AI Job Trends

AI
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring AI skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 36 60
Rank change year-on-year +32 +24 +60
Permanent jobs citing AI 10,026 2,612 3,414
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 13.74% 5.96% 4.08%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 17.60% 6.36% 4.66%
Number of salaries quoted 2,546 1,382 1,840
10th Percentile £33,750 £37,500 £41,250
25th Percentile £51,250 £57,500 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £72,716 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.73% +3.88% -
75th Percentile £93,750 £98,750 £92,500
90th Percentile £111,250 £117,500 £115,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £58,498 £66,219 £60,000
% change year-on-year -11.66% +10.37% -7.69%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

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.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 56,972 41,045 73,238
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 78.05% 93.61% 87.51%
Number of salaries quoted 34,330 22,188 55,854
10th Percentile £29,750 £32,500 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.31%
75th Percentile £77,419 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £94,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -8.90%

AI
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing AI relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

AI job vacancy trend in the UK

AI
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing AI.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing AI

AI
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing AI over the 6 months to 11 March 2026.

Salary histogram for AI in the UK

AI
Top 18 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing AI within the UK over the 6 months to 11 March 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
England +32 9,188 £70,000 -6.67% 4,430
UK excluding London +34 7,185 £58,498 -11.66% 3,374
North of England +42 2,660 £60,000 -7.69% 696
Work from Home +31 2,494 £67,500 +1.88% 2,244
London +32 2,359 £81,500 -11.89% 1,097
North West +34 1,979 £61,418 -15.29% 334
Midlands +81 1,574 £55,000 -15.38% 399
South East +34 1,444 £50,000 -33.33% 1,072
West Midlands +71 1,278 £55,000 -12.00% 179
East of England +22 718 £55,000 -16.95% 535
Yorkshire +38 569 £57,500 +27.78% 286
South West +16 385 £62,500 -1.96% 422
East Midlands +61 307 £50,000 -23.08% 208
Scotland +22 279 £70,000 +55.56% 160
Wales +40 123 £47,500 -24.00% 103
North East +48 112 £55,000 -24.14% 79
Northern Ireland +3 60 £90,000 -10.00% 52
Channel Islands - 8 - -

