The AI Economy: How AI Is Reshaping Jobs and Skills

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IN THIS ISSUE: Unpack the AI jobs paradox—why AI isn’t replacing workers en masse (yet), but is already reshaping the workforce in profound ways. PwC’s AI jobs barometer reveals who’s thriving, who’s at risk, and why upskilling is urgent. Plus, explore Salesforce’s latest power move to lock down Slack data and what it means for the future of AI agents in the enterprise.

The Prompt

The AI jobpocalypse that people have been warning about? It’s not here…yet, but the technology is already reshaping the workforce. Rather than the mass elimination of employment prophesied, AI is making workers more valuable in this ever-increasing automated world. That’s according to PwC’s 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer, released earlier this month, which draws on an analysis of nearly one billion job postings worldwide.

“This research shows that the power of AI to deliver for businesses is already being realised,” Carol Stubbings, the firm’s global chief commercial officer, says in a statement. “We are only at the start of the transition. As we roll out Agentic AI at enterprise scale, we are seeing that the right combination of technology and culture can create dramatic new opportunities to reimagine how organisations work and create value.”

The debate over the impact of AI on employment remains a highly contentious issue. Critics argue that the technology will lead to mass unemployment and increased income inequality. Recently, Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei warned that AI has the potential to eliminate “half” of all entry-level white-collar jobs and could “spike” the unemployment rate to nearly 20 percent within the next five years. Proponents, such as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, are pushing back, conceding that while AI will result in job displacement, it could also introduce new creative opportunities. He argues that to overcome these fears, AI development must be done “in the open.”

And it’s easy to believe the AI naysayers. Just look at Klarna, Duolingo, IKEA, Salesforce, and Shopify; these are examples of companies that have chosen to eliminate jobs done by human workers in favor of AI. Some have walked back their positions, but most are still betting on AI being central to their operations.

Despite the warnings, PwC’s data tells a different story: AI is creating more opportunities—for the workers who can keep up. The demand for AI-skilled employees is rising rapidly. In 2024, wages for these professionals jumped by an average of 56 percent, job postings calling for those skills increased by 38 percent, and industries most exposed to AI generated three times more revenue per worker than those least exposed.

These percentages signal a fundamental shift in how value is created in the modern economy. AI should no longer be considered a productivity booster; it’s now a key differentiator between high-growth industries and those falling behind. You know how every company says that AI handles the mundane tasks and frees employees up to tackle more creative and strategic work? PwC’s research appears to prove AI is doing just that, leading to increased work growth.

Humans Still Wanted, Even For Automated Roles

It’s worth noting that PwC examines two different spaces: Those “most exposed” and those “least exposed” to AI. The distinction is significant because one would expect greater disruption with the former than with the latter. However, the research indicates that companies are hiring more workers in occupations exposed to AI, even in those deemed “highly automatable.” Although job postings for AI-skilled workers have increased by 38 percent, that growth lags behind the 65 percent rise seen in occupations with lower AI exposure during the same period. This seems to suggest that even roles targeted for AI automation (where AI handles the work) and augmentation (where AI assists in the job to be done) can’t be entirely human-free.

The distinction between AI automation and augmentation is crucial. It reflects the reality that AI isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. There are many tasks where humans are better suited to complete than an AI application. As AI continues to advance, the key will be finding the right balance between human and machine capabilities to maximize productivity and create value.

That said, the report acknowledges that this is a complex issue. PwC admits that some jobs, such as data entry clerks and software coders, may no longer exist in their previous forms, while others could evolve into “higher value roles.” The report’s authors believe that ultimately, the critical questions society must ask itself are if: jobs are created faster than they are displaced and if people have the skills needed to adapt to this evolving job market.

So what roles are companies hiring for? The research identifies that health, teaching, legal, social, and cultural professionals are on the rise, along with those in business and sales. However, there’s a decline in job openings for general and keyboard clerks, and also IT professionals.

PwC’s findings appear to be matched by the recent trends report released by Bond Capital’s Mary Meeker. In sourcing data from the University of Maryland and LinkUp, she highlights that AI-related job postings in the U.S. have increased over the past seven years. Together, these reports reinforce the idea that AI’s long-term labor impact is more evolution than extinction.

