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

6 months to
4 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 52 67
Rank change year-on-year +48 +15 +49
Permanent jobs citing AI 9,451 2,614 2,245
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 16.01% 4.80% 4.26%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 19.60% 5.33% 4.67%
Number of salaries quoted 2,102 1,289 1,254
10th Percentile £33,050 £45,000 £42,500
25th Percentile £50,875 £57,500 £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £72,500 £77,000 £75,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.84% +2.67% +7.14%
75th Percentile £95,000 £98,250 £92,500
90th Percentile £120,000 £118,750 £120,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £70,000 £67,500
% change year-on-year -14.29% +3.70% +9.76%

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 48,217 49,041 48,085
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 81.67% 90.12% 91.17%
Number of salaries quoted 28,251 24,093 36,700
10th Percentile £28,456 £35,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,750 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £79,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -9.09% +4.76% -4.55%

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 4 January 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 4 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
England +48 8,583 £72,500 -6.45% 4,796
UK excluding London +54 6,894 £60,000 -14.29% 3,729
Work from Home +62 2,760 £67,500 -10.00% 2,531
North of England +58 2,570 £62,500 -10.07% 717
London +31 2,146 £80,000 -11.11% 1,630
North West +38 1,993 £62,500 -10.07% 336
Midlands +106 1,524 £62,500 -3.85% 570
South East +28 1,395 £52,500 -30.00% 1,231
West Midlands +96 1,261 £65,000 +13.04% 312
East of England +84 626 £47,500 -38.31% 558
Yorkshire +55 470 £73,750 +13.46% 311
Scotland +47 382 £70,000 +17.65% 161
South West +36 318 £60,000 -4.00% 419
East Midlands +88 273 £43,750 -43.18% 226
Wales +38 119 £55,000 -12.00% 94
North East +57 107 £55,000 -27.63% 73
Northern Ireland -7 37 £86,250 -2.82% 47
Channel Islands - 8 - - 1

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 93 (0.98%) SharePoint
2 55 (0.58%) Apache Airflow
3 51 (0.54%) Apache Spark
3 51 (0.54%) Confluence
4 43 (0.45%) CMS
5 21 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
6 20 (0.21%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 16 (0.17%) Apache
8 15 (0.16%) WordPress
9 13 (0.14%) Appian
10 12 (0.13%) Apache Solr
11 10 (0.11%) JBoss
11 10 (0.11%) WebSphere
12 7 (0.074%) Jupyter
13 5 (0.053%) Apache Pulsar
13 5 (0.053%) ArcGIS
13 5 (0.053%) IIS
13 5 (0.053%) nginx
13 5 (0.053%) Umbraco
14 4 (0.042%) Drupal
Applications
1 1,268 (13.42%) Chatbot
2 431 (4.56%) Microsoft Excel
3 103 (1.09%) Microsoft Office
4 45 (0.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 21 (0.22%) Maya
6 11 (0.12%) Sketch
7 9 (0.095%) Spreadsheet
8 7 (0.074%) Adobe Premiere
8 7 (0.074%) MS Visio
8 7 (0.074%) Notion
9 6 (0.063%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.063%) Adobe XD
9 6 (0.063%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.053%) Microsoft Project
11 4 (0.042%) InDesign
11 4 (0.042%) Weka
12 3 (0.032%) Final Cut Pro