AI
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 92 (0.92%) Apache Airflow
2 91 (0.91%) Apache Spark
3 88 (0.88%) SharePoint
4 62 (0.62%) Jupyter
5 53 (0.53%) Confluence
6 51 (0.51%) CMS
7 37 (0.37%) Apache
8 30 (0.30%) ArcGIS
9 27 (0.27%) Palantir Foundry
10 21 (0.21%) Microsoft Exchange
10 21 (0.21%) WordPress
11 17 (0.17%) Appian
12 13 (0.13%) JBoss
12 13 (0.13%) WebSphere
13 12 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 8 (0.080%) SAS
15 5 (0.050%) Apache Pulsar
15 5 (0.050%) Apache Solr
15 5 (0.050%) IIS
15 5 (0.050%) Umbraco
Applications
1 943 (9.41%) Chatbot
2 844 (8.42%) Microsoft Excel
3 85 (0.85%) Microsoft Office
4 47 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 22 (0.22%) MS Visio
6 19 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
7 15 (0.15%) UserZoom
8 11 (0.11%) Maya
9 6 (0.060%) Adobe Premiere
9 6 (0.060%) Microsoft Project
9 6 (0.060%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.050%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 5 (0.050%) Adobe Illustrator
11 4 (0.040%) Weka
12 3 (0.030%) Adobe After Effects
12 3 (0.030%) CapCut
12 3 (0.030%) Final Cut Pro
12 3 (0.030%) Sketch
13 2 (0.020%) Simulink
14 1 (0.010%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 38 (0.38%) Dynamics CRM
2 18 (0.18%) NetSuite
3 16 (0.16%) SAP S/4HANA
4 14 (0.14%) Oracle ERP
5 12 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
6 10 (0.100%) Workday HCM
7 8 (0.080%) Distributed Ledger
7 8 (0.080%) Endur
7 8 (0.080%) Shopify
8 7 (0.070%) Oracle EBS
8 7 (0.070%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.040%) Dynamics AX
9 4 (0.040%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 4 (0.040%) Oracle Receivables
9 4 (0.040%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
10 3 (0.030%) Oracle Assets
11 2 (0.020%) Dynamics GP
11 2 (0.020%) Integrated Workplace Management System
11 2 (0.020%) SAP Business One
11 2 (0.020%) SAP SCM
Cloud Services
1 4,147 (41.36%) Cloud Computing
2 1,763 (17.58%) Azure
3 1,124 (11.21%) Power Platform
4 819 (8.17%) Azure AI
5 771 (7.69%) AWS
6 447 (4.46%) SaaS
7 318 (3.17%) GCP
8 207 (2.06%) GitHub
9 192 (1.92%) Microsoft 365
10 174 (1.74%) Azure DevOps
11 136 (1.36%) Snowflake
12 114 (1.14%) Microsoft Copilot
13 113 (1.13%) Azure Data Factory
14 111 (1.11%) Adobe Analytics
15 109 (1.09%) Serverless
16 103 (1.03%) GitHub Copilot
17 102 (1.02%) Power Automate
18 99 (0.99%) Entra ID
19 81 (0.81%) Figma
20 73 (0.73%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 4,056 (40.45%) Internet
2 170 (1.70%) Broadband
3 54 (0.54%) Firewall
4 32 (0.32%) Unified Communications
5 30 (0.30%) Network Security
6 28 (0.28%) VPN
7 21 (0.21%) VoIP
8 20 (0.20%) WAN
9 19 (0.19%) TCP/IP
10 18 (0.18%) HTTP
11 16 (0.16%) DNS
12 14 (0.14%) Telepresence
12 14 (0.14%) WebEx
13 12 (0.12%) DHCP
13 12 (0.12%) VLAN
14 10 (0.100%) Wi-Fi
15 8 (0.080%) SD-WAN
16 7 (0.070%) Wireshark
17 6 (0.060%) DMZ
17 6 (0.060%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 981 (9.78%) Power BI
2 863 (8.61%) Tableau
3 160 (1.60%) Data Warehouse
4 115 (1.15%) Data Lake
5 102 (1.02%) SQL Server
6 90 (0.90%) Metadata
7 84 (0.84%) PostgreSQL
8 78 (0.78%) NoSQL
9 69 (0.69%) Big Data
9 69 (0.69%) MongoDB
10 49 (0.49%) BigQuery
11 40 (0.40%) Looker
12 39 (0.39%) Elasticsearch
13 37 (0.37%) MySQL
13 37 (0.37%) Pinecone
14 32 (0.32%) Apache Hive
14 32 (0.32%) GIS
14 32 (0.32%) Relational Database
15 30 (0.30%) Amazon Redshift
15 30 (0.30%) Redis
Development Applications
1 160 (1.60%) Git
2 101 (1.01%) JIRA
3 62 (0.62%) MLflow
4 55 (0.55%) Visual Studio Code
