Washington State University’s study found employees in 18 industries who had AI fear exhibited behaviors like slacking off, showing up late, and stealing coworkers’ lunches.
Here's what Monday morning looks like
A current sample issue using the latest verified data. Five minutes.
Python appears in 19.3% of 10,827 AI job postings.
Active AI Roles
10,827
Current active inventory
Median Salary
$213K
Historical advertised midpoint
17.1%
Cross-field AI Requirement
6.1%
Remote in Active AI Sample
39.4%
Historical Salary Disclosure
Skills in Demand
| Skill | Mentions | % of Jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Python | 2,093 | 19.3% |
| AWS | 1,100 | 10.2% |
| Azure | 910 | 8.4% |
| RAG | 863 | 8.0% |
| GCP | 680 | 6.3% |
Current events
A Washington state economist analyzes how AI reshapes jobs in the tech industry, drawing parallels to earlier technology shifts.
What changed and why it matters. Engineering has the highest cross-field AI requirement rate at 43.8%, while Python appears in 52.2% of the current AI inventory. Wider model access makes AI workflow skills more useful across teams, and the latest cyber evaluation reports raise the value of testing, monitoring, and clear stop conditions.
Salary by Role
| Role | Median | Sample |
|---|---|---|
| AI/ML Engineer | $212K | 13,809 records |
| Data Scientist | $190K | 1,566 records |
| Product Manager | $220K | 994 records |
| AI Software Engineer | $220K | 1,689 records |
| Research Scientist | $223K | 789 records |
The Bottom Line
- Python leads with 2,093 mentions (19.3% of jobs)
- AI/ML Engineer: $212K median (13,809 roles)
- 20,366 of 51,751 qualified historical records disclose salary
Every issue covers
Built from live job data, not opinions. Updated every week.
This Week's Signal
The week's clearest movement in active AI hiring. Every claim includes its date, denominator, and sample size.
Salary Intelligence
Median comp by role, seniority, and metro. Posted ranges from real job descriptions. Current inventory is separated from the historical compensation sample.
Skills in Demand
Skills employers mention in active AI job descriptions. A trend label appears only when comparable prior snapshots support it.
Current Events and Companies
A short, sourced briefing on product, policy, and company news. Company mentions are research signals, never proof that a company is hiring.
Read the denominator before the headline
AI Pulse keeps current inventory, historical compensation, cross-field adoption, and the premium study separate because they answer different questions.
Active AI inventory
10,827 fresh, deduplicated AI and machine-learning openings as of 2026-10-25. This set powers current skill and job-board coverage.
Cross-field adoption
27,212 of 158,930 active postings require AI skills or are AI-native, equal to 17.1%.
Historical compensation
20,366 of 51,751 qualified historical AI records disclose pay. The dataset's advertised annual midpoint is $213K.
March premium study
1,439 salary-disclosing AI jobs from March 2026 are compared with May 2025 BLS occupational medians. This study doesn't measure current-week pay movement.
Job postings can be revised or removed. Advertised compensation isn't guaranteed pay, and a company mention isn't evidence of an active opening unless the listing is present on the job board.
Past issues
Read recent editions of the Monday Brief, then subscribe to get the next one.
Issue #29
Python appears in 51.8% of the 3,409 AI postings with full descriptions this week.
October 19, 2026
Read issue →Issue #28
AI Safety median moved down $9,500 this week.
October 12, 2026
Read issue →Issue #27
Kubernetes grew 11% this week. Fastest-moving skill in the dataset.
October 05, 2026
Read issue →Issue #26
AI Consultant median moved up $7,460 this week.
September 28, 2026
Read issue →Issue #25
Python just crossed 2,000 job mentions.
September 21, 2026
Read issue →Issue #24
AWS just crossed 1,000 job mentions.
September 14, 2026
Read issue →Frequently Asked Questions
Every Monday. Each issue is designed to take about five minutes.
Yes. The Monday briefing is free, and there is no paid newsletter tier currently advertised.
The current AI job board is a fresh, deduplicated active set. Cross-field AI adoption uses a broader active denominator. Compensation analysis uses a qualified historical set of advertised ranges. Each issue labels the relevant date and sample size.
Yes. The job board contains AI and machine-learning roles, while the briefing also measures AI requirements across Engineering, Product, Data, Marketing, Sales, Finance, Operations, People, and Legal postings.
Yes. Recent issues are linked from the Past issues section on this page, and the full archive lives at /newsletter/issues/. Subscribe to get each new Monday Brief in your inbox as it goes out.
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