12 3 (0.032%) Simulink
13 2 (0.021%) S-PLUS
14 1 (0.011%) Adobe Illustrator
Business Applications
1 51 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
2 20 (0.21%) Oracle ERP
3 18 (0.19%) NetSuite
4 12 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
5 11 (0.12%) SAP S/4HANA
5 11 (0.12%) Shopify
6 8 (0.085%) Endur
6 8 (0.085%) Workday HCM
7 7 (0.074%) Oracle EBS
8 6 (0.063%) Distributed Ledger
9 5 (0.053%) Elite 3E
9 5 (0.053%) Salesforce CRM
10 4 (0.042%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
10 4 (0.042%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.032%) Oracle Assets
11 3 (0.032%) SAP Business One
12 2 (0.021%) Dynamics GP
12 2 (0.021%) SAP CO
12 2 (0.021%) SAP ERP
12 2 (0.021%) SAP SCM
Cloud Services
1 4,097 (43.35%) Cloud Computing
2 1,328 (14.05%) Azure
3 695 (7.35%) AWS
4 691 (7.31%) Power Platform
5 407 (4.31%) SaaS
6 389 (4.12%) Azure AI
7 333 (3.52%) GCP
8 219 (2.32%) GitHub
9 209 (2.21%) Azure DevOps
10 175 (1.85%) Microsoft 365
11 116 (1.23%) Snowflake
12 114 (1.21%) GitHub Copilot
13 99 (1.05%) Serverless
14 98 (1.04%) Microsoft Copilot
15 97 (1.03%) Azure Data Factory
16 87 (0.92%) Entra ID
17 84 (0.89%) Power Automate
18 74 (0.78%) Vertex AI
19 66 (0.70%) Azure Synapse Analytics
20 61 (0.65%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 4,061 (42.97%) Internet
2 30 (0.32%) Firewall
3 24 (0.25%) Network Security
3 24 (0.25%) VoIP
4 21 (0.22%) Broadband
5 20 (0.21%) Unified Communications
6 17 (0.18%) VPN
7 15 (0.16%) WAN
8 14 (0.15%) DNS
8 14 (0.15%) Telepresence
8 14 (0.15%) WebEx
8 14 (0.15%) Wi-Fi
9 13 (0.14%) HTTP
10 11 (0.12%) TCP/IP
10 11 (0.12%) Wireless
11 9 (0.095%) VLAN
12 8 (0.085%) InfiniBand
12 8 (0.085%) LAN
13 7 (0.074%) DHCP
13 7 (0.074%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 546 (5.78%) Power BI
2 407 (4.31%) Tableau
3 167 (1.77%) Data Warehouse
4 112 (1.19%) NoSQL
5 108 (1.14%) SQL Server
6 103 (1.09%) Data Lake
7 81 (0.86%) PostgreSQL
8 76 (0.80%) MongoDB
9 70 (0.74%) Big Data
9 70 (0.74%) Metadata
10 53 (0.56%) MySQL
11 38 (0.40%) BigQuery
12 35 (0.37%) Relational Database
13 34 (0.36%) Hadoop
14 30 (0.32%) Elasticsearch
14 30 (0.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 28 (0.30%) Looker
15 28 (0.30%) Pinecone
16 26 (0.28%) Azure SQL Database
17 22 (0.23%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 130 (1.38%) Git
2 126 (1.33%) JIRA
3 51 (0.54%) Jenkins
4 44 (0.47%) MLflow
5 24 (0.25%) GitLab
6 22 (0.23%) Octopus Deploy
6 22 (0.23%) TeamCity
7 18 (0.19%) Oracle Forms
8 15 (0.16%) Cypress.io
9 12 (0.13%) Visual Studio
10 11 (0.12%) Selenium
11 10 (0.11%) Bitbucket
12 8 (0.085%) Subversion
13 7 (0.074%) Burp Suite
13 7 (0.074%) Vite
13 7 (0.074%) WebDriver
14 6 (0.063%) ERwin
14 6 (0.063%) JUnit
14 6 (0.063%) Postman
14 6 (0.063%) Storybook
General
1 5,555 (58.78%) Social Skills
2 4,499 (47.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 4,209 (44.53%) Banking
4 1,166 (12.34%) Analytical Skills
5 1,082 (11.45%) Finance
6 401 (4.24%) Marketing
7 292 (3.09%) Law
8 275 (2.91%) Public Sector
9 248 (2.62%) Legal
10 200 (2.12%) Retail
11 118 (1.25%) Games
12 110 (1.16%) Telecoms
13 107 (1.13%) Manufacturing
14 97 (1.03%) Presentation Skills
15 94 (0.99%) Pharmaceutical
