AI will boost productivity and pay for professionals and reshape the job market

Job growth for specialized jobs was twice as fast as for general jobs, and salary growth was 42% higher. AI was portrayed as something that would not only replace some jobs, but also increase the productivity of jobs performed by specialized human resources and change the skills that companies seek. Examples of specialized roles included radiologists and recruiters. On the other hand, IT service managers and medical secretaries were cited as examples of generalized jobs where AI would make the job itself less difficult.

"We are beginning to see a new divergence in AI value creation models," said Joe Atkinson, global chief AI officer at PwC, noting that companies that amplify human expertise, accelerate innovation, and create new sources of value are ahead in productivity and growth than those that use AI solely for automation.

There are also clear differences between companies. Companies in industries that are highly affected by AI will have a productivity growth rate of 34% in 2025 compared to 2018, significantly higher than the 24% for companies that are less affected by AI. Among companies with high AI relevance, the top 20% of companies increased labor productivity by an average of 163%. This is about five times the level of all companies with high AI-related activities. The report described this phenomenon as the effect of "super-stars."

In terms of employment, the results differ from the simple view that companies with a high degree of AI-relatedness will reduce their workforce. The workforce growth rate in 2025 compared to 2018 was 52% for companies with high AI-relatedness and 36% for companies with low AI-relatedness. There were also differences in wage growth. Wage growth at companies with advanced AI adoption was 24%, compared with 17% for companies with less AI involvement.

Job openings seeking AI skills are also increasing rapidly. Jobs seeking specific AI skills, such as prompt engineering and machine learning, rose 69%, far outpacing the 9% growth in the overall job market. The number of AI-related jobs will almost double in 2024, and since 2015, the growth of AI-related jobs has continued to outpace the growth of all jobs. The average wage premium for people with AI skills reached 62%, up from 57% a year ago. By industry, there were cases where the rate rose to 118% in the consumer market, etc., and 16% in the government and public sector.

The share of AI-related job openings was high at 11% in Technology, Media and Communications and 6% in Professional Services. The medical field remained low at less than 1%. The report found that demand for AI skills will not spread evenly across industries, but will penetrate at different rates across industries.

The impact on young human resources was also a focus. An analysis of 2.4 million entry-level jobs in the U.S. found that entry-level positions that are more susceptible to AI are seven times more likely to require skills traditionally required of senior positions, such as judgment, leadership, creativity, and face-to-face interaction, than entry-level positions that are less likely to be influenced by AI. Job openings for these "seniorised" entry-level positions have increased by 35% since 2019. Other entry-level positions decreased by 10%.

Pete Brown, global workforce leader at PwC, said traditional relationships based on experience and expertise are changing. AI will eliminate some of the routine tasks that young workers once took on as apprentices, creating an environment that requires judgment, leadership, and adaptability from an early stage in their careers. He expressed the view that if organizations do not review their systems for developing human resources, it will be difficult for organizations to make their human resources active in the new environment.

Throughout the report, PwC positioned AI not as a tool to reduce jobs, but as a factor that will change the structure of companies, jobs, and human resources development. Companies that combine AI with human expertise will have an advantage in productivity, employment, and wages. On the worker side, in addition to AI skills themselves, human skills such as judgment, creativity, and leadership are becoming factors that determine wages and employment opportunities.