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

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 56 74
Rank change year-on-year +53 +18 +87
Permanent jobs citing AI 6,810 1,533 1,317
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 16.06% 4.27% 3.82%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 20.46% 4.79% 4.31%
Number of salaries quoted 925 697 729
10th Percentile £24,570 £42,500 £36,250
25th Percentile £38,750 £52,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £70,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +7.69% +4.69%
75th Percentile £82,500 £85,000 £84,056
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £96,689
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 33,283 31,985 30,588
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 78.49% 89.04% 88.64%
Number of salaries quoted 19,187 14,363 22,780
10th Percentile £27,750 £31,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £33,500 £41,250 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £52,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +5.77% -5.45%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £66,250
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 14 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 14 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 +55 2,543 £62,500 -10.71% 636
North West +42 1,979 £60,709 -13.27% 283
Midlands +103 1,502 £60,000 -7.69% 385
South East +29 1,390 £50,000 -33.33% 1,303
West Midlands +91 1,245 £65,000 +13.04% 148
East of England +88 620 £50,000 -35.06% 538
Yorkshire +56 459 £72,500 +11.54% 255
Scotland +48 346 £67,500 +13.45% 135
South West +35 325 £62,500 - 451
East Midlands +82 267 £42,500 -44.81% 227
Wales +41 118 £55,000 -12.00% 185
North East +58 105 £55,000 -27.63% 100
Northern Ireland -6 41 £86,250 -2.82% 82
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 50 (0.73%) SharePoint
2 23 (0.34%) Confluence
3 20 (0.29%) CMS
4 17 (0.25%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 14 (0.21%) Microsoft Exchange
6 12 (0.18%) WordPress
7 10 (0.15%) Apache Spark
8 9 (0.13%) Apache
9 8 (0.12%) Apache Airflow
10 6 (0.088%) Apache Solr
11 5 (0.073%) IIS
11 5 (0.073%) Umbraco
12 3 (0.044%) Drupal
12 3 (0.044%) Joomla!
13 2 (0.029%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
13 2 (0.029%) CICS
13 2 (0.029%) JBoss
13 2 (0.029%) Kinematics
13 2 (0.029%) Mendix
13 2 (0.029%) WebSphere
Applications
1 1,012 (14.86%) Chatbot
2 368 (5.40%) Microsoft Excel
3 66 (0.97%) Microsoft Office
4 25 (0.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.088%) Photoshop
6 5 (0.073%) Spreadsheet
7 4 (0.059%) Adobe Premiere
7 4 (0.059%) InDesign
7 4 (0.059%) 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 (53.67%) Cloud Computing
2 714 (10.48%) Azure
3 484 (7.11%) Power Platform
4 297 (4.36%) Azure AI
5 234 (3.44%) AWS
6 167 (2.45%) SaaS
7 137 (2.01%) Azure DevOps
8 102 (1.50%) GitHub
9 98 (1.44%) Microsoft 365
10 87 (1.28%) GitHub Copilot
11 79 (1.16%) GCP
12 59 (0.87%) Snowflake
13 49 (0.72%) Entra ID
14 44 (0.65%) Azure Data Factory
15 42 (0.62%) Power Automate
16 39 (0.57%) Microsoft Copilot
17 34 (0.50%) dbt
18 28 (0.41%) Serverless
19 26 (0.38%) PowerApps
20 25 (0.37%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 3,656 (53.69%) Internet
2 22 (0.32%) Unified Communications
3 21 (0.31%) VoIP
4 16 (0.23%) Firewall
5 14 (0.21%) Telepresence
5 14 (0.21%) WebEx
6 13 (0.19%) Network Security
7 9 (0.13%) Broadband
8 8 (0.12%) VPN
9 6 (0.088%) DMZ
9 6 (0.088%) DNS
9 6 (0.088%) Intranet
9 6 (0.088%) SAN
10 5 (0.073%) Bluetooth
10 5 (0.073%) Modbus
10 5 (0.073%) TCP/IP
11 4 (0.059%) HTTP
11 4 (0.059%) WAN
