Workers Race to Upskill as AI Proficiency Commands 56% Higher Pay

The job market’s new survival strategy isn’t hiding from AI — it’s getting so good at using it that you become indispensable. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer, workers with AI expertise command wages 56% higher than their traditional counterparts. That gap is driving an educational gold rush, with employees racing to master AI and universities struggling to keep up with demand.

• The University of Texas at Austin’s online AI master’s program enrolled 1.5K students in its second year — overwhelming staff with late-night and weekend application reviews.
• The University of Michigan-Dearborn’s AI program grew from 21 students in 2021 to 172 today, while MIT’s AI major is now the school’s second most popular undergraduate track.

Skills evolution underway: PwC’s chief AI officer, Dan Priest, believes AI “is changing jobs” and “the value proposition of [the human] is evolving, so skills have to evolve.” Even working nurses, doctors, and former teachers are enrolling in AI programs to future-proof their careers. With the World Economic Forum projecting AI and big-data skills to see the biggest rise in importance over the next five years, workers are betting that AI literacy will separate tomorrow’s winners from yesterday’s workforce.