Field
AI-Enabled Solutions
Date
April 2026
Abstract
The rapid spread of artificial intelligence across industries has created a widening gap between the skills employers now expect and the skills the workforce is prepared to offer. This study measures that gap across eight core business functions—finance, accounting, marketing, sales, management, HR, operations, and analytics—using a mixed-methods approach that compares real-time employer demand with the federal occupational baseline.
On the demand side, 1,435 job postings were collected from Google Jobs through SerpAPI between February and March 2026 and coded using a 50-keyword skill taxonomy covering 8 AI skill categories and 10 traditional skill categories. On the supply side, 36 occupations from O*NET 30.2, released in November 2024, were mapped to the same business functions and taxonomy. A Skill Gap Index, calculated as Demand % minus Supply %, was then used for each skill-function combination.
The results show that 64.5% of business job postings now require at least one AI-related skill, with RPA and automation (39.6%) and AI literacy (31.6%) appearing most often. Of the 64 AI skill-function combinations examined, 59 show zero supply in O*NET, pointing to a major lag in how the federal workforce framework currently defines business roles. Job postings asking for three or more AI skills also offer a 46% salary premium compared with postings requiring none ($146,729 versus $100,515). Just as importantly, AI skills do not replace traditional business skills. Instead, they appear to strengthen them, as AI-intensive postings require 32% more traditional skills.
These findings indicate that universities, employers, and workforce development programs should treat AI literacy as a cross-functional skill that must be built alongside, rather than instead of, core business foundations.
Recommended Citation
Aliev, Eldar; Newman, Alek; Govea, Daniel; Sternweiler, Elijah; Vega, Juan; and Bobrenev, Stepan, "Addressing the AI skill gap in the business industry" (2026). Pacific Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit (PIES). 37.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/pies/37