5 45 (0.45%) Jenkins
6 33 (0.33%) GitLab
7 25 (0.25%) IBM UrbanCode
8 21 (0.21%) Cypress.io
9 20 (0.20%) Selenium
10 18 (0.18%) Claude Code
11 15 (0.15%) TeamCity
12 14 (0.14%) Octopus Deploy
12 14 (0.14%) Postman
13 12 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
13 12 (0.12%) Visual Studio
14 10 (0.100%) Bitbucket
15 9 (0.090%) SpecFlow
15 9 (0.090%) Storybook
16 8 (0.080%) Subversion
16 8 (0.080%) Vite
General
1 5,908 (58.93%) Social Skills
2 4,477 (44.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 4,251 (42.40%) Banking
4 1,173 (11.70%) Finance
5 970 (9.67%) Analytical Skills
6 390 (3.89%) Marketing
7 310 (3.09%) Public Sector
8 300 (2.99%) Legal
9 259 (2.58%) Retail
10 256 (2.55%) Law
11 236 (2.35%) Games
12 172 (1.72%) Manufacturing
13 113 (1.13%) Presentation Skills
14 106 (1.06%) Telecoms
15 93 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
16 85 (0.85%) Financial Institution
17 83 (0.83%) Pharmaceutical
18 81 (0.81%) Organisational Skills
19 51 (0.51%) Electronics
20 48 (0.48%) German Language
Job Titles
1 3,161 (31.53%) Lecturer
2 938 (9.36%) Analyst
3 861 (8.59%) Trainer
4 787 (7.85%) Data Analyst
5 739 (7.37%) Junior
6 729 (7.27%) Senior
7 717 (7.15%) Junior Analyst
7 717 (7.15%) Junior Data Analyst
8 499 (4.98%) Lead
9 415 (4.14%) Developer
10 303 (3.02%) Architect
11 263 (2.62%) Consultant
12 187 (1.87%) Software Engineer
13 154 (1.54%) Data Engineer
14 137 (1.37%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
15 134 (1.34%) Solutions Architect
16 102 (1.02%) Content Editor
16 102 (1.02%) Data Scientist
17 92 (0.92%) Senior Manager
18 88 (0.88%) Research Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 237 (2.36%) React
2 172 (1.72%) PyTorch
3 161 (1.61%) .NET
4 154 (1.54%) REST
5 137 (1.37%) TensorFlow
6 119 (1.19%) Node.js
6 119 (1.19%) RESTful
7 114 (1.14%) HTML
8 111 (1.11%) scikit-learn
9 101 (1.01%) Pandas
10 95 (0.95%) LangChain
11 91 (0.91%) Hugging Face
12 88 (0.88%) CSS
13 85 (0.85%) Kafka
14 84 (0.84%) FastAPI
15 76 (0.76%) Django
16 74 (0.74%) NumPy
17 66 (0.66%) AngularJS
18 63 (0.63%) Spring
19 60 (0.60%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 4,082 (40.71%) IoT
2 283 (2.82%) Cloud Native
3 197 (1.96%) Onboarding
4 185 (1.85%) Algorithms
5 165 (1.65%) AI Agents
6 164 (1.64%) Product Ownership
7 161 (1.61%) Social Media
8 141 (1.41%) Robotics
9 139 (1.39%) Self-Motivation
10 128 (1.28%) Blog
11 101 (1.01%) Management Information System
12 100 (1.00%) Enterprise Software
13 99 (0.99%) Distributed Systems
14 91 (0.91%) Low-Code
15 89 (0.89%) Molecular Biology
16 87 (0.87%) Life Science
17 82 (0.82%) Mobile App
18 64 (0.64%) Public Cloud
19 61 (0.61%) Legacy Systems
20 60 (0.60%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 88 (0.88%) Linux
2 87 (0.87%) Android
2 87 (0.87%) Windows
3 60 (0.60%) Unix
4 57 (0.57%) Apple iOS
5 29 (0.29%) Windows Server
6 17 (0.17%) Ubuntu
7 9 (0.090%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.050%) VMS
9 4 (0.040%) Kali Linux
9 4 (0.040%) Robot Operating System
9 4 (0.040%) Windows Server 2016
10 3 (0.030%) OpenWrt
11 2 (0.020%) Mac OS X
11 2 (0.020%) zOS
12 1 (0.010%) FreeRTOS
12 1 (0.010%) Solaris
12 1 (0.010%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 5,097 (50.84%) Machine Learning
2 4,322 (43.11%) User Experience
3 4,320 (43.09%) Cybersecurity
4 4,071 (40.60%) Web Development
5 1,181 (11.78%) Analytics
6 1,130 (11.27%) Business Intelligence
7 1,001 (9.98%) Conversational UI
8 945 (9.43%) Agile
9 718 (7.16%) Problem-Solving
10 701 (6.99%) Roadmaps
11 642 (6.40%) CI/CD
12 600 (5.98%) Decision-Making
