The Lightcast Global AI Skills Outlook
Skills, Occupations, Locations, and Salaries in the World’s Hottest Industry
Updated May 2025
Actionable Data in a World of Hype
AI is the most transformative technology of this century—but big proclamations don’t help your organization make better decisions. Better data does.
In a landscape filled with big promises about AI, what you actually need is grounded, practical information. At Lightcast, we've moved past the speculation to bring you clear data on what's really happening. Lightcast job posting data provides clear information on which jobs request AI skills, which industries they’re in, which occupations they’re targeting, and where those jobs are. AI isn’t a mysterious, unknowable force: it’s an established part of the job market, and that means Lightcast has data on it. We've mapped AI's boundaries and contours, just as we would any other industry.
This page—The Lightcast Global AI Skills Outlook—uses our best-in-class job postings data to show an up-to-date picture of the international trends, so you can make informed choices to navigate the complex landscape of work. This analysis is based on three key components.
Skills
Understanding the supply and demand for AI skills helps you pinpoint exactly which capabilities to develop in your workforce, curriculum, or community before they become critical gaps.
Occupations
Identifying which occupations offer a salary premium for AI skills, and knowing which occupations have the highest AI demand overall, can enable smarter talent strategies and improved outcomes for the workforce of tomorrow.
Locations
By knowing where AI talent is concentrated globally and regionally, you have the power to make smarter decisions about regional development, educational focus areas, and resource allocation to build future-ready communities.
How Does this AI Outlook Help You Build a Future-Ready Workforce?
As AI continues to transform the world of work, our data provides a clear roadmap for strategic decision-making across different sectors.
Enterprise
Make smarter talent decisions with better insights into AI. Benchmark its impact on salaries, compare roles across industries, and scout the most promising locations for AI talent. This page reveals which jobs—both in tech and beyond—have the highest demand for AI skills. Whether you're building your talent pipeline, planning career pathways, or developing training programs, these insights give you a competitive edge in an AI-driven marketplace.
Educators
The AI landscape is moving faster than traditional program design can keep up, and institutions need to prepare learners for a disrupted labor market. The most effective plan for the future starts with the clearest understanding of the present, and to that end, the Lightcast AI Skills Outlook compiles all workforce data available—giving you the most comprehensive, up-to-date view of the changes and developments within specific skills, occupations, and locations.
Public Sector
AI isn't only a digital phenomenon—it's affecting real cities and transforming local economies right now. This is the fastest-growing segment of the economy, and by understanding AI's impact across different regions, you develop better local workforce strategies that turn emerging opportunities into real economic growth.
This data was refreshed in May 2025
Skills
Understanding AI skills demand helps everyone make better decisions—whether you're developing educational programs, planning workforce initiatives, or building organizational talent strategies. What does this mean for you? If you're preparing students, workers, or organizations for the future, knowing which AI skills are most valued gives you a clear roadmap on how to shape education, training, and development. Our latest findings reveal important patterns in how AI is transforming different roles:
In Technical Occupations: Our analysis shows that data-specific roles like Data Engineers and Data Scientists are experiencing the highest growth in AI skill requirements across most countries. While other technical positions such as Analytics Managers are also seeing increases, the demand is particularly concentrated in data-focused jobs.
Beyond Technical Roles: Generative Artificial Intelligence specifically is appearing with notable frequency in traditionally non-technical positions. Writers stand out in particular—suggesting that Generative AI is increasingly being adopted as a productivity tool across diverse professions.
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Occupations
Understanding how AI is changing different occupations helps you prepare for the future—whether you're guiding students toward promising careers, developing workforce programs, or building organizational talent strategies. Our data reveals how AI is reshaping the employment landscape in ways that matter to everyone.
What does this mean for you? If you're planning career pathways or workforce development initiatives, knowing which occupations are evolving with AI gives you practical insights for making informed decisions. Our latest findings reveal important trends about how AI is transforming career opportunities:
Global Occupation Trends: Our analysis shows a generally positive trend for AI-related occupations worldwide from 2023-2024, though with important regional variations. After a slowdown in 2023 (partly due to big tech companies hiring less), most countries saw job postings requiring AI skills bounce back in 2024. While countries like the United States, Canada, Ireland, and Spain show substantial increases in AI-related job postings, others are experiencing more mixed patterns. This global patchwork suggests organizations should take a nuanced approach to workforce planning rather than applying one-size-fits-all strategies.
The AI Salary Advantage: Roles explicitly requesting AI skills command notably higher salaries compared to identical roles without AI requirements. The highest premiums appear in traditionally non-technical occupations like Architects and Lawyers, while technical roles like Computer Programmers show smaller but still meaningful salary increases. This suggests that AI skills deliver their greatest value when combined with domain expertise in non-technical fields.
More AI resources to explore
Locations
The geographical dynamics of AI demand provides crucial context for workforce development and strategic planning.
The United States continues to lead in AI skills demand, but the landscape is rapidly evolving. While US cities remain primary hotspots for AI job postings, we're seeing an exciting trend of increased AI focus across multiple countries. This global expansion suggests that AI skills are becoming a universal priority, not just a Silicon Valley phenomenon.
The demand for AI skills shows remarkable geographical diversity. While technology hubs remain strong, countries like Italy and Sweden are carving out unique niches—for instance, focusing on specialized domains such as Autonomous Driving and Neural Networks. This suggests that AI skills are not just about broad capabilities, but increasingly about deep, context-specific expertise.
This means opportunity is no longer confined to traditional tech centers. Whether you're in a major metropolitan area or an emerging tech hub, AI skills are becoming a global currency of professional development. The most successful strategies will be those that recognize both the global trends and local nuances of AI skill development.
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How We Built the Lightcast Global AI Skills Outlook
Structuring Lightcast Data
For over two decades, Lightcast has been a pioneer in big-data analysis of job postings from all over the internet, and this is what sets us apart. Our tools collect raw data on postings from more than 160,000 online sources, then synthesize and interpret those findings to provide meaningful insight in near real time. Job posting analytics can identify supply and demand for workers, skills, and jobs all over the world, as well as important contextual details like compensation trends.
Defining AI Skills
The Artificial Intelligence Sector is a specific list of skills that Lightcast has identified based on our work developing the Stanford AI Index. This sector helps users understand the growth of AI-related skills across the labor market, including those related to the clusters of AI, Autonomous Driving, Natural Language Processing, Neural Networks, Machine Learning, Robotics, and Visual Image Recognition.
Our Data, Your Solutions
The Lightcast data that built this Global AI Skills Outlook is available for organizations to use themselves, through software, data delivery, and consulting, so you can shape your own workforce strategy with confidence.
This includes Lightcast Open Skills Taxonomy, which includes over 32,000 different skill terms, organised hierarchically in 32 categories and 400 subcategories, for a view of the labor market as granular and useful as possible.
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AI-Enabled Career Pathways
We can identify AI-enabled Career Pathways - next step jobs requiring AI skills, which often pay a salary premium. Find out how by choosing one of 10 sample occupations from the dropdown, filling in your details, and we'll send you a free PDF shortly.
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