The Fearless Future: 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer

PwC’s 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer analysed nearly a billion job ads and numerous financial reports from 24 territories, including Malaysia, revealing AI's significant impact on jobs, wages, skills, and productivity. ​

In Malaysia's evolving job market, AI is creating new opportunities by automating routine tasks while increasing demand for skills like critical thinking, creativity, and emotional intelligence – qualities that remain distinctly human. This shift towards enabling professionals to focus on higher-value work mirrors historical technological revolutions where initial job disruptions ultimately led to expanded opportunities. ​

Our data underscores similar findings, indicating that while legitimate concerns exist about AI displacing certain roles, AI can make workers more valuable, not less. Revenue per employee—perhaps the most direct measure of the value workers create—is growing three times faster in industries most exposed to AI globally.

Malaysia rides the AI wave​

AI skills are increasingly sought after across various Malaysian industries. The information and communication sector is at the forefront, with AI-related job postings rising from 4.4% to 5.4% between 2021 and 2024. This trend reflects Malaysia's growing digital economy which hit a record RM163.6 billion investment in 2024. The Malaysian manufacturing sector is also experiencing growth in AI-driven roles, as listings have increased from 1.4% to 2.9% between 2023 and 2024.

AI skills demand is not just a phase. With nearly half of Malaysian CEOs prioritising AI integration into business processes over the next three years, we may see sustained demand for AI-skilled workers for quite some time.​

But human skills still count—this is particularly prevalent for the healthcare industry where AI has yet to take root for Malaysia. We see a similar trend from Asia Pacific peers included in the study such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

Share of AI job postings by sector, Malaysia, 2021-2024

So, what does this mean for workers?

While concerns persist that the rise of AI may negatively impact wages and bargaining power, our study reveals a silver lining: wage growth in AI-exposed industries is actually twice the rate of other sectors. This accelerated growth is seen in both automatable roles, where many tasks can be completed by AI, and augmentable roles, where AI enhances or supports human judgment and expertise.​

AI has transcended its status as merely a topic for futurologists—it should now be a strategic element within business models. The responsibility falls on business leaders to design roles, cultivate mindsets and enable operational workflows in which humans and AI work together harmoniously to achieve optimal outcomes. With proper implementation, AI serves not as a threat, but as a catalyst for creating more meaningful and better-compensated work.