11 4 (0.059%) Wi-Fi
11 4 (0.059%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 404 (5.93%) Power BI
2 336 (4.93%) Tableau
3 63 (0.93%) SQL Server
4 62 (0.91%) Data Warehouse
5 38 (0.56%) MongoDB
6 36 (0.53%) Metadata
7 33 (0.48%) NoSQL
8 32 (0.47%) Data Lake
9 25 (0.37%) Big Data
9 25 (0.37%) MySQL
10 20 (0.29%) Azure SQL Database
10 20 (0.29%) PostgreSQL
11 18 (0.26%) Snowflake Schema
12 17 (0.25%) Data Mining
12 17 (0.25%) Hadoop
13 14 (0.21%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 13 (0.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 10 (0.15%) Looker
16 9 (0.13%) Elasticsearch
16 9 (0.13%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 74 (1.09%) JIRA
2 54 (0.79%) 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 (0.088%) JUnit
7 6 (0.088%) Selenium
8 5 (0.073%) Burp Suite
8 5 (0.073%) GitBook
9 4 (0.059%) Metasploit
9 4 (0.059%) 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 4,522 (66.40%) Social Skills
2 3,925 (57.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 3,682 (54.07%) Banking
4 755 (11.09%) Analytical Skills
5 516 (7.58%) Finance
6 234 (3.44%) Marketing
7 129 (1.89%) Public Sector
8 99 (1.45%) Retail
9 85 (1.25%) Law
10 82 (1.20%) Legal
11 51 (0.75%) Pharmaceutical
12 43 (0.63%) Aviation
13 42 (0.62%) Manufacturing
14 41 (0.60%) Presentation Skills
15 35 (0.51%) Electronics
16 34 (0.50%) Aeronautics
17 33 (0.48%) Aerospace
18 31 (0.46%) Games
18 31 (0.46%) Organisational Skills
19 30 (0.44%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 2,834 (41.62%) Lecturer
2 996 (14.63%) Trainer
3 356 (5.23%) Analyst
4 288 (4.23%) Data Analyst
5 277 (4.07%) Junior
6 270 (3.96%) Junior Analyst
6 270 (3.96%) Junior Data Analyst
7 201 (2.95%) Senior
8 173 (2.54%) Developer
9 157 (2.31%) Lead
10 142 (2.09%) Content Editor
11 100 (1.47%) Architect
12 90 (1.32%) Customer Support Specialist
12 90 (1.32%) Support Specialist
13 79 (1.16%) Research Scientist
14 75 (1.10%) Software Engineer
15 68 (1.00%) Business Manager
16 65 (0.95%) Innovation Manager
17 59 (0.87%) Data Engineer
18 57 (0.84%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 100 (1.47%) .NET
2 74 (1.09%) React
3 58 (0.85%) REST
4 53 (0.78%) RESTful
5 52 (0.76%) HTML
6 34 (0.50%) Node.js
7 32 (0.47%) AngularJS
8 30 (0.44%) CSS
9 29 (0.43%) TensorFlow
10 28 (0.41%) SOAP
11 27 (0.40%) XML
12 26 (0.38%) JSON
12 26 (0.38%) PyTorch
12 26 (0.38%) Vue
13 23 (0.34%) Blazor
14 22 (0.32%) Lightning Web Components
14 22 (0.32%) Regular Expression
15 21 (0.31%) Spring
16 19 (0.28%) OAuth
16 19 (0.28%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 3,670 (53.89%) IoT
2 128 (1.88%) Cloud Native
3 112 (1.64%) Robotics
4 105 (1.54%) Product Ownership
5 97 (1.42%) Onboarding
6 89 (1.31%) Molecular Biology
7 85 (1.25%) Blog
8 66 (0.97%) Life Science
9 52 (0.76%) AI Agents
10 51 (0.75%) Enterprise Software
11 49 (0.72%) Algorithms
12 48 (0.70%) Analytical Mindset
13 46 (0.68%) Self-Motivation
14 37 (0.54%) Greenfield Project
14 37 (0.54%) Low-Code
15 33 (0.48%) Virtual Team
16 31 (0.46%) Data Centre
17 25 (0.37%) Linux Command Line
18 22 (0.32%) Management Information System
18 22 (0.32%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 45 (0.66%) Windows
2 31 (0.46%) Linux
3 23 (0.34%) Unix
4 16 (0.23%) Windows Server
5 13 (0.19%) Android
6 8 (0.12%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.073%) Ubuntu
8 4 (0.059%) Kali Linux
9 2 (0.029%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.029%) Mac OS X
9 2 (0.029%) zOS
10 1 (0.015%) Debian
10 1 (0.015%) OpenWrt
10 1 (0.015%) Robot Operating System
10 1 (0.015%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 4,088 (60.03%) Machine Learning
