The number of job postings requiring AI skills has grown eight times faster than the overall labor market over the past five years, according to the PwC AI Jobs Barometer 2026 study, based on the analysis of over one billion job postings across six continents.
New postings were split by PwC specialists into two spheres: “professionalized” roles and “democratized” AI roles. The first involves the use of AI to automate routine tasks, giving more importance to judgment and expertise. The second sphere uses AI to make technical activity more accessible to non-experts. According to PwC, demand for the first category of roles is growing faster.
“Professionalized” roles, such as recruiters, are seeing a growth in available jobs twice as fast and a salary increase 42% higher than those classified as “democratized,” such as IT service managers.
In the case of juniors, AI appears to have increased demand for senior-level skills. Based on the analysis of 2.4 million entry-level jobs in the US, experts noted that there were seven times more chances for senior-level skills, such as leadership and creativity, to be required from those most exposed to AI. The number of available positions for these entry-level roles has increased by 35% since 2019, while other junior jobs have decreased by 10%.
“The paradox created by AI is that it requires junior employees to think strategically from day one, even though it takes away precisely the tasks through which they traditionally learned the job. For companies, this means that old training programs are no longer sufficient, and talent development must be rethought if they want to have the specialists they will need in five or ten years,” said Gabriel Voicilă, Technology Partner, PwC Romania.
The report highlighted an increasingly pronounced divergence between companies with high AI exposure and those with low exposure. Companies operating in sectors with the highest AI exposure recorded an average productivity growth of 34% in 2025 compared with 2018, compared with 24% for companies with the lowest capacity to use AI.
Within this group, the top 20% of companies with the highest AI exposure achieved an average labor productivity growth of 163% compared with 2018, almost five times higher than the average of companies with high AI exposure. Moreover, employment growth in companies with the highest AI exposure exceeded that recorded by companies with low exposure, 52% versus 36% in 2025, compared with 2018 levels.
The study has strong implications for Romania, where AI use at scale is severely lacking.
New requirements regarding AI also impacted salaries. Expectedly, the salaries for employees with AI skills have continued to rise, being on average 62% higher than for employees for whom such skills are not required.
Sectors such as technology, media, and telecommunications (11%) and professional services (6%) recorded the largest share of growth in demand for jobs with specific AI skills, while healthcare is at the opposite end (below 1%).
The AI Jobs Barometer analyzed over one billion job postings from 27 territories. The study combines large-scale labor market data, company financial statements, and occupation-specific tasks to understand how AI is reshaping jobs, skills, wages, and productivity across the global economy. In addition, this year’s Barometer includes a dedicated analysis of entry-level (junior) roles, including how their skill requirements are changing.
Earlier this month, a study conducted by AI Board, based on Eurostat, IDC, and ANIS data, noted that the artificial intelligence market in Romania, estimated at EUR 515 million in 2026, has the potential to reach EUR 1.75 billion by 2031.
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