16 72 (0.76%) Influencing Skills
17 71 (0.75%) Organisational Skills
18 70 (0.74%) Financial Institution
19 67 (0.71%) Aviation
20 65 (0.69%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 3,157 (33.40%) Lecturer
2 1,227 (12.98%) Trainer
3 654 (6.92%) Senior
4 485 (5.13%) Analyst
5 384 (4.06%) Developer
6 355 (3.76%) Lead
7 351 (3.71%) Data Analyst
8 302 (3.20%) Junior
9 294 (3.11%) Architect
10 276 (2.92%) Junior Analyst
10 276 (2.92%) Junior Data Analyst
11 209 (2.21%) Consultant
12 167 (1.77%) Software Engineer
13 155 (1.64%) Content Editor
14 132 (1.40%) Data Engineer
15 126 (1.33%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
16 106 (1.12%) Support Specialist
17 105 (1.11%) Solutions Architect
18 98 (1.04%) Customer Support Specialist
19 97 (1.03%) Innovation Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 223 (2.36%) React
2 173 (1.83%) .NET
3 165 (1.75%) REST
4 126 (1.33%) PyTorch
5 117 (1.24%) Node.js
5 117 (1.24%) TensorFlow
6 107 (1.13%) RESTful
7 102 (1.08%) LangChain
8 95 (1.01%) HTML
9 82 (0.87%) FastAPI
10 70 (0.74%) Kafka
11 68 (0.72%) Django
12 67 (0.71%) AngularJS
12 67 (0.71%) CSS
13 59 (0.62%) scikit-learn
14 55 (0.58%) Flask
14 55 (0.58%) Vue
15 49 (0.52%) Hugging Face
16 48 (0.51%) Pandas
17 47 (0.50%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 4,074 (43.11%) IoT
2 259 (2.74%) Cloud Native
3 181 (1.92%) Product Ownership
4 180 (1.90%) Onboarding
5 150 (1.59%) Robotics
6 144 (1.52%) AI Agents
7 131 (1.39%) Algorithms
8 125 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
9 123 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
10 109 (1.15%) Blog
11 97 (1.03%) Molecular Biology
12 92 (0.97%) Management Information System
13 89 (0.94%) Legacy Systems
13 89 (0.94%) Life Science
14 85 (0.90%) Distributed Systems
14 85 (0.90%) Low-Code
15 77 (0.81%) Analytical Mindset
16 72 (0.76%) Greenfield Project
17 66 (0.70%) Virtual Team
18 59 (0.62%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 77 (0.81%) Windows
2 70 (0.74%) Linux
3 62 (0.66%) Android
4 51 (0.54%) Unix
5 43 (0.45%) Apple iOS
6 33 (0.35%) Windows Server
7 11 (0.12%) Mac OS
7 11 (0.12%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.053%) Kali Linux
9 3 (0.032%) OpenWrt
10 2 (0.021%) Mac OS X
10 2 (0.021%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.021%) zOS
11 1 (0.011%) Debian
11 1 (0.011%) OpenVMS
11 1 (0.011%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.011%) Robot Operating System
11 1 (0.011%) Solaris
11 1 (0.011%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 5,023 (53.15%) Machine Learning
2 4,338 (45.90%) Cybersecurity
3 4,307 (45.57%) User Experience
4 4,068 (43.04%) Web Development
5 1,319 (13.96%) Conversational UI
6 992 (10.50%) Analytics
7 877 (9.28%) Agile
8 742 (7.85%) Problem-Solving
9 677 (7.16%) Business Intelligence
10 604 (6.39%) Roadmaps
11 593 (6.27%) Continuous Improvement
12 578 (6.12%) Decision-Making
13 568 (6.01%) DevOps
14 540 (5.71%) Software Engineering
15 539 (5.70%) CI/CD
16 460 (4.87%) Data Science
17 443 (4.69%) Generative AI
18 429 (4.54%) LLM
19 427 (4.52%) Chemistry
20 426 (4.51%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 1,262 (13.35%) Python
2 869 (9.19%) SQL
3 238 (2.52%) JavaScript
