AI skills as a baseline: UK employers push AI proficiency across non-technical roles and pay for it

A new report from HiBob reveals that 77% of UK organizations expect AI proficiency to become a baseline requirement across most non-technical roles within the next year. The demand for AI skills in the workplace is accelerating, with nearly all employers (97%) prepared to offer at least a 10% salary premium for AI proficiency. For AI builders and product teams, this shift signals a growing market for internal AI tools, training workflows, and upskilling platforms.

What happened

The HiBob report, covered by TechRadar Pro, surveyed UK organizations and found that 82% are investing in AI upskilling, while 80% have clear strategies to recruit candidates with strong AI skills. This near-identical split between upskilling existing workers and hiring new talent shows that organizations are hedging their bets.

Training approaches vary widely. 33% of employers fund external learning opportunities, 33% dedicate time for experimentation, and 31% provide pre-built prompts and workflows. No single method dominates, which means the market for AI upskilling tools and content is still fragmented.

AI proficiency is also becoming a factor in career progression. 63% of organizations consider AI skills in promotion decisions, and 61% include AI in regular performance reviews. This creates a direct incentive for workers to invest in their own AI capability.

HiBob CEO Ronni Zehavi emphasized that "the winners in the AI era will be the organisations that can define a shared language of skills, identify where capability truly sits, and pivot talent to where it creates the most value".

Why AI builders should care

For teams building AI products, this trend means your users are increasingly expected to be AI-literate. If you sell to UK enterprises, your onboarding and documentation should assume a baseline of AI proficiency. The demand for pre-built prompts and workflows (used by 31% of employers) suggests that companies want ready-made solutions, not just raw model access.

The salary premium for AI skills also means that internal champions for your product may have more leverage to advocate for adoption. If your tool helps non-technical workers demonstrate AI proficiency, it directly supports their career growth.

Practical implications

If you are building internal AI tools or upskilling platforms, consider these patterns:

• Funding for learning: 33% of employers pay for external courses. Your product could integrate with learning management systems or offer certification paths.
• Dedicated experimentation time: 33% give employees time to play. Sandbox environments with guided workflows could capture this use case.
• Pre-built prompts and workflows: 31% provide these. A library of role-specific AI templates (e.g., for HR, marketing, finance) could reduce friction.

The HiBob research is UK-focused, but similar trends appear globally. A Harvard Business Review article notes that generative AI is raising the bar for knowledge workers, and McKinsey reports that over 70% of skills employers seek are relevant in both automatable and non-automatable work.

Caveats

This data comes from a single report by HiBob, a UK-based HR platform. The sample may overrepresent organizations already invested in AI. Actual applicability varies by region, industry, and company size. The report does not define "AI proficiency" precisely, so what counts as baseline skills may differ across employers. The salary premium of 10% is an average; some roles may command more or less.