The AI Skills Earthquake Intensifies

While the findings paint a positive picture for the workforce, they also underscore the urgent need for workers to reskill and upskill to stay competitive in the AI era. This “adapt or risk being left behind” mindset is driving the growth of AI-specific training programs from providers such as Salesforce, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and ServiceNow. As AI reshapes the nature of work, the skills traditionally associated with many roles, particularly those heavily exposed to AI, are evolving. PwC finds that the need for formal degrees is declining for these roles: Between 2019 and 2024, there’s a seven percent decrease in jobs AI augments (66 percent then vs. 59 percent now) and a nine percent drop for jobs AI automates (53 percent then vs. 44 percent now).

“AI’s rapid advance is not just re-shaping industries, but fundamentally altering the workforce and the skills required,” PwC’s Global Workforce Leader, Pete Brown, asserts. “This is not a situation that employers can easily buy their way out of. Even if they can pay the premium required to attract talent with AI skills, those skills can quickly become out of date without investment in the systems to help the workforce learn.”

Calls for companies to reskill their workforce are nothing new, but they remain critical as AI adoption accelerates. Still, PwC stops short of outlining which specific skills workers should focus on. That may be by design—reskilling needs may vary widely by industry and role. Yet, without clearer guidance, many employers and employees are left navigating this shift without a roadmap. As AI transforms job requirements across the board, knowing where to begin could make the difference between adaptation and obsolescence.

The research also calls out the potential for AI-related gender inequality. PwC claims that in every country it analyzed, women outweighed men in AI-exposed roles, which led it to conclude that the skills pressure facing women will be higher. In other words, women are likely to be disproportionately affected by AI’s disruption of their role, but could struggle to adapt to the changing workforce. The firm cites its 2024 Workforce Radar study, which suggested that in the U.S., women lag men in adopting AI. As such, PwC deduces that women will need to work much harder to gain the necessary AI skills to remain competitive.

Recommended Next Steps

Now armed with this information, what should business leaders be doing with it? PwC outlines five things to do:

Use AI as part of the enterprise-wide transformation

Companies in AI-exposed industries need to develop a plan that capitalizes on the threefold increase in revenue generated by employees due to AI adoption. PwC urges organizations to think beyond isolated use cases and instead use AI to generate value at an enterprise-wide level.

Treat AI as a growth strategy, not just an efficiency strategy

AI should not be used as a reason to reduce headcount. Business leaders should instead leverage the technology to help workers create more value. How can it help identify new markets and revenue streams?

Consider agentic AI as an exponential workforce multiplier

AI agents are the talk of the town these days, and PwC believes they’ll not only help business leaders cut costs but can also free up workers to think better and respond faster than competitors. In other words, act like a frontier firm would behave and embrace the digital labor reality.

Empower your workforce with the skills to make the most of AI

Companies must determine the skills their workers need to learn and develop a plan for modernizing their workforce.

Maximize AI’s transformative potential by building trust

To ensure maximum value can be generated from AI, companies can’t rely on technical success. It includes responsible deployment, clear governance, and public and organizational trust.

PwC emphasizes that its second annual Global AI Jobs Barometer is neither meant to convey a tech utopian nor a doomsayer viewpoint. Instead, it seeks to point out that “with intentional design…AI can empower workers, raise productivity, and increase shared prosperity.” While its findings suggest AI is more likely to augment than eliminate jobs in the near term, the ripple effects are just beginning to surface. PwC’s data offers some reassurance that the AI jobpocalypse isn’t inevitable. At the same time, it signals that the future of work is no longer a distant concept—it’s already unfolding. How businesses, workers, and policymakers respond now will shape who gains the most from this transformation.

▶️ Read PwC’s Global AI Jobs Barometer

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A Closer Look

Long billed as the place “where work happens,” Slack has grown into a mission-critical layer of enterprise communication. After more than ten years, it’s hard to imagine many teams functioning without it. It’s also a treasure trove of data prime for use in AI agents. However, only its parent company, Salesforce, will have the privilege of accessing it, thanks to updated terms of service prohibiting third-party developers from indexing, copying, or permanently storing Slack messages through the platform’s API.

In an undated blog post noticed by The Information, Slack claims its “evolved” API strategy is intended to protect customer data ”in line with our longstanding commitments to security, privacy, and responsible processing of data.” Its ToS currently stipulates that developers may not use any Slack data to train large language models. Moreover, any data must be stored temporarily and cannot be copied, archived, or indexed.

