PwC‘s 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer, published yesterday, draws on more than a billion job advertisements to confirm that AI is creating a two-track labour market in which professionalised roles – where AI elevates human expertise – are growing twice as fast and commanding 42% faster wage growth than democratised ones. The report is broadly optimistic. Its most commercially significant finding – that the top 20% of AI-exposed companies have achieved 163% productivity growth since 2018, five times their peers – is presented as an opportunity for firms willing to use AI to pursue growth rather than simply cut costs.
