AI mentions rise in Australian job ads, Indeed says

References to artificial intelligence in Australian job postings have risen sharply, according to Indeed. Its latest analysis found AI mentioned in 6.2% of listings on the platform.

Government hiring is trailing the broader market, with 2.7% of public sector postings mentioning AI.

Indeed's data points to wider use of AI across Australian workplaces, but suggests adoption remains concentrated among a small group of employers. In early 2026, 8.5% of Australian employers on the platform had at least one job posting mentioning AI, up from 5.8% a year earlier.

Even so, nearly two-thirds of AI-related postings came from just 1% of employers by AI posting volume. That concentration has changed little over the past two years, even as AI references have spread into more occupations.

Rising Mentions

After little movement through 2023 and 2024, AI references in Australian job descriptions climbed during 2025 and continued rising in early 2026. In February, 6.2% of postings mentioned AI, up from 3.3% a year earlier.

The strongest uptake was in software development and data and analytics, where 43% of postings mentioned AI. Other occupations with relatively high shares included IT systems and solutions at 27%, industrial engineering at 18%, marketing at 17% and legal at 16%.

Almost half of occupations had an AI posting share above 5% in February, compared with about one-third a year earlier. That suggests broader uptake beyond a narrow group of technology roles, even though most postings still came from a small number of employers.

Mentions of AI in job ads can reflect several things, including demand for AI-related skills, the use of AI tools in day-to-day work, employer use of AI in recruitment, or efforts to highlight AI activity.

Large Firms Lead

The pattern across employers suggests larger businesses are moving faster than smaller ones, though AI-related hiring is not limited to the biggest names. Among the top 1% of employers by total posting volume, 6.0% of job postings mentioned AI in February, compared with 6.7% among the top 20%.

Among the bottom two quintiles of employers, typically smaller firms with only a handful of vacancies, the share was 3.1% to 3.2%. The gap has widened over the past year: the AI posting share for the top 1% of employers has doubled, while the rise among the bottom two quintiles has been much smaller.

Separate federal government tracking cited in the analysis also points to stronger uptake among larger businesses. In the December quarter, 78% of large businesses employing 200 to 500 people reported some degree of AI adoption. That compared with 72% of medium-sized businesses, 60% of small businesses and 36% of micro businesses.

Broad use remained relatively uncommon across industries, ranging from 8% of respondents in services and hospitality to 1% in mining and distribution. Limited use was more common in services, retail, manufacturing, and health and education.

Public Sector Gap

Government hiring lagged the overall market on both broad and narrow measures. In February, 2.7% of government job postings mentioned AI, rising to 4.0% when education and healthcare were excluded, versus 6.2% across Australia overall.

This suggests core government departments and agencies are trailing wider employer adoption by nine to 16 months. The gap may also widen, as overall adoption is increasing faster than government adoption.

The figures come as Canberra rolls out a National AI Plan centred on training and investment in data centres. The analysis notes that regulatory certainty and safety rules will shape the pace of AI uptake, while international policy developments may matter more than domestic settings given Australia's size in the global AI market.

Jobs Impact Limited

Despite the rise in AI references, the report found little evidence so far that AI has materially changed national hiring patterns. Since mid-2023, about 30% of Australian job postings have been in occupations classed as having high exposure to AI tools, and that share has remained broadly flat.

Those occupations include a range of technology jobs, along with accounting, marketing, administrative assistance, and banking and finance. The steady share suggests recent hiring trends have been shaped more by the economic cycle than by widespread AI-related job losses.

Software development and data and analytics, the two occupation groups with the highest AI exposure, were both above year-earlier levels. That contrasts with high-profile layoffs in parts of the technology sector and may point to demand for tech skills across a wider range of industries.

Worker sentiment in the analysis was mixed. Australian respondents were not especially worried that AI would take their own jobs, but a majority believed it could reduce job opportunities across the broader labour market. Many also said AI could improve productivity, while reporting they were not getting enough training to use the tools well.

Respondents also largely believed AI could not perform their full job. That aligns with Indeed research covering nearly 2,900 skills, which found leading AI tools could fully perform only 1% of them.

For now, the data points to a labour market in which AI is becoming more visible in recruitment but has yet to change the overall shape of hiring, with about 30% of job postings still in occupations with high exposure to AI tools.