AI Creates Two-Track Labor Market, PwC Finds

PwC’s 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer finds AI is dividing the labor market into two tracks: human-intensive “professionalized” roles and more routine “democratized” roles. The report says professionalized jobs such as radiologists and recruiters are seeing twice the job growth and 42% faster salary growth than democratized roles such as IT service managers and medical secretaries. The pattern appears across entry-level openings, pay and company productivity.

The analysis of 2.4 million U.S. entry-level positions shows roles most exposed to AI are seven times more likely to require traditionally senior-level human skills like leadership, creativity and face-to-face interaction. Openings for these “seniorized” entry-level jobs rose 35% since 2019, while other entry-level postings declined about 10% over the same period.

The report links outcomes to how firms deploy AI. Companies that use AI to amplify expertise and speed innovation recorded higher productivity gains than those that focus mainly on automation. Between 2018 and 2025, the most AI-exposed companies posted 34% productivity growth compared with 24% for the least AI-exposed companies. Within the most exposed group, the top 20% of firms achieved an average labor productivity increase of 163%.

Headcount trends also favored highly AI-exposed firms. Companies in the most AI-exposed sectors increased workforce numbers by 52%, versus a 36% increase at the least AI-exposed firms. The report found the average wage premium for workers with AI skills rose to 62% from 57% the prior year, with industry variation from about 118% in some consumer sectors to 16% in government roles.

Jobs requiring explicit AI skills such as prompt engineering and machine learning expanded rapidly. Those roles grew roughly eight times faster than the overall job market, and the number of AI jobs nearly doubled compared with 2024. Since 2015, hiring for AI-related roles has outpaced overall job growth. Technology, media and telecommunications, and professional services recorded the strongest AI job growth, while the health sector showed the weakest increase.

Joe Atkinson, PwC’s global chief AI officer, said, “Across the global economy, we’re beginning to see a new divide emerge between different models for talent and value creation.” Pete Brown, PwC’s global workforce leader, noted, “AI is removing some of the routine work that once acted as an apprenticeship, while increasing demand for judgement, leadership, and adaptability much earlier in careers.”

A separate survey cited by the report, conducted by Deel, found nearly seven in 10 organizations say there are now fewer on-the-job development opportunities for junior employees, and 71% say it is becoming harder to recruit and train future leaders because traditional entry-level learning pathways are disappearing.

The Barometer concludes that the economic effects of AI are uneven across companies and industries and calls for changes to training and career ladders so workers can meet rising expectations for leadership, adaptability and complex problem-solving in an AI-influenced labor market.