Floating Button
Home Digitaledge Careers & Training

Jobs requiring AI skills command pay premiums in Singapore: PwC

Nurdianah Md Nur
Nurdianah Md Nur • 3 min read
Jobs requiring AI skills command pay premiums in Singapore: PwC
Roles focused on applying AI made up 82% of related job postings in Singapore last year, far outnumbering positions for developers, according to PwC. Photo: Pexels
Font Resizer
Share to Whatsapp
Share to Facebook
Share to LinkedIn
Scroll to top
Follow us on Facebook and join our Telegram channel for the latest updates.

Singapore employers are seeking workers who can use artificial intelligence (AI) in their day-to-day jobs. Such roles accounted for 82% of AI-related job postings last year, outnumbering jobs for AI developers, according to PwC’s 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer for Singapore.

PwC defines AI user jobs as roles requiring familiarity with capabilities such as AI literacy and prompt engineering, as well as applied skills including data analytics and machine-learning algorithms. AI developer jobs require more advanced skills such as machine-learning operations.

AI-related roles also attracted higher wages across every sector analysed. The wage premiums started at 32% and reached as high as 107% in the government and public sector and 96% in consumer markets.

“The fact that 82% of AI-related job postings are for AI user roles, not specialists, tells us something important, that Singapore is moving toward a mass AI-enabled workforce,” says Kwek So Cheer, a partner for digital solutions at PwC Singapore.

He continues: “The wage premiums we are seeing reflect the value organisations place on AI capabilities, but the bigger opportunity lies in equipping the broader workforce, across roles and seniority levels, to apply AI in their day-to-day work. That's how we turn AI adoption into shared economic gains, higher-value jobs, and stronger long-term resilience, for Singapore's people and businesses.”

PwC analysed about 1.6 million Singapore job postings published from January to December 2025. The research draws on data from 2012 to 2024 and forms part of PwC’s global study covering more than one billion job postings across six continents.

See also: Singapore’s finance professionals prefer roles with environmental remit compared to other developed markets: ACCA survey

More than half of the Singapore advertisements, or about 897,000, were for occupations with higher exposure to AI. PwC defines these as roles whose main tasks and required abilities are more likely to be affected, augmented or reshaped by the technology.

Technology, media and telecommunications accounted for the largest share of AI job postings among the sectors analysed, at 18.9%. The government and public sector followed at 13.5%, while financial services accounted for 12.2%.

PwC also found a positive correlation of 0.30, on a scale from zero to one, between an occupation’s exposure to AI and changes in the skills required. Roles with higher exposure to the technology tended to record greater changes in their skill requirements.

See also: Is hiring digital talent tough? Get it from within

Anthony Dias, AI Hub leader at PwC Singapore, notes that AI was being incorporated into workflows, roles and decision-making across organisations.

“As employers scale adoption, they need to build governance, responsible AI practices, and risk safeguards that allow people to use AI with trust and confidence. This is not about replacing human judgement but strengthening it. It’s about helping employees understand when to leverage on AI, when to challenge it, and how to apply it responsibly in ways that build trust with employers, clients, and stakeholders,” he adds.

×
The Edge Singapore
Download The Edge Singapore App
Google playApple store play
Keep updated
Follow our social media
© 2026 The Edge Publishing Pte Ltd. All rights reserved.