What the Hays Salary Guide FY26/27 Tells Us About AI Readiness

Top 5 Insights

1. AI adoption has raced ahead of enablement

Six in ten employees now use AI regularly at work, roughly in line with the number of organisations that say they're using it. Adoption, in other words, is no longer the question. The gap is in support: only 22% of employees say they've had any training to use AI in their work, and more than half report none at all. The tools are on the desk; the guidance to use them well is missing.

2. There's no agreed way to prove AI capability

This is where the report gets especially interesting for professionals. When employers were asked how they judge AI competency in hiring, there was no consensus, and 43% said none of the usual credentials give them confidence. In a market flooded with AI-assisted applications, being able to demonstrate genuine, verifiable capability is quickly becoming the thing that sets candidates apart.

3. Skills shortages are structural, not seasonal

More than 80% of organisations reported a skills shortage in the past year, up on the year before, with Australia feeling it harder than New Zealand. The shortages cluster in technical domains. At the same time, most employees believe their own skills are current, a disconnect that points less to complacency than to a missing conversation about which capabilities organisations actually need.

4. Confidence in adapting to new technology is thin

Only around 9% of organisations say they feel very confident they'll be able to adapt to new technologies and tools in the near future. For a workforce being asked to absorb AI at pace, that's a striking admission, and a clear signal that capability building can't be left to chance.

5. Pay is rising, but recognition matters more than ever

Salaries are edging up, with an average expected increase of 3.8% over the coming year, but the rise isn't lifting everyone equally, and pay alone isn't keeping people in their seats. Progression, development and demonstrable skills are increasingly what drive both retention and market value. Employees themselves rank funded courses, certifications and clear development pathways among the support they most want.

Where this meets Digital Pulse

Digital Pulse finds that while most Australian workers have tried AI, only 7% demonstrate advanced AI literacy, the same enablement gap Hays sees from the employer side. Its key insight for professionals: accredited training mapped to recognised frameworks such as the Skills for the Information Age (SFIA) is associated with a wage premium of 7.3%, around $8,600 a year for the average technology worker. Where Hays shows employers struggling to identify genuine capability, Digital Pulse shows that recognition and credentialing are how that gap gets closed, giving professionals a measurable edge.

See the full salary benchmarks

For detailed, role-by-role salary ranges across technology and every other sector, the complete data is available in the Hays Salary Guide FY26/27. Download the full guide from Hays to benchmark your role and region.

Key Takeaway

The message for technology professionals is clear. AI fluency is fast becoming a baseline expectation, but fluency alone won't distinguish you in a crowded market. Recognised, verifiable capability will, and it increasingly comes with a pay premium to match.

For employers, the lesson is just as direct: access to AI tools is not the same as capability, and the organisations that invest in developing and formally recognising their people will be the ones that turn AI's promise into productivity.

Salary data and workforce findings sourced from the Hays Salary Guide FY26/27. Capability and economic insights sourced from ACS Australia's Digital Pulse 2026, produced by Deloitte Access Economics.