A recent PwC analysis examined the impact of productivity, wages, and overall value in industries with strong and limited exposure to AI. What did it find?

By Patricia Van Arnum, Editorial Director, DCAT, pvanarnum@dcat.org

Is AI making a difference or not?
With all the attention given to how artificial intelligence (AI) will be a transformative force in business operations, is it really making a difference or not? Moreover, what is the impact from a worker’s view: is it positive or negative?

A recent analysis from the management consulting firm, PwC, addressed those questions. It found that productivity of workers in industries with greater AI exposure was greater comparative to industries with limited AI exposure and that workers in industries with greater AI exposure were able to command higher wage premiums, with job numbers rising even in roles considered most automatable, according to PwC’s 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer, which analyzed nearly a billion job ads and company financial reports to evaluate AI’s impact on jobs, wages, skills, and productivity. The Barometer includes some of the most recent available data on AI’s impact, including the latest available job ads and company reports through the end of 2024. The report analyzed seven industries: healthcare; energy, utilities, and resources; information, communication, and technology; financial services; government, public services, and defense; professional services; and wholesale and retail trade.  

The report finds that since GenAI’s proliferation in 2022, productivity growth has nearly quadrupled in industries most exposed to AI, rising from 7% from 2018-2022 to 27% between 2018-2024. In contrast, the rate of productivity growth in industries least exposed to AI declined from 10% to 9% over the same period. Data from 2024 show that the most AI-exposed industries are seeing three times higher growth in revenue per employee than the least exposed, according to the PwC report.

“This research shows that the power of AI to deliver for businesses is already being realized,” said Carol Stubbings, Global Chief Commercial Officer, PwC, in a June 3, 2025, statement in commenting on the report. “And 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 organizations work and create value.” Agentic AI refers to a type of AI that focuses on autonomous systems that can make decisions and perform tasks without human intervention.

Job growth and industry exposure to AI
The growth of AI is seen in increased job numbers rather than a decrease in jobs, according to the PwC analysis. Its study finds that job numbers are rising in almost all types of AI-exposed occupations, even those highly automatable, with limited job or wage destruction from AI. For purposes of the report, “AI-exposed” is defined as an occupation that contains many tasks in which AI can be used according to the well-established AI Occupational Exposure index. “More exposed” jobs are the 50% of jobs with greater AI exposure; “Less exposed” jobs are the 50% of jobs with lower AI exposure; “Most exposed” jobs are the 25% of jobs with the greatest AI exposure. AI-exposed jobs that are highly automatable (which means the job contains many tasks AI can perform) versus jobs that are highly augmentable (which means the job contains many tasks in which AI supports human expertise and judgment).

While occupations with lower exposure to AI saw strong job growth (65%) in recent years (2019-2024), growth remained strong even in more exposed occupations (38%), according to the PwC report. Within more exposed occupations, the report characterizes jobs into two further categories: “automated’ (i.e., the job contains some tasks that AI can carry out) and “augmented” (i.e., where AI helps a human do their job better). Across both classifications between 2019-24, job numbers are growing in every industry analyzed although augmented jobs are generally growing faster, according to the PwC report.

Wage growth and industry exposure to AI
In terms of wage growth, the PwC report says that wages are growing twice as fast in industries more exposed to AI versus less exposed, with wages rising in both automatable and augmentable jobs. The report also says that jobs that require AI skills also offer a wage premium (over similar roles that don’t require AI skills) in all the industries it analyzed, with the average premium hitting 56%, up from 25% last year. Jobs that require such AI skills also continue to grow faster than all jobs, rising 7.5% from last year, even as total job postings fell 11.3%, according to the PwC report.

“In contrast to worries that AI could cause sharp reductions in the number of jobs available, this year’s findings show jobs are growing in virtually every type of AI-exposed occupation, including highly automatable ones,” said Joe Atkinson, Global Chief AI Officer, PwC, in commenting on the report. “AI is amplifying and democratizing expertise, enabling employees to multiply their impact and focus on higher-level responsibilities. With the right foundations, both companies and workers can re-define their roles and industries and emerge [as] leaders in their field, particularly as the full gambit of applications becomes clearer.”

Adopting skillsets for AI
While the data on productivity, wages and jobs are broadly positive, the research does highlight the need for workers and businesses to adapt to a much faster pace of change. The skills sought by employers are changing 66% faster in occupations most exposed to AI, up from 25% last year, according to the report.

In addition, the performance criteria to succeed in AI-exposed jobs are changing. Employer demand for formal degrees is declining for all jobs, but especially quickly for AI-exposed jobs, according to the PwC report. The percentage of jobs AI augments that require a degree fell 7 percentage points between 2019 and 2024 from 66% to 59%, and 9 percentage points (53% to 44%) for jobs AI automates in the industries analyzed, according to the PwC report.

“AI’s rapid advance is not just re-shaping industries, but fundamentally altering the workforce and the skills required,” said Pete Brown, Global Workforce Leader, PwC, in commenting on the study. “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.”

As a broad directive, the report emphasizes several factors for companies in adopting AI in their activities and in development of their workforce: (1) use AI for enterprise-wide transformation; (2) treat AI as a growth strategy, not just an efficiency strategy; (3) prioritize Agentic AI; (4) enable a company’s workforce to have the skills to make the most of AI; and (4) emphasize trust-building among workers in rolling out AI operationally and strategically.