AI is bifurcating the global labor market into two distinct paths

The analysis, which examined over one billion job advertisements across six continents, reveals that 'professionalised' roles—where AI acts as a force multiplier for experts—are expanding twice as fast as 'democratised' roles, which merely simplify tasks for non-specialists. This shift is particularly evident in salary growth, with professionalised positions seeing 42% higher wage increases.

Productivity gains are increasingly concentrated among 'super-star' companies. The top 20% of firms most exposed to AI achieved labor productivity growth of 163% since 2018, nearly five times the rate of other AI-exposed businesses. This success is driving aggressive hiring, with the most AI-integrated companies growing their headcount by 52%, compared to 36% at firms with lower AI exposure.

Entry-level workers are facing a higher barrier to entry. In the United States, junior roles exposed to AI are seven times more likely to demand traditionally senior-level skills such as leadership and creative judgement. While these 'seniorised' entry-level positions have grown by 35% since 2019, more traditional entry-level roles have declined by 10%. Consequently, the wage premium for workers possessing specific AI skills has surged to 62%, with demand for such talent growing at 69%—eight times the rate of the broader labor market.