AI inspired many employers to take a wait-and-see approach to hiring in 2025, but new data suggest they’ll be returning to the market in search of certain skills in 2026.
According to Upwork’s In-Demand Skills 2026 report, demand for AI-specific proficiencies have more than doubled on the freelancer platform over the last year. But at the same time, nearly half of employers say they’re also putting a premium on human skills, like creativity, emotional intelligence, resilience, and innovation.
“When we look at the fastest growing skills in terms of demand, AI is all over it. That’s not surprising,” says Dr. Gabby Burlacu, licensed organizational psychologist and Upwork’s senior research manager. However: “What is interesting is that this is not growing demand for AI generalists, or even necessarily people who can build AI tools, but rather it’s growing demand for AI applied within a context.”
In 2026, more employers want to inject AI into more business operations, and are seeking candidates that are not only able to utilize the technology, but also maximize its impact by leveraging their human skills and unique experience.
Integrating, Not Building
According to the Upwork study, demand for skills tied to AI is up 109% year-over-year. Skills related to AI video and content creation saw the biggest jump with a 329% increase, followed by AI integration (which helps inject the technology into existing business practices) at 178%. AI data annotation, which specializes in preparing and training content for the purpose of AI model training, ranked third with 154% demand growth.
At the same time, the study found that employers are looking for what are traditionally labelled as “soft skills” or “human skills,” which are increasingly viewed as vital enablers of new tech tools.
“We are seeing enormous demand and recognition from business leaders of just how important nontechnical and uniquely human skill sets are,” says Dr. Burlacu. “They want human judgment, they want creativity, they want innovation, and when we asked business leaders what skills are becoming critical in an AI world, the ability to build or even engage with AI tools wasn’t at the top of that list; it was learning agility and adaptability.”
The study, and others like it, suggest AI isn’t replacing human workers on a wide scale as initially feared. Instead, it’s changing the kinds of skills employers are looking for, putting a higher premium on traits that can’t be automated.
A Labor Market Bounce-back in 2026?
Dr. Burlacu explains that each time a new disruptive AI tool or category of tools hits the market, employers tend to pull back on hiring in that domain as they figure out what exactly the technology is capable of, and where it falls short.
“This [research] suggests that the impact of AI is taking shape, and that it is much more about augmenting how existing domains and roles are done, versus completely replacing the need for human skills,” says Dr. Burlacu. “There’s a tremendous opportunity to use AI to do the work that you do and that you specialize in [today] differently. That is what business leaders are seeking.”
Dr. Burlacu adds that as employers gain a deeper understanding of how AI will impact their business, they’re gradually moving off the sidelines and pursuing the skills they need to best utilize the new technology.
Towards an AI-Enabled Human Workforce
The Upwork study is consistent with a recent McKinsey report titled “Agents, robots, and us: Skill partnerships in the age of AI,” which suggests the future of work will be defined by harnessing the best of both technology and humans.
In that study, researchers examined 7,000 commonly sought-after skills from real job postings across industries and organized them based on those that could be fully automated today, those that will likely never be automated, and those that fell somewhere in between. They ultimately found roughly 70% of skills can be enhanced by technology, but still rely on human expertise. Another 12% remain entirely within the domain of humans while just 18% can be fully handed over to technology.
“The implication is that it’s going to be a world in which we upgrade that skill by using it in conjunction with AI,” says the study’s coauthor and McKinsey Global Institute Partner Anu Madgavkar. “If we can use AI as an assistant or a collaborator or a coworker, then our own ability to use that skill and deploy it will be enhanced.”
Madgavkar explains that in our AI-enabled future, workers won’t need the deep technical expertise required to build their own AI tools. Instead, they will be challenged to utilize the technology to enhance their own capabilities.
“People’s roles are going to change quite a lot and very fast, and you can imagine there’s a degree of anxiety or uncertainty about that,” says Madgavkar. “It’s not just about adoption; it is indeed about reimagining how work gets done, not just at the level of an individual’s job or set of tasks, but really as a whole workflow.”
The Transition is Already Underway
Whether it was the ability to use word processors, social media, or cloud computing, candidates have long been encouraged to list proficiency with the hottest technology of the day on their résumés.
“What’s new is the pace and the level of acceleration,” explains Aashna Kircher, the group general manager of CHRO products at Workday. “The evolution of some of these tools is happening at a pace we’ve never seen, where every day there are new skills, new learnings, new understandings of what is and isn’t possible.”
Fortunately, AI is itself making that education more attainable. According to a Workday’s “Elevating Human Potential: The AI Skills Revolution” report, 83% of employees globally say AI has enhanced their ability to learn new skills.
As the ability to leverage AI to work more efficiently becomes table stakes, Kircher says workers and candidates are quickly becoming valued for the things they can offer that the technology can’t.
“You need to apply context, values, nuanced to AI outputs and systems, as well as ethical decision making, emotional intelligence, relationship building, and connection conflict resolution, leadership skills,” she says.
“It’s not that technical skills aren’t important. They certainly are, but some of these other skills are actually becoming outsized in importance relative to some of the technology skills,” adds Kircher.
