Artificial intelligence is creating a two-track global labor market, according to PwC’s 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer. The report, which analyzed more than one billion job ads across 27 countries and territories, found that “professionalized” roles, where AI automates routine tasks and increases the value of human judgment, are expanding twice as fast and producing 42% faster salary growth than “democratized” roles that make specialized work accessible to non-experts.
The trend is also raising expectations for entry-level workers. In the U.S., AI-exposed junior roles are seven times more likely to require advanced human skills such as leadership or creativity. Since 2019, these postings have grown 35%, while other entry-level ads have declined 10%. Pete Brown, Global Workforce Leader at PwC, noted that “AI is removing some of the routine work that once acted as an apprenticeship.”
A productivity gap is widening as companies adopt AI at different speeds. Organizations in highly AI-exposed sectors recorded 34% productivity growth in 2025 compared with 2018, while the top 20% of companies posted a 163% increase. Hiring has also grown in AI-exposed organizations, with headcount up 52% from a 2018 baseline, compared with 36% growth at less exposed peers.
Demand for AI skills has pushed the average wage premium to 62%, reaching 118% in consumer markets. Job postings requiring skills such as prompt engineering or machine learning grew 69%, compared with 9% growth in the broader labor market. Joe Atkinson, Global Chief AI Officer at PwC, said companies leading with AI are using it to “amplify human expertise.”