LinkedIn's Jobs on the Rise 2026 list, compiled from job postings between January 2023 and July 2025, has ranked AI Engineer as Australia's number one fastest growing job. AI literacy is now the most in demand skill across all job categories on the platform, and eight in ten global business leaders say they prefer hiring candidates comfortable with AI tools over those with more experience but lower AI proficiency.
The report also placed Director of AI at number four on the list, with average salaries around $236,000. These are no longer niche technical roles confined to large technology companies. Healthcare, finance, logistics, and government agencies are all recruiting heavily for AI capability.
For Australian small and medium businesses, the most relevant finding may be in the hiring data itself. SMEs showed nine times the headcount growth of large firms over the survey period, with SME hiring up 5% year on year while companies with more than 1,000 employees saw a 3% decline. That pattern suggests the talent pool is increasingly looking at smaller, more agile organisations as attractive places to build careers, particularly where those businesses are investing in AI capability and modern ways of working.
The practical takeaway for business owners is that AI readiness is no longer just about operational efficiency. It is becoming a factor in whether you can attract and retain the people you need. The businesses that are preparing their teams for AI now, building familiarity with the tools, adjusting workflows, and creating space for experimentation, are positioning themselves as employers of choice in a labour market that is actively reshaping itself around this technology.
The window to build that capability before it becomes a baseline expectation is still open. But the data suggests it is narrowing.
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