Demand for AI skills is running hot, and job adverts show it. Demand for AI skills increased nearly 200 percent in a year, with London accounting for 80 percent of AI-related job postings and nearly two-thirds of all technology vacancies in the UK The Register (Accenture data). That surge is concentrated: businesses took a cautious approach to hiring in 2025, but there were clear demand hotspots for specialist tech skills including AI, data, enterprise applications and cyber security Computer Weekly (tech recruitment outlook 2026).
The scale of change ahead is large. For the total of AI-related occupations, the net change ranges from approximately 696,000 jobs in the Automation Scenario to 1,072,000 in the Technological Opportunities Scenario, with replacement demand rising from 3,077,000 to 3,193,000 jobs across these scenarios AI Skills for Life and Work: Labour market and skills projections - GOV.UK. So when an advert now names AI tools or techniques, it's often signalling where the role, and the wider function, is heading.
The clearest shift is at the entry point. Adzuna has seen a 30% drop in UK entry-level job postings since ChatGPT's launch, with graduates facing the toughest job market since 2018 techUK – What's actually happening with entry-level and graduate jobs?. In tech specifically, the UK tech sector cut graduate jobs by 46 percent in the past year, with a further 53 percent drop projected The Register. The gap between junior and senior demand is widening too: in engineering, entry-level hiring has fallen to -19% while senior hiring sits at -10%, a 9-percentage-point gap GOV.UK - A snapshot of entry-level hiring in the UK.
But the door into AI work isn't closing, it's changing shape. Apprenticeships have risen from 3% of AI hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025 GOV.UK / DSIT – AI Labour Market Survey 2025 report. So adverts increasingly ask for demonstrated AI skills and hands-on tool use rather than a specific degree, and they name apprenticeships and reskilling routes alongside senior specialist roles.
Start by separating the must-have skills from the nice-to-have labels. An advert that lists every trending AI tool narrows your pool without improving quality. Name the two or three capabilities the role genuinely needs, describe the problems the person will solve, and let people show applied experience. That approach reads better and matches the direction of travel: the UK government announced a partnership to upskill 7.5 million UK workers in essential AI skills by 2030, equivalent to around 20% of the UK workforce techUK. Many of your strongest applicants will be people reskilling into AI, not only those who arrive fully formed.
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