Employer demand for formal degrees is declining for all jobs, but more quickly for jobs exposed to artificial intelligence, according to the 2025 AI Jobs Barometer report by professional services firm PwC published last week.
“AI helps people rapidly build and command expert knowledge ... which could make formal qualifications less relevant,” according to the report which analyzed close to a billion job ads and thousands of company financial reports across six continents.
The technology is also creating rapid turnover in the skills and knowledge workers need to succeed, which may mean that formal degrees become “out of date” more quickly, the report added.
Notably, the skills that employers look for are changing 66% faster in occupations most exposed to AI, such as financial analyst, compared to those least exposed, such as physical therapist. This is up from the 25% recorded last year, according to PwC’s data.
“For workers, a greater emphasis on skills over degrees in hiring may help to democratise opportunity, opening doors for those who lack the time or resources to gain formal degrees,” the report said. “In AI-exposed fields, what matters is increasingly what people can do today, not what they studied in the past.”
