Forbes flags new AI career divide

Forbes contributor Bernard Marr wrote on April 27 that a new AI divide is opening up at work: people who can use the tools are pulling away from those who cannot. (forbes.com) Marr’s argument leans on labor-market data rather than a single hiring announcement. He said employers are starting to reward workers who can turn AI into faster output, lower costs, or new revenue. (forbes.com) The clearest number comes from PwC’s 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer, released June 3, 2025. PwC said workers with artificial intelligence skills saw an average 56% wage premium in 2024, up from 25% in the previous year. (pwc.com) PwC also said industries most exposed to AI posted revenue-per-employee growth of 27% between 2018 and 2024, versus 9% in the least exposed industries. In the same report, job openings in more AI-exposed roles still grew 38%, even though that lagged less-exposed occupations. (pwc.com) That helps explain the divide Marr described. Companies are not only hiring for “AI roles”; they are changing expectations inside existing jobs in marketing, software, analysis, support, and operations. (forbes.com) (weforum.org) The World Economic Forum, citing recent research in February 2026, said AI skills and experience are increasingly affecting wages, job quality, and hiring decisions. Its summary framed AI as a general-purpose technology that is reorganizing work rather than simply replacing one task at a time. (weforum.org) Other data point to the same split, but with pressure on entry-level workers. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said on February 24, 2026 that the job market had become especially tough for new graduates in AI-exposed fields even as wages in those sectors kept rising faster than the national average. (dallasfed.org) Dallas Fed researchers said nominal average weekly wages nationwide had risen 7.5% since fall 2022, while computer systems design wages were up 16.7%. Among the top 10% of AI-exposed industries, wages rose 8.5%, according to the bank. (dallasfed.org) Boston Consulting Group added in April 2026 that AI is more likely to reshape many jobs than erase them outright. Its analysis said augmentation and new-role creation can happen quickly, while full substitution is likely to be slower. (bcg.com) The result is a labor market that is starting to sort workers by proof, not posture. The premium is going to people who can show that AI changes their output on the job. (forbes.com) (pwc.com)