4 232 (2.45%) TypeScript
5 184 (1.95%) Java
6 139 (1.47%) C#
7 83 (0.88%) PowerShell
8 70 (0.74%) C++
9 59 (0.62%) R
10 58 (0.61%) Bash
11 49 (0.52%) Go
12 32 (0.34%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 32 (0.34%) PHP
13 29 (0.31%) Kotlin
14 28 (0.30%) Rust
14 28 (0.30%) Scala
15 23 (0.24%) Apex Code
16 22 (0.23%) Bicep
17 21 (0.22%) T-SQL
18 20 (0.21%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 6,157 (65.15%) Degree
2 4,866 (51.49%) Master's Degree
3 4,781 (50.59%) PhD
4 4,049 (42.84%) Postgraduate
5 316 (3.34%) Azure Certification
6 291 (3.08%) Security Cleared
7 243 (2.57%) SC Cleared
8 208 (2.20%) Computer Science Degree
9 68 (0.72%) DV Cleared
10 56 (0.59%) AWS Certification
11 50 (0.53%) DBS Check
12 48 (0.51%) BPSS Clearance
13 46 (0.49%) PMP
14 39 (0.41%) CISSP
15 38 (0.40%) Microsoft Certification
16 34 (0.36%) ACCA
17 32 (0.34%) Numerate Degree
18 30 (0.32%) PMI Certification
19 26 (0.28%) Cisco Certification
19 26 (0.28%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 219 (2.32%) Data Quality
2 124 (1.31%) QA
3 121 (1.28%) Accessibility
4 101 (1.07%) GDPR
5 67 (0.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 38 (0.40%) EU AI Act
6 38 (0.40%) GxP
7 31 (0.33%) SLA
8 29 (0.31%) NIST
9 27 (0.29%) IFRS
10 25 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
11 24 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
12 23 (0.24%) HIPAA
13 22 (0.23%) Solvency II
14 21 (0.22%) GAAP
14 21 (0.22%) PSD2
15 18 (0.19%) PMO
15 18 (0.19%) WCAG
16 16 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 42001
17 15 (0.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 237 (2.51%) Docker
2 58 (0.61%) Active Directory
3 22 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
4 18 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
4 18 (0.19%) VMware Infrastructure
5 14 (0.15%) Firmware
6 11 (0.12%) vSphere
7 9 (0.095%) Hyper-V
8 7 (0.074%) Lustre
9 5 (0.053%) GPFS
9 5 (0.053%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 4 (0.042%) VMware ESXi
11 2 (0.021%) Ceph
11 2 (0.021%) NFS
11 2 (0.021%) RACF
12 1 (0.011%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.011%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 221 (2.34%) Terraform
2 209 (2.21%) Kubernetes
3 50 (0.53%) Microsoft Intune
4 48 (0.51%) Ansible
5 41 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
6 24 (0.25%) Prometheus
7 15 (0.16%) Grafana
8 14 (0.15%) Cisco CUCM
9 12 (0.13%) Kubeflow
10 8 (0.085%) SCCM
11 7 (0.074%) Argo
12 4 (0.042%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 4 (0.042%) Nessus
12 4 (0.042%) Nmap
13 3 (0.032%) vCenter Server
14 2 (0.021%) Control-M
14 2 (0.021%) Functional Safety
14 2 (0.021%) HP Fortify
14 2 (0.021%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
14 2 (0.021%) Puppet
Vendors
1 1,225 (12.96%) PayPal
2 1,081 (11.44%) Microsoft
3 186 (1.97%) Google
4 162 (1.71%) Databricks
5 102 (1.08%) OpenAI
5 102 (1.08%) Oracle
6 100 (1.06%) Cisco
7 97 (1.03%) Adobe
8 93 (0.98%) Salesforce
9 85 (0.90%) Dell
10 74 (0.78%) SAP
11 52 (0.55%) Palo Alto
12 50 (0.53%) Alteryx
12 50 (0.53%) Apple
13 49 (0.52%) Foundry
14 47 (0.50%) Blue Prism
15 42 (0.44%) HubSpot
16 41 (0.43%) Fortinet
17 34 (0.36%) Bloomberg
18 33 (0.35%) Palantir