The IT industry is most likely to require AI skills across countries, followed by professional services and finance. Job vacancies requiring AI skills grew fourfold in Kenya between 2021 and 2024, a World Bank report now indicates, as digital skills continue to form the baseline across many occupations.
As developing countries continue to navigate AI adoption, 40 per cent of ChatGPT’s global traffic came from middle-income countries in mid-2025. Conversely, Kenya, Nigeria and the Philippines saw a tripling of vacancies by mid-2023, maintaining levels above those of early 2021, with strong trends continuing into 2025 and 2026, albeit with recent moderate declines.
“Vacancies doubled in the Arab Republic of Egypt, Pakistan, and the Philippines, and grew fourfold in Kenya, albeit from a very low base. Job vacancies requiring GenAI skills surged ninefold globally from 2022 to 2024,” the World Bank Digital Progress and Trends Report reads in part.
The IT industry is most likely to require AI skills across countries, followed by professional services and finance. “The IT industry demonstrates the highest probability of AI skills demand across most countries, with around eight per cent of IT industry job postings requiring AI skills globally,” the World Bank notes.
Professional services and finance are the other top industries that require AI skills, with about four to five per cent of job postings requiring such competencies. Managers and professionals in manufacturing are also increasingly expected to possess AI skills.
These skills are, however, less required in the agriculture industry. In occupations, software developers, database designers and administrators, mathematicians, and physicists are most likely to require AI skills, with more than 10 per cent of vacancies requiring them.
Since 2022, Nigeria, Morocco, South Africa, Egypt, and Kenya have recorded the highest cross-border migration of high-skilled talent in Africa.