PwC’s 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer analyses over a billion job ads from six continents to reveal that AI is creating a two-track labour market in which skills like judgement and leadership are even more critical–and more rewarded. AI is driving big productivity gains for companies and–perhaps surprisingly–companies making the biggest gains are raising wages and headcount faster than companies least exposed to AI.
Two futures for jobs in an AI era
2026 AI Global Jobs Barometer: Swiss cut Swiss insights from the global study
The Swiss results from PwC’s latest 2026 AI Global Jobs Barometer reveal that AI skills are increasingly becoming a hiring criterion in Switzerland. In 2025, the number of AI‑related job advertisements rose by around 9,000 to a new high. Although their share of the overall job market remains comparatively modest at 1.8%, the trend is clear: artificial intelligence is increasingly transforming the labour market, and this extends well beyond the tech sector.
"AI is changing how careers begin and how expertise is built. Routine tasks that once served as an entry point and a means of learning are now increasingly being taken over by AI. As a result, judgement, adaptability and leadership skills are becoming important at an early career stage. Companies therefore need to fundamentally rethink how they develop talent,"
These sectors are driving the AI job market in Switzerland
Although manufacturing accounts for the largest share of new hires in the Swiss labour market, followed by the energy, utilities and resources sector, demand for AI skills in these areas is relatively low. Nevertheless, it is rising across all sectors. This momentum has long extended beyond individual future-oriented industries: AI is making its way into the entire economy, from traditional industrial sectors to knowledge-intensive services. The highest density of AI roles is found in the technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) sector. The public sector has the lowest share.
Growth in the number of jobs has been particularly strong in occupations with lower AI exposure: since 2018, the volume of jobs there has increased 15.4-fold. By comparison, in occupations with high AI exposure, the increase amounts to 8.7-fold.
AI expertise brings pay advantages
Those with AI skills can expect above-average salaries. This means that AI capabilities are gaining importance beyond tech occupations and becoming ever more valuable in key sectors of the economy. The pay premiums are particularly pronounced in the healthcare and energy sectors, pointing to stronger demand for employees with AI skills in these areas.
The analysis also shows that the requirement profiles in occupations with high AI exposure are changing especially rapidly. In occupational fields particularly affected by AI, an average of 248 new skills per occupation have been added since 2019 – considerably more than in less affected fields of activity.
"Artificial intelligence is changing the requirements for occupational skills rapidly and lastingly. Activities through which employees previously built up experience are increasingly being automated. At the same time, judgement, adaptability and leadership skills are gaining considerable importance. For companies, this means they must make the upskilling of their employees a permanent and strategic priority, so that their technological investments also pay off economically,"
It is not developers who are in demand, but above all users
Demand is being driven primarily by AI users – that is, professionals who already use AI in their day-to-day work. In 2025, the number of these job profiles rose by around 8,400 compared with the previous year, reaching a record high. By contrast, demand for AI developers developed far more modestly in the same year (+220 job profiles).
In a sector comparison, financial services lead in AI user roles: 95.9% of AI jobs in this sector are accounted for by user profiles. The development of AI technologies is most in demand in the technology, media and telecommunications sector, where the share of developer profiles among job advertisements is the highest at 16.2%.
Read the detailed reports
2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer
Next steps for business leaders
- Use AI to pursue growth over efficiency alone, using it to unlock new revenue, enter new markets, and create new forms of value, especially by partnering across traditional industry lines.
- Consider how AI is changing the human expertise needed for job roles to guide talent investment and skills development.
- Invest in agentic AI, the ultimate complement to human expertise. With a team of AI agents at their command, workers can use their uniquely human expertise to deliver value at much greater scale.
- Reinvent early career pathways. Redesign onboarding, mentorship, and training programmes to accelerate development of advanced skills like leadership, stakeholder management, and strategic decision-making.
- Invest in human-intensive skills alongside AI skills such as empathy, judgement, creativity, and leadership.
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Adrian Jones