EuroWire, GENEVA: Workers looking to shield their careers from artificial intelligence are facing a labor market that is changing faster than it is shrinking, with the latest international data showing generative AI is most likely to remake office tasks rather than erase entire occupations. The International Labour Organization said in May 2025 that one in four jobs worldwide has some degree of exposure to generative AI, rising to 34% in high-income economies, with clerical work facing the highest exposure and media, software and finance roles also seeing greater pressure.
A second layer of evidence points to skills, not job titles, as the main dividing line. The OECD said in April 2025 that one in three job vacancies across its economies carries high AI exposure, yet only about 1% require specialized, complex AI capabilities. For most workers, the organization said, the bigger need is general AI literacy, including how to use AI tools, understand their limits, and evaluate outputs safely, while advanced AI training remains concentrated in a relatively small slice of the labor market.
That mismatch is already visible in training supply. The OECD found that only 0.3% to 5.5% of analyzed training courses in Australia, Germany, Singapore and the United States contained AI content, even as a growing share of jobs already carries AI exposure. The World Economic Forum, in its 2025 survey of more than 1,000 employers, identified AI and big data, networks and cybersecurity, and technological literacy as the fastest-rising skills, while also ranking creative thinking, resilience and analytical ability among the capabilities employers continue to value most.
Training gaps deepen as AI use spreads
Use of AI on the job is rising, but regular use remains concentrated rather than universal. Gallup said that as of November 2025, roughly half of U.S. employees had used AI at work at least once, while 26% used it a few times a week or more and 12% used it daily. At the same time, only 38% said their organizations had integrated AI tools into operations, and just 26% said employers had communicated a clear plan for using them, underscoring a gap between deployment, training and day-to-day adoption.
Workers are increasingly saying they need help closing that gap. A March 2026 survey by Jobs for the Future found that 47% of workers said AI was forcing them to acquire new skills, including 29% who said they would need those skills within a year. Only 36% said their employers were providing the training, guidance or opportunities they needed to use AI in their jobs, and 56% said employers had not consulted them on how AI tools were being used. Early-career workers were markedly more likely than experienced workers to say AI was changing their jobs and altering career plans.
New skills, not retreat, command the premium
Labor market data suggest that workers who can use new tools are being rewarded, even as exposed roles come under pressure. An IMF staff note published in January 2026 found that about one in 10 job vacancies in advanced economies now requires at least one new skill, with demand appearing first in the United States and concentrated in professional, technical and managerial work. The same research found wage premiums attached to AI-related skills, while noting that occupations with high exposure and low complementarity to AI face weaker employment outcomes, a pattern the fund said poses particular challenges for younger workers.
Separate analysis by PwC, based on close to a billion job ads and company reports through the end of 2024, found that workers with AI skills earned an average 56% wage premium in 2024 and that jobs in more AI-exposed occupations continued to grow, even in roles considered highly automatable. The broad pattern across the major studies is consistent: routine clerical and transactional tasks remain the most exposed, while wages and hiring are stronger where AI is used alongside domain knowledge, analysis, supervision, client service and other human-led functions.