2 3,790 (55.65%) Cybersecurity
3 3,765 (55.29%) User Experience
4 3,656 (53.69%) Web Development
5 1,015 (14.90%) Conversational UI
6 453 (6.65%) Analytics
7 449 (6.59%) Agile
8 431 (6.33%) Business Intelligence
9 353 (5.18%) Chemistry
10 343 (5.04%) Continuous Improvement
11 288 (4.23%) Problem-Solving
12 283 (4.16%) Decision-Making
13 274 (4.02%) DevOps
14 269 (3.95%) Software Engineering
15 252 (3.70%) Roadmaps
16 229 (3.36%) Customer Experience
17 225 (3.30%) CI/CD
18 197 (2.89%) Content Writing
19 186 (2.73%) Coaching
20 185 (2.72%) Data Science
Programming Languages
1 657 (9.65%) Python
2 523 (7.68%) SQL
3 109 (1.60%) JavaScript
4 95 (1.40%) Java
5 76 (1.12%) TypeScript
6 62 (0.91%) C#
7 49 (0.72%) PowerShell
8 36 (0.53%) C++
8 36 (0.53%) R
9 24 (0.35%) Bash
10 22 (0.32%) Apex Code
11 19 (0.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 17 (0.25%) C
12 17 (0.25%) PL/SQL
12 17 (0.25%) Shell Script
13 16 (0.23%) T-SQL
14 11 (0.16%) Rust
15 10 (0.15%) Bicep
15 10 (0.15%) MATLAB
16 7 (0.10%) PHP
Qualifications
1 5,053 (74.20%) Degree
2 4,220 (61.97%) Master's Degree
3 4,202 (61.70%) PhD
4 3,650 (53.60%) Postgraduate
5 280 (4.11%) Azure Certification
6 167 (2.45%) Security Cleared
7 143 (2.10%) SC Cleared
8 54 (0.79%) Computer Science Degree
9 40 (0.59%) BPSS Clearance
10 30 (0.44%) AWS Certification
11 23 (0.34%) DV Cleared
12 22 (0.32%) PMP
13 21 (0.31%) DBS Check
14 17 (0.25%) Six Sigma Green Belt
15 13 (0.19%) HNC
16 12 (0.18%) HND
17 11 (0.16%) ACCA
17 11 (0.16%) Microsoft Certification
18 8 (0.12%) MBA
19 6 (0.088%) Six Sigma Black Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (1.06%) Data Quality
2 61 (0.90%) Accessibility
3 44 (0.65%) QA
4 42 (0.62%) GxP
5 29 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 25 (0.37%) GDPR
7 18 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
8 16 (0.23%) NIST
9 14 (0.21%) PMO
10 13 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 12 (0.18%) WCAG
12 11 (0.16%) SLA
13 10 (0.15%) CDISC
13 10 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials
13 10 (0.15%) HL7
14 8 (0.12%) EU AI Act
14 8 (0.12%) NCSC
14 8 (0.12%) PCI DSS
15 7 (0.10%) ISO 9001
16 6 (0.088%) JSP 440
System Software
1 68 (1.00%) Docker
2 27 (0.40%) Active Directory
3 21 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
4 17 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
5 11 (0.16%) VMware Infrastructure
6 8 (0.12%) vSphere
7 5 (0.073%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.059%) 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
Systems Management
1 92 (1.35%) Terraform
2 55 (0.81%) Kubernetes
3 37 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
4 26 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
5 14 (0.21%) Cisco CUCM
6 10 (0.15%) Ansible
7 8 (0.12%) SCCM
8 4 (0.059%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 4 (0.059%) Nessus
8 4 (0.059%) Nmap
9 3 (0.044%) Prometheus
10 2 (0.029%) Argo
10 2 (0.029%) Control-M
10 2 (0.029%) HP Fortify
10 2 (0.029%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
10 2 (0.029%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.015%) Functional Safety
11 1 (0.015%) Jamf Pro
11 1 (0.015%) Kubeflow
11 1 (0.015%) Kustomize
Vendors
1 996 (14.63%) PayPal
2 727 (10.68%) Microsoft
3 82 (1.20%) Cisco
4 68 (1.00%) Oracle
5 61 (0.90%) Dell
6 57 (0.84%) Adobe
7 51 (0.75%) Databricks
8 47 (0.69%) Salesforce
9 38 (0.56%) Apple
10 37 (0.54%) Google
11 32 (0.47%) Blue Prism
12 24 (0.35%) HubSpot
13 20 (0.29%) OpenAI
13 20 (0.29%) Palo Alto
14 19 (0.28%) SAP
15 17 (0.25%) VMware
16 14 (0.21%) Splunk
17 9 (0.13%) ServiceNow
18 8 (0.12%) Foundry
18 8 (0.12%) New Relic