PwC Survey Shows Soft Skills Rise as AI Automates Work
Leadership-focused jobs have seen 42% faster wage growth since 2021, and "senior skills" like leadership and judgment now make up 52% of new skills required in entry-level roles most exposed to AI, according to PwC's 2026 AI Jobs Barometer, which analyzed more than a billion job postings worldwide and was covered by Forbes contributor Joe McKendrick. PwC's authors write that "the more AI is deployed, the more distinctly human expertise is valued," and the study also finds AI-exposed companies are growing headcount and wages faster than less-exposed peers, complicating simple job-apocalypse narratives. For hiring and L&D teams, this means job descriptions, interview rubrics, and early-career training increasingly need to surface leadership, judgment, and teamwork alongside technical skills, since PwC finds those skill requirements are changing roughly twice as fast in the most AI-exposed roles.
For hiring managers and technical leads, the most actionable signal here is that technical proficiency alone is becoming insufficient for many entry-level roles. As AI takes over routine data collection, basic reporting, and low-complexity coding, PwC's data shows hiring and wage signals increasingly rewarding leadership, judgment, creativity, and teamwork - which should reshape how teams write job descriptions, structure interviews, and evaluate junior hires.
What happened
PwC's 2026 AI Jobs Barometer, covered by Forbes contributor Joe McKendrick, analyzed more than a billion job postings worldwide and found leadership-focused jobs saw 42% faster wage growth since 2021. Skills PwC's authors call "senior skills" - leadership, judgment, creativity, and teamwork - now account for 52% of new skills required in entry-level jobs that are highly exposed to AI. The PwC authors write: "It will be important to hone leadership, judgement, creative and teamwork skills so individuals can do what AI cannot. The more AI is deployed, the more distinctly human expertise is valued." Forbes' coverage also cites Ford Motor Company's decision to rehire roughly 300 engineers to keep quality aligned with business needs, alongside a broader trend of AI labs hiring more philosophers and humanities graduates, as examples of the pattern.
Industry context
The study complicates a simple "AI job apocalypse" narrative: PwC's authors report headcount growth at the most AI-exposed companies is outpacing growth at the least-exposed companies, and wages are also growing faster at the most AI-exposed firms - which PwC frames as AI acting as a "job expander" rather than purely a job killer when companies use it to unlock growth and enter new markets, not just cut costs. PwC also finds skill requirements for the most AI-exposed jobs are changing about twice as fast as in the least-exposed roles, with tasks relying on empathy, judgment, and creativity being added roughly 2.5 times faster.
For practitioners
PwC's own recommendations translate directly into hiring and workforce practice: redesign work rather than just automating tasks, use AI to pursue growth rather than pure efficiency, build a targeted AI strategy instead of scattering pilots, emphasize human-intensive skills in workforce planning, redesign early-career onboarding and mentorship around leadership and stakeholder management, and invest in agentic AI as a complement to (not replacement for) human expertise.
What to watch
Watch for revisions to job-posting taxonomies and competency frameworks from major hiring platforms, whether the 42% and 52% figures hold up as AI adoption matures, and whether other labor-market studies corroborate PwC's headcount-and-wage-growth findings at AI-exposed firms.
Key Points
- 1PwC's 2026 AI Jobs Barometer finds leadership-focused roles saw 42% faster wage growth since 2021, based on over a billion job ads.
- 2Senior skills like leadership and judgment now make up 52% of new skills required in AI-exposed entry-level jobs, per PwC.
- 3PwC also finds AI-exposed companies grow headcount and wages faster than peers, complicating narratives that AI simply destroys jobs.
Scoring Rationale
A large-sample (1B+ job ads), primary-sourced labor-market study with concrete wage and skill-demand figures has real, broad implications for hiring and career development across AI/DS/ML roles; kept at the top of the solid-to-notable band since it is a labor-market signal rather than a technical development.
Sources
Primary source and supporting public references used for this report.
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