AI skills in higher demand than MBAs in financial services

As artificial intelligence continues to take over the financial services industry, a new report by PwC found there is more demand for AI skills than even MBA degrees, which were traditionally the gold standard for workforce talent in the field.

According to the AI Workforce Planning Gap in Financial Services report, 86% of financial companies, including insurance, say that “AI skills training is more valuable than an MBA for many new hires.”

“Our interpretation of that is that it’s a supply-demand issue right now,” Peter Pollini, financial services industry leader, PwC US, said. “Every firm is looking to add capabilities of either technical staff or experienced users of AI tools or agents.”

Pollini noted that this may not be a long-term trend, as “availability of those resources isn’t what it likely will be at some point in the future, as people continue to get trained and more familiar with different tools.”

That said, for now, PwC’s report found that 91% of executives are willing to pay more for employees with AI skills. Around 60% said they expect more performance-based pay going forward, that they would be willing to pay a premium for AI fluency, and that compensation would be tied to AI capabilities.

“What was interesting is that when you look at, I’ll call it ‘the value of moving quicker’ and the skills needed, most executives said that they would pay for performance impact, but also just for moving quicker based on the skills,” Pollini said.

He noted these results reinforce the findings of the PwC 2026 AI Jobs Barometer, which underscored the emphasis executives are placing on acquiring and upskilling AI talent in their workforce.

Again, around 60% of firms surveyed said they plan to hire new employees with AI-specific skills in the coming year, plan to upskill or reskill existing employees and plan to partner with external vendors or service providers.

Talent acquisition vs. upskilling

PwC’s AI Workforce study did not include questions on hiring new staff versus upskilling existing teams, but Pollini suggested firms may likely choose a combination of both for the short and medium term.

“Most employees of companies that are deploying AI will need to be trained on how to use the tools. That’s different from the technical skills that you need to go out and build and train and manage an agent,” he noted.

At the same time, he said there are “geographic considerations” as some firms are “just located in places where the talent pool for technical resources is historically maybe not as high as other places, and they’ve always had to rely on some level of self-training and upskilling.

“Talent acquisition can be expensive, and so the more you can rely on training to upskill your people to use tools versus bringing new people in, my guess is that will be a priority for most,” Pollini said.

Inadequate workforce planning

While many firms responding to PwC’s survey are “moving aggressively on AI,” the report highlights a significant gap — numerous firms are not implementing sufficient workforce planning necessary to adapt to these changes.

Eight in 10 firms expect their workforce to shrink by around 20% over the next five years, especially for entry-level positions and some middle management roles.

Pollini explained that, while PwC has not yet published this data, there is an expectation that there will likely be four “categories of labor in the future:”

1. Individuals with no change to their day-to-day environment
2. AI-enhanced individuals
3. Digital workers or AI agents
4. Individuals who provide highly technical AI resources

He said the first group of individuals, who will have no change to their daily roles, “will be quite small over time.”

The second group will be people “who are doing their jobs differently every day because they have access to new tools and new information and the ability to manage their day and their daily activities differently using AI.”

The third group, “digital workers, just like humans, need to be trained, need to be monitored for performance and need some sort of maintenance, just like we all do in terms of learning and education or downtime to rest.”

And, finally, the fourth group will comprise of highly skilled, technical individuals who will be responsible for “actually running an automated AI-enabled or agentic business.”

“That fourth labor category, that technical resource requirement, I don’t know many companies that have a level of comfort around what the skill sets are or what number of people they need to supplement a more automated environment or more AI-enabled workforce. That’s the piece I think most people are still trying to figure out right now,” Pollini said.

Despite these potential changes, only 50% of study respondents said they have weighed redesigning processes or workflows to account for AI adoption and the changes that come along with it.

“Firms need to be thinking about planning around the commitments that you’re making as a management team and being able to deliver on those,” Pollini said.

The PwC AI Workforce Planning Gap in Financial Services report surveyed 1,004 executives of financial services firms from May 12 to 22, 2026. Respondents included fields of asset and wealth management, banking and capital markets, insurance and private equity.

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Rayne Morgan is a journalist, copywriter, and editor with over 10 years' combined experience in digital content and print media. You can reach her at rayne.morgan@innfeedback.com.