The new restrictions will undoubtedly hobble many tech firms with products that integrate with Slack. More specifically, it’s a blow to those dependent on the productivity app’s data to power their AI agents.

One such company impacted is Glean. A customer email obtained by The Information notes that these changes will bar Slack data from being added to Glean’s search index, “hampering your ability to use your data with your chosen enterprise AI platform.” It could also affect AI agents from Slack partners, such as Dropbox’s Dash, Docusign’s IAM platform, and Atlassian’s Rovo.

“At Salesforce, trust is our number one value, and that starts with protecting customer data. The new innovations we’ve announced, along with updates to Slack’s API Terms of Service, open the door for more intelligent, context-aware AI experiences and ensure that developers, customers, and partners can securely and responsibly interact with Slack data,” a Salesforce spokesperson tells Salesforce Ben.

They go on to say, “As AI raises critical considerations around how customer data is handled, we’re committed to delivering AI and data services in a way that’s thoughtful and transparent. We’re working closely with partners and developers who share these values, ensuring customers can adopt these new capabilities with confidence and control.”

While Salesforce frames the move as a security measure, it also reflects a deeper ambition: to consolidate control over enterprise data. Both can be true. This change aligns with other steps, such as its $8 billion acquisition of Informatica and its $6.5 billion deal for MuleSoft, underscoring a broader strategy to monopolize access to first-party data across the enterprise stack and creating better value for those building AI bots on its Agentforce platform.

Another potential consequence of Salesforce’s action could be to soften the ground for making additional acquisitions. The enterprise tech firm has been on a spending spree lately. In addition to Informatica, it has hired the team from Moonhub and purchased the AI automation software startup Convergence. By stripping away access to Slack, Salesforce might be disrupting the business plans of startups it’s been eyeballing and then pouncing when the time is right.

Slack’s API restrictions could also ripple through the broader enterprise AI landscape, particularly for Microsoft. With both Salesforce and Microsoft racing to own the enterprise AI stack, limiting developer access to Slack data may prompt some to reconsider which ecosystem offers the most open and future-proof foundation for AI innovation.

Ultimately, as The Information’s Kevin McLaughlin points out, this is a reminder to users to understand who owns the data that’s created.

This Week’s AI News

💰 Funding and Investments

☁️ Enterprise AI Solutions

Databricks launches Agent Bricks, its new no-code AI agent builder (The New Stack)
Why most enterprise AI agents never reach production, and how Databricks plans to fix it (VentureBeat)
Uptime Industries wants to boost localized AI usage with an “AI-in-a-box” called Lemony AI (TechCrunch)
AlphaSense launches Deep Research for the web and your enterprise files (VentureBeat)

⚙️ Hardware, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems

🔬 Science and Breakthroughs

At secret math meeting, researchers struggle to outsmart AI (Scientific American)
Google has a new AI model and website for forecasting tropical storms (The Verge)
AI is making health care safer in the remote Amazon (Rest of World)

💼 Business, Marketing, Media, and Consumer Applications

News sites are getting crushed by Google’s new AI tools (The Wall Street Journal)
More than a million people now have Alexa Plus (The Verge)
Amazon widens access to video generator as AI ad tools gain traction (Marketing Dive)
Handshake launches service to pair graduate students with AI labs to train models (My Two Cents)
Pinterest tests an AI feature letting advertisers turn catalogs into shoppable collages (TechCrunch)
Incantor launches with model that tracks IP rights across AI (Variety)

🛒 Retail and Commerce

⚖️ Legal, Regulatory, and Ethical Issues

Disney and NBCUniversal sue Midjourney, accusing it of copyright infringement (Axios)
Wikipedia pauses AI-generated summaries after editor backlash (404 Media)

💥 Disruption, Misinformation, and Risks

New—and now fixed—Microsoft Copilot “zero-click” flaw signals broader risk of AI agents being hacked (Fortune)
How scammers are using AI to steal college financial aid (Associated Press)
Chinese tech firms freeze AI tools in crackdown on exam cheats (The Guardian)
CEOs are creating AI copies of themselves that are spouting braindead hallucinations to their confused underlings (Futurism)
A psychiatrist posed as a teen with therapy chatbots. The conversations were alarming (TIME)

End Output

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AI Isn’t Taking Jobs—It’s Making Workers More Valuable

The Prompt