One in three Australian tech ads mentions AI. Only 93 are AI-specialist roles.
The Australian hiring market is changing, but advertisements that mention AI are not the same as AI-specialist jobs. Here are both figures, what they count, and what they mean for teams trying to hire.
AI-skill job postings doubled in a year.
PwC Australia’s 2026 AI Jobs Barometer found that Australian job postings requiring AI skills rose from 20,000 in 2024 to 41,000 in 2025, across technology and non-technology sectors.
PwC uses Lightcast job-posting data. Its measure is broader than the technology-ad sample below: it spans sectors and counts postings that require AI skills. It supports a rise in AI-related demand, not a claim that every advertisement is for an AI specialist.
Most ads that mention AI are not AI jobs.
The AI Jobs Index Australia is published by Building Tech Teams and written by the founder of the recruitment firm NTP Talent. It is built from Adzuna and the major Australian job boards, rescraped weekly, with its role definitions published and its own limits stated, and its weekly series begins in April 2026.
In the 30 days to 2 August 2026 it scanned 2,973 Australian technology advertisements. 959 of them referenced AI or AI skills, which is 32.3%. 93 were AI-specialist roles, where AI is the primary work.
Across nine tracked AI-specialist roles the index counts 516 advertisements over 90 days, with New South Wales the largest source for each. Median advertised salaries are $180,000 for AI Engineer and $165,000 for ML Engineer.
The index states that its AI-specialist count is a strict subset of advertisements mentioning AI, so the volume of work involving AI is larger than the specialist count.
What the numbers count.
These figures count advertisements, not jobs, and the two differ in known ways.
- A role reposted monthly appears several times.
- A role retitled from "ML Engineer" to "AI Engineer" registers as an increase in one category and a decrease in another, with no change to the job.
- Roles filled through networks and referrals are not advertised, so they are not counted at all.
The index publishes its growth figures as growth in advertised demand rather than net headcount change.
Where the roles concentrate.
The advertised salaries sit at the senior end: $180,000 median for AI Engineer, $165,000 for ML Engineer. The index also records a 0.0% visa sponsorship rate across AI-specialist advertisements, meaning none of them state that sponsorship is offered.
Hiring these roles from overseas.
There is no ANZSCO occupation titled “AI Engineer”. Depending on the work, an AI engineering role may align with an ICT occupation such as Software Engineer or Developer Programmer. The Department of Home Affairs uses different occupation lists and ANZSCO versions for different visa programs, and an occupation appearing on a list does not by itself establish eligibility.
Overseas hiring may therefore be possible, but it is an individual immigration process: the nominated occupation, visa stream, skills assessment and every other requirement have to fit the applicant and role. Confirm the current visa-specific requirements with Home Affairs or a registered migration agent. The Australian Computer Society assesses many ICT occupations.
How our teams fit.
We build dedicated development teams in Vietnam. Five senior developers minimum, recruited against the role specification you give us, working for one customer only, on twelve-month terms. You interview every hire, and each team has its own tech lead. The terms and the hiring mechanism are set out on hire dedicated developers.
Because developers are recruited for your named roles rather than allocated from a pool, the skills in the specification are the skills we search for. The team is an engineering unit inside your business: you set the roadmap, the priorities and the standards, and the team delivers against them.
Build your team to tell us which roles you need.
Index figures are cited as AI Jobs Index Australia (2026), ADI and ASDI series, as of 2 August 2026, Building Tech Teams. Immigration information is general and is not migration advice.
Frequently asked questions
How many AI-specialist roles are advertised in Australia?
Can AI engineers be hired from overseas into Australia?
Do advertised figures show how many people companies are hiring?
Can you recruit developers with specific AI experience?
See what a TwinTeams engagement includes.
Senior engineers who become part of your team: one contract, one invoice, twelve months minimum.