PwC AI Jobs Barometer finds education managers commanding top AI wage premium

Australians with AI skills are able to command a wage premium of as much as 20 per cent in some roles as PwC warns the country risks being left behind in the race for talent.

Financial services, professional services and IT industries have seen sharp productivity gains since using AI.

Australians with AI skills are being paid nearly 20 per cent more than those without knowledge, as accounting firm PwC Australia warns that more needs to be done to avoid losing talent overseas.

The AI Jobs Barometer from PwC Australia shows AI-skilled workers employed as education managers, research and development managers, and database administrators command the highest average wage premiums in the country, ranging between 14 and 17 per cent.

Jobs that require AI skills in Australia had an average premium of 6 per cent, but that was much lower than the global average of 14 per cent from 14 other countries surveyed including the US, UK and Canada.

PwC Australia artificial intelligence leader Tom Pagram told The Australian that while there was increased demand for AI-skilled workers and an associated wage premium locally, more needed to be done to keep Australia competitive on a global scale.

“We have some work to do to make sure we keep pace with the rest of the world,” he said.

“It’s so important that we double down on the great foundations we’ve already got and look at how we grow to stay in the race, otherwise I do see a longer-term trend where we could start to lose AI talent offshore.

“It is not too late to catch up, as a nation, we need to think about where our strengths are today, what we want to be known for globally. And there’s absolutely areas within the agenda of AI that we are well positioned to lead on globally.”

PwC analysed over half a billion job ads from 15 countries and found that the number of jobs that required AI have increased 4.5 times since 2012 in Australia, compared to 7 times internationally.

The number of Australian job ads posted that required AI skills has grown from two in one thousdand in 2012 to nine in one thousand job posts required AI skills.

Other jobs that had a high wage premium for AI skills included advertising and marketing professionals, supply and distribution managers, and industrial engineers.

Mr Pagram said the highest wage premiums were being seen in professions most exposed to early stages of AI.

PwC Australia AI leader Tom Pagram says government and business need to invest more into AI.

“We’re now finding that it’s traditional jobs where employers have expectations for AI skills that may have not required AI skills in the past,” he said.

He added workers now needed to think about taking ownership of the transition that needs to be made in incorporating AI skills into the work done on a day-to-day basis.

“And every employer has a really important role to play in that, which is supporting training and upskilling.

“All workers will need to be thinking about how they embrace AI over the coming months and years. And if we do that well, it gives us a competitive edge on a global scale.”

PwC says that if Australia does not do more to train and retain talent it risks losing workers to other countries.

Jobs with lower AI Exposure such as mechanical engineers and cartographers and surveyors saw little difference in wages for postings demanding AI-related skills.

Mr Pagram said that Australia had world-class research and development capability for AI, but it was not on the scale that other countries were at, adding that increased investment was needed to ensure the nation did not fall behind.

“We need to start to see some increased investment in Australia’s AI capability and skills in the future. And that investment should be across both the public and private sector,” he said.

In Australia, demand growth for AI skills has been strongest in financial services, professional services and the information and communication sectors since 2012.

Education, manufacturing, and health and social sectors saw limited change in their share of AI-related job postings.

Skills sought by employers are changing at a 25 per cent higher rate in occupations most exposed to AI, while PwC has noted that there has been a sharp decline in demand for some AI-replaceable skills.

To remain relevant in these occupations, workers will need to demonstrate or acquire new skills, and embrace AI-enabled ways of working.

Industries such as financial services, professional services and IT that have embraced and embedded AI into day-to-day routines experienced almost a fivefold increase in labour productivity growth than those that did not embrace the new technology, such as transport, manufacturing and construction.

Mr Pagram said that if Australia embraced AI to its full potential then it stood to lift its poor productivity rate, which is among the worst in the OECD.

“There is now clear analysis that we need to embrace AI to grow productivity and prosperity,” he said.

“We may not be keeping up with the adoption of AI at the same rate as other countries, but there is still an opportunity to boost labour productivity in Australia in a time where we really need it to be boosted.”

Originally published as PwC AI Jobs Barometer finds education managers commanding top AI wage premium