Increasing demand for AI skills in job ads

The latest SEEK Monthly Employment report has found that references to AI-related skills in job ads jumped 143% last month compared to March 2025. Going back even further to 2019, when talk of artificial intelligence was still largely relegated to video games and science fiction movies, March’s number represents a five-fold increase. Although this jump only means that just 2.9% of all ads on SEEK contain AI references, Country Manager Rob Clark says it’s still a significant development, and is something they’re keeping a close eye on:

“We’re tracking with great interest the number of jobs we see that are asking for AI skills, and that growth is absolutely exponential. It’s still a relatively small proportion of total jobs, but it’s growing at a much faster rate from a skillset perspective than most others, or even all others. In particular we see it in the IT space, but also in areas like Marketing and Communications, where AI skills are starting to have quite a big impact in the type of work being done. It’s not just restricted to those two areas though, we’re seeing AI skills in demand across the board as the skills required and the demand for those skills accelerate.”

Along with these new figures on AI, SEEK’s March numbers show there’s still a place for those who are more comfortable with old-fashioned employment. Job ads rose a solid 13% year-on-year for the month, with Construction leading the pack on 36%, followed by Farming, Animals and Conservation on 33% and Engineering on 27.7%.

At a regional level, the South Island continues to outpace the North, particularly Otago and Southland, which both recorded jumps of more than 20% year-on-year. However, growth for the North Island still came in at relatively healthy levels, with even Auckland registering a modest 5.5% yearly increase after seeing some tough results over the last year or so. With the level of competition per ad also trending downwards in recent months, Rob Clark says the numbers should be heartening news for those on the job hunt:

“The positive momentum is continuing. These figures are overall a lot better than they were a couple of years ago, especially throughout 2024 and into the first half of 2025. Since then we’ve seen reasonable growth on a month-on-month basis. That momentum is building well, and across most sectors and most geographies, we’re benefiting from increased activity in the job market.”

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