As reported by the Singaporean-based The Business Times, the Singapore edition of PwC’s 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer report, released on Monday, showed that the substantial pay premiums came as AI-related job openings last year captured a larger slice of Singapore’s total labour market.

The share of AI-related job postings in Singapore, the world's second-richest country by GDP per capita in 2025 according toThe Economist, jumped to 5.3% in 2025, up from 3.3% the previous year.

This represented an influx of roughly 30,000 additional AI-related listings, bringing total demand to 84,000 roles.

In 2025, advertised roles requiring AI skills in the government and public sector commanded a 107% wage premium compared to non-AI roles within the same sector.

A programmer works in front of computers. Illustration photo from Pexels

While financial services and the tech, media and telecom (TMT) sectors yielded the largest overall volume of job advertisements, the uptick in AI-specific vacancies was visible in all surveyed fields, led by TMT, government and financial services.

The vast majority of this hiring momentum was concentrated in AI user roles rather than AI developer roles, PwC found.

Rather than driving widespread job cuts, the data indicated that Singaporean companies are actively restructuring existing positions to accommodate technological shifts, said PwC.

Occupations with high AI exposure had the highest volumes of total job postings and accounted for more than half of all hiring activity.