13 585 (5.83%) Continuous Improvement
14 571 (5.70%) Software Engineering
15 546 (5.45%) DevOps
16 523 (5.22%) Data Science
17 519 (5.18%) LLM
18 507 (5.06%) Generative AI
19 458 (4.57%) Mentoring
20 411 (4.10%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 1,918 (19.13%) Python
2 1,315 (13.12%) SQL
3 243 (2.42%) JavaScript
4 239 (2.38%) Java
5 229 (2.28%) TypeScript
6 166 (1.66%) C#
7 84 (0.84%) C++
8 73 (0.73%) PowerShell
9 66 (0.66%) Bash
9 66 (0.66%) Go
10 55 (0.55%) R
11 40 (0.40%) Kotlin
12 37 (0.37%) PHP
13 33 (0.33%) Rust
14 27 (0.27%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 25 (0.25%) Scala
16 22 (0.22%) Apex Code
17 20 (0.20%) C
18 17 (0.17%) Swift
19 15 (0.15%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 5,724 (57.09%) Degree
2 4,691 (46.79%) Master's Degree
3 4,636 (46.24%) PhD
4 4,052 (40.41%) Postgraduate
5 772 (7.70%) Azure Certification
6 320 (3.19%) Security Cleared
7 228 (2.27%) SC Cleared
8 189 (1.89%) Computer Science Degree
9 114 (1.14%) AWS Certification
10 92 (0.92%) DV Cleared
11 70 (0.70%) DBS Check
12 51 (0.51%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 51 (0.51%) PMP
13 50 (0.50%) CISSP
14 45 (0.45%) ACCA
15 40 (0.40%) Microsoft Certification
16 39 (0.39%) BPSS Clearance
17 36 (0.36%) PMI Certification
18 33 (0.33%) Cisco Certification
19 31 (0.31%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 287 (2.86%) Accessibility
2 247 (2.46%) Data Quality
3 153 (1.53%) QA
4 140 (1.40%) GDPR
5 72 (0.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 48 (0.48%) WCAG
7 45 (0.45%) EU AI Act
8 37 (0.37%) HIPAA
8 37 (0.37%) IFRS
9 36 (0.36%) NIST
10 33 (0.33%) GRC
11 31 (0.31%) GxP
12 24 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
12 24 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
13 23 (0.23%) PMO
14 22 (0.22%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 22 (0.22%) Solvency II
15 21 (0.21%) PSD2
15 21 (0.21%) SLA
16 17 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 255 (2.54%) Docker
2 80 (0.80%) Active Directory
3 15 (0.15%) Firmware
3 15 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
4 14 (0.14%) VMware Infrastructure
5 11 (0.11%) Virtual Desktop
6 10 (0.100%) vSphere
7 4 (0.040%) Lustre
7 4 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 3 (0.030%) Kamailio
8 3 (0.030%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.020%) Ceph
9 2 (0.020%) GPFS
9 2 (0.020%) RACF
10 1 (0.010%) Hyper-V
10 1 (0.010%) NFS
10 1 (0.010%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 245 (2.44%) Kubernetes
2 216 (2.15%) Terraform
3 58 (0.58%) Ansible
4 42 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
5 40 (0.40%) Prometheus
6 37 (0.37%) Grafana
7 36 (0.36%) Microsoft Intune
8 14 (0.14%) Cisco CUCM
9 9 (0.090%) Argo
10 7 (0.070%) Proxmox
10 7 (0.070%) vCenter Server
11 5 (0.050%) Kubeflow
12 4 (0.040%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 4 (0.040%) Control-M
12 4 (0.040%) RSA Archer
12 4 (0.040%) SolarWinds Orion
13 3 (0.030%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
13 3 (0.030%) HP Fortify
13 3 (0.030%) Nessus
13 3 (0.030%) Nmap
Vendors
1 1,516 (15.12%) Microsoft
2 856 (8.54%) PayPal
3 201 (2.00%) Databricks
4 187 (1.87%) Google
5 164 (1.64%) Adobe
6 116 (1.16%) Dell
7 113 (1.13%) OpenAI
8 109 (1.09%) Oracle
9 91 (0.91%) Salesforce
10 86 (0.86%) Cisco
11 70 (0.70%) SAP
12 53 (0.53%) Foundry
13 52 (0.52%) Palantir
14 47 (0.47%) Alteryx
15 43 (0.43%) ServiceNow
16 34 (0.34%) Bloomberg
17 32 (0.32%) Red Hat
18 31 (0.31%) Apple
18 31 (0.31%) Fortinet
19 30 (0.30%) Informatica