When you come across a job description today, it may not explicitly reference artificial intelligence, but that absence should not be mistaken for irrelevance. More often than not, employers implicitly assume that applicants have at least a working familiarity with AI tools and can leverage them effectively in day-to-day work. This subtle shift in expectations reflects a broader reality in the modern job market: proficiency with emerging technologies is transforming from an optional advantage into an assumed baseline skill.
According to fresh data compiled by the professional career platform Ladders, this transformation is already visible in hiring patterns. The platform’s recent analysis of job listings revealed that the total number of positions directly related to AI has tripled since 2021. Yet, paradoxically, the percentage of postings that actually mention AI has declined. This pattern, while initially counterintuitive, points to a deeper structural change in how organizations view technology literacy. Marc Cenedella, founder and CEO of Ladders, explained in an interview with *Business Insider* that employers increasingly regard AI not as a niche specialization but as an everyday competency—similar to the way basic proficiency in Microsoft Office is now simply presumed rather than explicitly requested in job descriptions.
Cenedella predicted that explicit references to AI will become progressively rarer, just as job postings long ago stopped highlighting spreadsheet or word-processing expertise. The trend cuts across industries and disciplines. Ladders’ review of roughly a dozen occupational categories found consistent declines in job postings that include specific mentions of AI. In design and user experience roles, for example, the proportion of listings that referenced AI fell from 56.7% in 2021 to 44.6% in 2025, while product management positions exhibited comparable downward movement. Even in software engineering—a field where AI-driven coding agents have sparked concerns about the diminishing demand for less experienced programmers—the share of job descriptions citing AI dropped from 53.5% to 45.8% over the same four-year period.
Cenedella noted, however, that this downward trend in explicit mentions could eventually reverse. Should new waves of highly specialized AI applications emerge within particular industries, employers might once again highlight those competencies in their listings. Such a resurgence, he suggested, may not materialize until 2026 or 2027, when businesses in sectors like sales, pharmaceuticals, or semiconductor manufacturing could begin emphasizing fluency with distinct AI methodologies or platforms tailored to their unique operational needs.
Importantly, the declining frequency of AI references in job postings should not be interpreted as waning enthusiasm for the technology. Ladders’ data actually demonstrates the opposite. By 2025, approximately 525,000 leadership and executive-level postings on the site included some mention of AI—up dramatically from 213,000 in 2021. That means nearly half of all executive listings, around 45%, reference AI in some capacity. The technology’s growing presence in senior management roles underscores how deeply AI has become integrated into strategic decision-making at the highest levels of business.
Interestingly, the acceleration in AI skill adoption is especially pronounced in areas not traditionally defined as technical. Fields such as finance, operations, design, sales, and project management are all rapidly incorporating AI-enabled tools and processes into their workflows. According to Cenedella, this expansion is driven primarily by the technology’s breathtaking pace of evolution. In total, jobs explicitly focused on AI—engineering and development roles in particular—surged from 2.1 million in 2021 to an estimated 6.7 million by 2025, illustrating the unprecedented scale of the transformation.
Yet whether or not a given job listing spells it out, the underlying expectation is clear: employers want workers who can intelligently apply AI to increase productivity and innovate within their roles. Agur Jõgi, chief technology officer at the software firm Pipedrive, described AI fluency as nothing less than “a ticket to the game”—a foundational qualification akin to basic literacy in business software or digital communication. Jõgi emphasized that professionals must develop a nuanced understanding of how artificial intelligence is reshaping their specific industries and job functions. That awareness, he explained, enables individuals to advance at the same speed as their broader professional communities.
By observing how peers and competitors are integrating AI into their daily work—from automating repetitive tasks to generating strategic insights—professionals can identify best practices and adopt them to strengthen their own performance. Conversely, those who resist the incorporation of AI may soon find themselves lagging behind, working longer hours simply to match the efficiency that their colleagues achieve through automation and machine learning tools.
Nevertheless, the first wave of early adopters—those who initially gained an edge by using AI to supercharge their productivity—will eventually see that competitive advantage erode as AI adoption becomes universal. To maintain their momentum, Jõgi observed, ambitious professionals will need to push further, developing new methods or smarter workflows that once again set them apart. In the ever-evolving landscape of technology and work, standing still is not an option. As he succinctly put it, to stay ahead of the competition, you must find a way to work not only harder but more intelligently.
For anyone eager to share a personal story about navigating this changing professional environment, readers are encouraged to reach out to the journalist covering this topic at tparadis@businessinsider.com.
Sourse: https://www.businessinsider.com/fewer-job-listings-mention-ai-still-important-2025-12
