Autodesk 2026 AI Jobs Report: AI hiring in Design and Make more than doubles as students face a new skills gap

Autodesk's second annual AI Jobs Report offers a detailed look at how AI is reshaping the workforce across architecture, engineering, construction, product design, manufacturing, media, and entertainment. For the first time, the report pairs the job-listing analysis with a survey of students and professionals, finding that while basic AI familiarity is high, readiness for the jobs that require industry-specific AI is much lower. "AI is raising the floor for everyone, but it is human ingenuity that will vault the ceiling," said Dara Treseder, chief marketing officer at Autodesk. "That is why access matters. The next generation already has the curiosity, creativity, and ambition to solve real problems. What too many young people still lack are the professional tools, training, and experiences that help turn that potential into a career. Preparing them for the future we're building is a responsibility we all share, and one Autodesk is proud to help lead."

Part one: The job market

Creative roles rise to the top

In just one year, the leaderboard of fastest-growing AI roles has been rewritten. The new entrants are overwhelmingly creative. As AI becomes more ubiquitous in the workplace, demand is shifting from the people who build AI to the people who apply it.

The top 10 fastest-growing AI titles in Design and Make industries:

• AI UX Designer - new to the list, +145%
• AI Creative Technologist - new to the list, +123%
• AI Consultant - new to the list, +90%
• Generative AI Engineer - +83%
• AI Strategist - up from #10 last year, +72%
• AI Content Designer - new to the list, +70%
• AI Systems Designer - +62%
• AI Engineer - down from #1 last year, +55%
• AI Content Creator - down from #2 last year, +50%
• AI Compliance Manager - down two spots, +49%

AI hiring is maturing, not fading:

AI jobs across Design and Make have more than doubled in two years, up 147%, and grew another 33% in the past year alone. Mentions of AI in job listings rose more than 120% in 2024, 56% in 2025, and 46% in 2026. That cooling growth rate points to a shift with AI hiring becoming a structural feature of the labor market and AI fluency becoming a baseline expectation.

Human-centered skills stay on top

Companies are hiring not just to build AI, but to deploy, govern, and scale it responsibly. The top 10 most in-demand skills for AI roles in Design and Make industries this year:

• Design skills - steady at #1
• Operation skills - new this year
• Technical skills - down one
• Communication skills - steady at #4
• Leadership skills - up two
• Coding skills - down one
• Collaboration skills
• People skills
• Training skills - new to the list
• Cybersecurity skills - new to the list

AI hiring is becoming a global baseline

Last year's report showed a widening global divide, with Asia surging ahead at 94% year-over-year growth and outpacing North America. This year, that gap has narrowed with growth slowing and steadying across every region. North America now leads by a slim margin, and AI skills demand is no longer concentrated in isolated hot spots, indicating AI is becoming a global workforce baseline.

Percentage change in AI-related Design and Make job listings, year over year:

• North America: +40% in 2026, compared with +89% in 2025
• Europe: +32% in 2026, compared with +75% in 2025
• Asia: +32% in 2026, compared with +94% in 2025
• South America: +33% in 2026, compared with +63% in 2025
• Oceania: +35% in 2026, compared with +69% in 2025

Part two: Students and the workforce weigh in

For the first time, Autodesk's AI Jobs Report pairs job-listing analysis with a dedicated survey of students and working professionals across the U.S. The big takeaway: Across both groups, people are fluent in everyday AI but far less confident with the specialized skills and tools their careers increasingly require.

Top findings:

• Confident with everyday AI, far less so with industry-specific tools: 82% of students are confident with everyday tools like ChatGPT and Claude, but only 36% feel confident with the AI tools specific to their field. Among professionals, the gap remains: nearly 80% are confident with everyday AI, compared with 49% who feel confident using AI tools specific to their industry.
• Students know where the value is: Nearly two in three students (65%) say field-specific AI skills will matter most for landing a good job, ahead of the 46% who point to general tools like ChatGPT. Meanwhile, the most important skill to professionals? Working creatively with AI.
• But they do not feel prepared: 56% of students are not sure they are learning the right AI skills to land a job when they graduate (up 9 points from 2024) and fewer than 10% feel ready for the jobs emerging in their field.
• They are largely teaching themselves: 80% of students say they are building job-relevant skills by teaching themselves online via YouTube, while just 19% are gaining real-world experience through internships or projects.
• The pull toward physical-world work is strong: 66% of students and 61% of professionals say they want careers where they make things or work with their hands.
• And those careers feel more future-proof: 52% of students say careers that design or build things in the physical world appeal to them as AI changes the workforce. That's more than double the 23% drawn to mainly digital or online work. Another 20% say they see both digital and physical work as equally future-proof.
• Professionals feel it even more strongly: Nearly 63% of professionals say physical-world careers appeal to them as AI reshapes the workforce.

Autodesk's AI-powered technology sits at the center of the jobs designing and making the physical and digital world. By expanding access to the same professional-grade tools used in these fields, Autodesk is helping prepare more people for the high-demand jobs shaping the future.