LinkedIn's Jobs on the Rise 2026 list has ranked AI Engineer as the number one fastest growing job in Australia, based on job posting data from January 2023 through July 2025. It is one of the clearest signals yet that AI is not just changing how businesses operate. It is changing what businesses need to hire for.
The headline number is striking, but the detail underneath it matters more. AI literacy is now the single most in-demand skill across every job category on LinkedIn, not just technology roles. Eight in ten global business leaders say they would prefer a candidate who is comfortable with AI tools over a candidate with more experience but lower AI proficiency. That is a meaningful shift in how hiring decisions are being made right now, not in some projected future state.
The salary data reflects the scarcity. Director of AI ranked fourth on the same list, with average salaries around $236,000. Organisations that have not started building AI capability into their teams are already paying a premium to attract people who have it. That premium will only increase as demand grows and the pool of genuinely experienced candidates stays limited.
The SME data deserves a closer look. Small businesses showed nine times the headcount growth of large firms in AI-related roles during this period, with SME hiring up 5 per cent year on year. Companies with more than 1,000 employees saw hiring in these areas decline by 3 per cent. The assumption that AI talent investment is something only large enterprises can afford does not hold up.
The practical question for most business owners is not whether they need AI capability in their team. That question is already answered. The question is whether they are building it through hiring, through upskilling existing staff, or through external support. Each path has different costs, timelines, and risks. The businesses working that out now are the ones that will not be scrambling for scarce and expensive talent in twelve months.
Full report via Information Age. https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2026/ai-jobs-are-the-fastest-growing-in-australia.html
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