AI Skills Can Earn You 62% More. But Which Ones?

If you’ve spent the past year being told to “learn AI,” there’s finally a number that makes that advice harder to ignore. 

62%. 

That’s the average wage premium PwC found for jobs requiring AI skills compared with jobs that don’t require them. But it's not a promise that taking an AI course will increase your salary by 62%.  

And who gets that premium also matters. 

Some AI skills are worth much more than others 

PwC found that the wage premium was just 16% in government and public-sector work, but climbed to 84% in technology, media and telecoms, and reached 118% in consumer markets.  

Consumer companies are particularly interesting because they aren't necessarily hiring the most AI workers. PwC says those jobs appear to be concentrated in high-impact functions where companies believe AI talent can directly improve productivity or commercial results. That makes the skills scarcer, and potentially more valuable.