AI’s ascent in business is rapidly impacting nearly every industry and job role. But, according to data from Indeed Hiring Lab, IT remains the epicenter of AI’s role revolution, with AI skills still proving to be most valuable to those working technology positions.
When it comes to AI’s impact, Indeed identifies software development, IT systems and support, data and analytics, marketing, and banking and finance as high-exposure occupations, whereas jobs in healthcare, food service, cleaning, and manufacturing are less directly impacted by the rapid ascent of AI.
Indeed’s report examined the correlation between AI exposure and advertised pay, evaluating salary data for high-exposure occupations most impacted by AI, and how it compared to low-exposure ones. The data revealed that the job roles most impacted by AI have experienced a steady rise in salary since 2022.
The post-ChatGPT pay premium
Salary data from the most-exposed roles revealed a pay premium for AI skills that’s been on a steady incline since ChatGPT’s release. For roles categorized as being the most-exposed, pay has grown 46% since 2021, compared to only 25% for the least-exposed roles. Companies are paying a premium for AI-related skills, especially as more organizations face a skills gap in the face of rapid AI adoption.
Since ChatGPT’s launch, roles in the more- and less-exposed occupations tracked similarly for salary growth until around 2024, when the split became more pronounced. This is around the same time the industry saw a bounce-back in hiring for roles in the more-exposed category, as employers began reorganizing work and competing for AI-adjacent skills, according to Indeed.
The data ultimately reveals a post-ChatGPT pay premium of 5.7%, says Jack Kennedy, economist at Indeed and author of the report. And that pay premium holds up under granular control. Even when a job title is compared against itself — such as data engineers against other data engineers, or truck drivers against truck drivers — the pay premium still stands around 4.7%.
Despite concerns that AI will hollow out knowledge work and drag down pay for the jobs that remain, Kennedy says the four years of data after the public release of ChatGPT reveals the posted wages for occupations most impacted by AI aren’t lagging. Instead, they’re outpacing their less-exposed counterparts.
AI pay premiums by seniority
When isolated by seniority level, pay premiums in high-exposure tech occupations start to diverge. The data reveals that at the senior level, pay in more-exposed roles grew 45% between 2021 and mid-2026, while at the midlevel, there’s a smaller gap of 12% growth. Entry level roles only saw 2% salary growth.
“The data points to hiring restructuring rather than direct substitution,” says Kennedy. He adds that it’s not a reflection of senior raises funded by junior cuts, but rather a sign that employers are shrinking the entry-level pipeline into AI-adjacent roles, while concentrating hiring and pay gains at the top.
A spectrum of skills
This data also supports the idea that AI is creating a push for soft skills in tech positions, while the industry has been traditionally focused on hard skills. But as AI learns and adopts hard tech skills, it’s becoming more valuable to have experienced, skilled tech workers who can oversee the AI outputs and ensure they’re correct.
“Employers appear willing to pay more for the ability to effectively oversee, integrate, and correct AI output,” says Kennedy. “The fact that pay premia scale with seniority suggests that experience and expert judgement are particularly salient qualities. At entry level, the smaller pay premium for AI exposure points to the complementary effect being thinner.”
AI is evolving to be a complement to skilled workers, rather than a replacement, and is changing market demand and average pay for traditional IT and tech skills, according to the report. It’ll be crucial in the next few years for tech employers to ensure their pay for high-exposure occupations continues to scale with other AI-adjacent industries to maintain competitive stature in recruiting and hiring.