 9.76% 9.68% 4.93%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.76% 10.51% 5.95%
Number of salaries quoted 1,800 720 1,261
10th Percentile £33,750 £25,000 £35,000
25th Percentile £46,250 £36,813 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,000 £65,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.62% +8.33% -12.82%
75th Percentile £82,500 £75,000 £81,250
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,236 £95,000
UK median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £70,000
% change year-on-year +3.70% -3.57% -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 47,571 26,095 57,621
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.92% 92.08% 82.88%
Number of salaries quoted 30,777 12,800 41,153
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £27,167
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 £59,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +0.84% +8.18% -9.84%

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 23 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 23 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 +24 2,232 £67,500 +17.39% 670
Midlands +4 1,698 £52,500 -8.70% 247
North West +45 1,485 £72,500 +5.45% 404
West Midlands +7 1,363 £52,500 -8.70% 154
South East +6 1,193 £60,000 - 664
East of England +31 598 £60,000 -9.39% 179
Yorkshire +6 595 £65,000 +85.71% 181
South West +1 452 £60,000 +4.45% 227
East Midlands -8 346 £52,500 -8.70% 91
Scotland +5 212 £70,000 +55.56% 138
North East +5 152 £65,000 +30.65% 87
Wales +31 135 £53,171 -22.66% 41
Northern Ireland +16 61 £81,250 - 84
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 58 (0.89%) SharePoint
2 51 (0.78%) Jupyter
3 36 (0.55%) CMS
4 32 (0.49%) Apache Spark
5 31 (0.47%) Apache Airflow
6 26 (0.40%) Confluence
7 22 (0.34%) WordPress
8 17 (0.26%) Apache
9 10 (0.15%) Microsoft Exchange
10 7 (0.11%) 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%) Camunda
15 1 (0.015%) Moodle
15 1 (0.015%) SAS
15 1 (0.015%) Umbraco
Applications
1 1,153 (17.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 72 (1.10%) Chatbot
3 53 (0.81%) Microsoft Office
4 37 (0.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 16 (0.24%) 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%) Trello
11 2 (0.031%) Weka
12 1 (0.015%) Adobe Premiere
12 1 (0.015%) AutoCAD
12 1 (0.015%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 24 (0.37%) Cloudability
2 12 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.12%) NetSuite
3 8 (0.12%) SAP S/4HANA
4 6 (0.092%) Oracle ERP
4 6 (0.092%) Sage 50
5 4 (0.061%) Dynamics AX
6 3 (0.046%) Dynamics GP
6 3 (0.046%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
7 2 (0.031%) Oracle Assets
7 2 (0.031%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.031%) Salesforce CRM
8 1 (0.015%) Maximo
8 1 (0.015%) Oracle Cash Management
8 1 (0.015%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.015%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.015%) Primavera
8 1 (0.015%) Sage 200
8 1 (0.015%) SAP Business One
8 1 (0.015%) SAP EHS
Cloud Services
1 2,378 (36.33%) Cloud Computing
2 2,005 (30.63%) Azure
3 1,505 (22.99%) Azure AI
4 1,289 (19.69%) Power Platform
5 495 (7.56%) AWS
6 195 (2.98%) SaaS
7 155 (2.37%) GCP
8 133 (2.03%) Microsoft 365
9 128 (1.96%) Azure DevOps
10 118 (1.80%) GitHub
11 110 (1.68%) Adobe Analytics
12 93 (1.42%) Microsoft Copilot
13 79 (1.21%) Serverless
14 76 (1.16%) Snowflake
15 70 (1.07%) Figma
16 63 (0.96%) GitHub Copilot
17 52 (0.79%) Entra ID
18 47 (0.72%) Power Automate
19 41 (0.63%) Anthropic Claude
19 41 (0.63%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 2,326 (35.53%) Internet
