AI skills can boost your salary by up to 60%

British workers with specialist skills in artificial intelligence can command a salary 14 per cent higher than their peers, according to a big study from PwC, the professional services firm.

Lawyers with AI skills are being offered about 27 per cent more than those without, while database designers and administrators can command a premium of about 60 per cent on their salary.

The report, which analysed half a billion job adverts from 15 countries, lays bare the extent of the demand from businesses for knowledge of the technology.

It found that the number of recruitment ads calling for AI experience has grown by three and a half times over the past decade, while job posts in areas exposed to AI, such as customer service, are slowing.

In contrast, yoga teachers, funeral arrangers and those performing laser hair removal — jobs protected from the threat of automation — are in high demand, giving what the report called “clues to which skills workers may want to build to prosper in an AI age”.

At odds with some of the widespread concerns about the painful impact of artificial intelligence on the labour market, PwC’s first global AI jobs barometer painted a positive picture of a future where the technology is integrated into the workplace.

Calling AI the “industrial revolution of knowledge work”, it found that sectors more likely to be affected by the technology, such as financial services, IT and professional services, were experiencing a near-fivefold increase in productivity growth compared with less exposed sectors.

The payment firm Klarna has said it is replacing hundreds of customer service jobs with the technology

The paper argued that this increase highlighted the potential of AI to address the UK’s long-standing productivity challenges, potentially bridging the economic gap with other nations and improving living standards. Rather than “just doing the old things faster”, the report said efficiency was about “finding new, AI-powered ways to create value”.

It also found that in some economies facing shrinking working-age populations, AI could help to offset the employee shortfall in many sectors.

Barret Kupelian, chief economist at PwC UK, said: “Our findings show that AI has the power to create new industries, transform the jobs market and potentially push up productivity growth rates. We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. As AI technology improves and spreads across more sectors, its economic impact could be truly transformative.”

Not all studies are so optimistic. The Institute for Public Policy Research found that eight million UK jobs could be at risk from AI without government intervention, with women and young people most affected.

Allison Kirkby, chief executive of BT, said AI had made the company’s technology developers 12 per cent more efficient in their coding work

It said that back-office, entry-level and part-time jobs, including secretarial, customer service and administrative roles, were at the highest risk of disruption.

Kupelian noted that AI was already reshaping the labour market, saying: “The skills required by employers in AI-exposed occupations are changing about 25 per cent faster than in those less exposed. This trend is likely to intensify, creating new roles while reducing demand for some skills that AI can perform more efficiently.”

Companies such as Klarna, the payment business, have stated that they are replacing hundreds of customer service jobs with the technology, which is quickly becoming more sophisticated.

Allison Kirkby, BT’s new chief executive, said recently that AI was already making the company’s technology developers 12 per cent more efficient by supporting their coding work.

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