2 179 (2.73%) 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 (0.24%) 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 (0.076%) BGP
13 5 (0.076%) Intranet
13 5 (0.076%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1,206 (18.42%) Power BI
2 1,139 (17.40%) Tableau
3 103 (1.57%) SQL Server
4 83 (1.27%) MongoDB
5 64 (0.98%) Azure SQL Database
6 54 (0.82%) Data Warehouse
7 47 (0.72%) Data Lake
8 46 (0.70%) Metadata
9 44 (0.67%) PostgreSQL
10 29 (0.44%) NoSQL
11 27 (0.41%) Big Data
12 26 (0.40%) Looker
13 25 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
14 21 (0.32%) Redis
15 19 (0.29%) BigQuery
15 19 (0.29%) Relational Database
16 15 (0.23%) MySQL
17 14 (0.21%) Amazon RDS
17 14 (0.21%) Amazon Redshift
18 12 (0.18%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 84 (1.28%) Git
2 52 (0.79%) Visual Studio Code
3 40 (0.61%) JIRA
4 26 (0.40%) GitLab
5 25 (0.38%) Jenkins
6 22 (0.34%) Snyk
7 19 (0.29%) Claude Code
7 19 (0.29%) MLflow
8 16 (0.24%) Selenium
9 14 (0.21%) JUnit
10 13 (0.20%) Postman
11 12 (0.18%) Cypress.io
12 10 (0.15%) Maven
12 10 (0.15%) Visual Studio
13 9 (0.14%) IBM UrbanCode
14 8 (0.12%) SpecFlow
15 6 (0.092%) Oracle Forms
16 5 (0.076%) Appium
16 5 (0.076%) Mockito
16 5 (0.076%) SonarQube
General
1 4,289 (65.52%) Social Skills
2 2,614 (39.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 2,391 (36.53%) Banking
4 516 (7.88%) Finance
5 329 (5.03%) Analytical Skills
6 269 (4.11%) Marketing
7 203 (3.10%) Games
8 160 (2.44%) Retail
9 123 (1.88%) Public Sector
10 121 (1.85%) Legal
11 109 (1.67%) Manufacturing
12 90 (1.37%) Law
13 59 (0.90%) Organisational Skills
14 58 (0.89%) Influencing Skills
15 46 (0.70%) Automotive
16 36 (0.55%) Electronics
17 26 (0.40%) Pharmaceutical
18 25 (0.38%) Telecoms
19 23 (0.35%) Advertising
19 23 (0.35%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 1,752 (26.76%) Lecturer
2 1,220 (18.64%) Analyst
3 1,097 (16.76%) Junior
4 1,094 (16.71%) Data Analyst
5 1,082 (16.53%) Junior Analyst
6 1,081 (16.51%) Junior Data Analyst
7 418 (6.39%) Senior
8 400 (6.11%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
9 361 (5.51%) Lead
10 316 (4.83%) Developer
11 195 (2.98%) Architect
12 159 (2.43%) Software Engineer
13 124 (1.89%) Data Engineer
14 76 (1.16%) Solutions Architect
15 70 (1.07%) .NET Developer
16 69 (1.05%) Consultant
17 66 (1.01%) Designer
18 64 (0.98%) Python Engineer
19 60 (0.92%) Software Developer
20 56 (0.86%) Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 189 (2.89%) .NET
2 136 (2.08%) React
3 96 (1.47%) CSS
3 96 (1.47%) HTML
4 83 (1.27%) REST
5 68 (1.04%) Node.js
6 67 (1.02%) scikit-learn
7 65 (0.99%) RESTful
8 64 (0.98%) ASP.NET
9 61 (0.93%) .NET Core
10 59 (0.90%) ASP.NET Core
10 59 (0.90%) Pandas
11 58 (0.89%) NumPy
12 53 (0.81%) AngularJS
12 53 (0.81%) Hugging Face
13 52 (0.79%) Matplotlib
14 50 (0.76%) Streamlit
15 49 (0.75%) ML.NET
16 43 (0.66%) TensorFlow
17 42 (0.64%) Blazor
Miscellaneous
1 2,338 (35.72%) IoT
2 161 (2.46%) Social Media
3 143 (2.18%) Cloud Native
4 115 (1.76%) Product Ownership
5 114 (1.74%) Robotics
6 102 (1.56%) Algorithms
7 99 (1.51%) Onboarding
8 69 (1.05%) Distributed Systems
9 65 (0.99%) AI Agents
10 64 (0.98%) Self-Motivation
11 60 (0.92%) Mobile App
12 58 (0.89%) Low-Code
13 57 (0.87%) Enterprise Software
14 54 (0.82%) Management Information System
15 51 (0.78%) Data Centre
16 48 (0.73%) Blog
16 48 (0.73%) Life Science
17 33 (0.50%) Virtual Team
18 32 (0.49%) Public Cloud
19 31 (0.47%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 70 (1.07%) Windows
2 61 (0.93%) Linux
3 48 (0.73%) Android
4 38 (0.58%) Apple iOS
5 28 (0.43%) Windows Server
6 11 (0.17%) VMS
7 5 (0.076%) Mac OS
7 5 (0.076%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.076%) Unix
7 5 (0.076%) 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 2,933 (44.81%) Machine Learning
2 2,531 (38.66%) Cybersecurity
3 2,482 (37.92%) User Experience
4 2,345 (35.82%) Web Development
5 1,253 (19.14%) Business Intelligence
6 610 (9.32%) Agile
7 585 (8.94%) Analytics
8 425 (6.49%) CI/CD
9 420 (6.42%) Roadmaps
10 392 (5.99%) Artificial Intelligence Engineering
11 387 (5.91%) Problem-Solving
12 383 (5.85%) Software Engineering
13 344 (5.26%) DevOps
14 330 (5.04%) Continuous Improvement
15 301 (4.60%) Decision-Making
16 273 (4.17%) Customer Experience
17 266 (4.06%) LLM
18 263 (4.02%) Mentoring
19 216 (3.30%) Data Science
20 203 (3.10%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 2,025 (30.93%) Python
2 1,398 (21.36%) SQL
3 193 (2.95%) C#
4 183 (2.80%) JavaScript
5 140 (2.14%) Java
6 91 (1.39%) TypeScript
7 62 (0.95%) C++
8 46 (0.70%) PowerShell
9 38 (0.58%) Bash
10 34 (0.52%) R
11 27 (0.41%) C
12 24 (0.37%) Go
13 16 (0.24%) Kotlin
14 15 (0.23%) PHP
15 14 (0.21%) T-SQL
16 13 (0.20%) Bicep
16 13 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 12 (0.18%) Rust
17 12 (0.18%) Scala
18 11 (0.17%) Apex Code
Qualifications
1 2,628 (40.15%) Degree
2 2,384 (36.42%) Master's Degree
3 2,354 (35.96%) PhD
4 2,320 (35.44%) Postgraduate
5 1,423 (21.74%) Azure Certification
6 156 (2.38%) Security Cleared
7 111 (1.70%) AWS Certification
8 94 (1.44%) SC Cleared
9 59 (0.90%) Computer Science Degree
9 59 (0.90%) DV Cleared
10 49 (0.75%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 48 (0.73%) ACCA
12 46 (0.70%) CIMA
13 45 (0.69%) DBS Check
14 27 (0.41%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 19 (0.29%) CISSP
16 10 (0.15%) BPSS Clearance
16 10 (0.15%) CISA
16 10 (0.15%) CISM
16 10 (0.15%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 201 (3.07%) Accessibility
2 138 (2.11%) Data Quality
3 91 (1.39%) QA
4 89 (1.36%) GDPR
5 51 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 46 (0.70%) WCAG
7 39 (0.60%) GRC
8 33 (0.50%) NIST
9 25 (0.38%) SLA
10 23 (0.35%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 17 (0.26%) PCI DSS
12 15 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
13 14 (0.21%) GxP
14 13 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 42001
15 11 (0.17%) IFRS
16 10 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
16 10 (0.15%) PMO
16 10 (0.15%) SOC 2
17 9 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
17 9 (0.14%) NCSC
System Software
1 129 (1.97%) Docker
2 51 (0.78%) Virtual Machines
3 41 (0.63%) Active Directory
4 16 (0.24%) Firmware
5 8 (0.12%) VMware Infrastructure
6 7 (0.11%) Embedded Firmware
7 6 (0.092%) vSphere
8 3 (0.046%) Kamailio
9 2 (0.031%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.015%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 132 (2.02%) Kubernetes
2 100 (1.53%) Terraform
3 27 (0.41%) Microsoft Intune
4 26 (0.40%) Grafana
5 23 (0.35%) Ansible
6 20 (0.31%) 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
10 6 (0.092%) Puppet
11 5 (0.076%) Functional Safety
11 5 (0.076%) Nagios
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%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 1,649 (25.19%) Microsoft
2 178 (2.72%) Adobe
3 104 (1.59%) Databricks
4 93 (1.42%) Google
5 73 (1.12%) Dell
6 62 (0.95%) Cisco
7 57 (0.87%) Salesforce
8 56 (0.86%) Apple
9 47 (0.72%) OpenAI
10 46 (0.70%) ServiceNow
11 44 (0.67%) Oracle
12 26 (0.40%) CrowdStrike
13 25 (0.38%) Tenable
14 24 (0.37%) HubSpot
15 23 (0.35%) SAP
16 22 (0.34%) Palo Alto
17 20 (0.31%) VMware
18 14 (0.21%) Sage
18 14 (0.21%) Splunk
19 11 (0.17%) Wrike