Wholesale and
Retail Trade

AI Jobs Barometer | Wholesale and Retail Trade

Wholesale and Retail Trade

Hesitant—but increasing—AI adoption, with immense potential

As an industry that traditionally has offered a wide range of job opportunities¹, our analysis shows the Wholesale and Retail Trade industry maintained one of the highest shares of job postings in 2024.

Yet the industry has adopted AI more slowly than many others, as reflected in the demand for AI skills within job advertisements. This may be because historically a large proportion of roles in the industry have involved physical tasks rather than digital or technical work².

But while AI adoption may have been slower in this industry than in some others, successful AI applications are rising, and AI is increasingly changing jobs across organisations and roles.

In this industry report, we examine how the Wholesale and Retail Trade industry is adopting AI and how this is affecting jobs and talent.

AI-exposed jobs are jobs that contain many tasks in which AI can be used. Example jobs: financial analysts, data entry workers.¹ We use ‘AI-powered’ as an equivalent term to AI-exposed.

Augmentable jobs are AI-exposed jobs in which AI enhances or supports human judgment and expertise on many tasks. Example jobs: surgeons, judges.²

Automatable jobs are AI-exposed jobs in which AI can carry out many tasks. Example jobs: software coders, customer service workers.

^{[1] International Labor Organization, ‘Statistical profile of the wholesale and retail trade sector,’ September 2023
[2] UMD-LinkUp AI Maps Project, ‘Difference of AI jobs across economic sectors,’ January 2025}

AI Jobs Barometer | Wholesale and Retail Trade

Job volume remains high, with volatility shaped by demand cycles

Despite continuous changes in job content and skill profiles, the overall job share of the industry has stayed relatively stable, albeit with some cyclical movement. The industry’s share of jobs grew from 13.8% in 2012 to 16.0% in 2024, peaking at 17.4% in 2020.

Between 2012 and 2019, the Wholesale and Retail Trade had the most vacancies of any industry, before Healthcare took the lead as demand for health professionals surged in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic (Figure 1).

These fluctuations may reflect seasonal cycles, macroeconomic shifts and global shocks, including, for example, e-commerce growth, supply chain disruptions and technological developments—including the advance of AI.

Figure 1: The Wholesale and Retail Trade industry is second only to Healthcare in share of job postings in 2024

Share of job vacancies in the Wholesale and Retail Trade sector over time, 2012 to 2024, selected countries*

^{Sources: PwC analysis of Lightcast data}

*Note that some countries only have data from 2018 or 2021 onwards. For consistency purposes, in this metric we only include the six countries that have full postings data from 2012 onwards: US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

AI Jobs Barometer | Wholesale and Retail Trade

Demand for AI skills is on the rise but lags other industries

Our research shows AI adoption is starting to speed up in the industry—the proportion of postings requiring AI skills reached 1.5% in 2024, marking a small but steady increase over 2023 (Figure 2). Compared to other industries, however, the demand for AI skills remains modest in this industry.

Some organisations in Wholesale and Retail Trade are using AI applications for inventory management, customer analytics and dynamic pricing, for instance. They are experimenting with chatbots, augmented reality tools and predictive forecasting systems.

AI in retail is making shopping more guided, while supply chains are becoming more automated³. Some fashion retailers, for example, are using AI for supply chain optimisation and consumer behaviour analysis but retaining human involvement in creative design and customer engagement⁴.

Figure 2: The share of jobs requiring AI skills is slowly rising in the Wholesale and Retail Trade industry

Share of job vacancies that require AI skills in the Wholesale and Retail Trade sector over time, 2012 to 2024, selected countries*

^{Sources: PwC analysis of Lightcast data}

^{[3] Platform Revolution, ‘Assistance, augmentation, and automation,’ 2025}
^{[4] Numalis, ‘How AI is transforming the wholesale and retail trade landscape,’ 13 February 2024}

AI Jobs Barometer | Wholesale and Retail Trade

Both AI-augmentable and AI-automatable jobs are seeing growth

Between 2019 and 2014, the industry saw robust demand for both augmentable roles and automatable roles, which grew at a similar rate: 70% versus 61%, respectively (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Job numbers are growing at a similar rate for both automatable and augmentable jobs in Wholesale and Retail Trade

Average job growth for augmentation and automation, 2019 to 2024, by industry

^{Sources: PwC analysis of Lightcast data}

AI Jobs Barometer | Wholesale and Retail Trade

AI adoption is picking up and transforming work—but AI talent is scarce and expensive

As organisations increasingly adopt AI, our research shows that workers with the relevant AI skills in Wholesale and Retail Trade command the highest wage premium across all industries of 122%. This is significantly higher than the 56% premium average across industries (Figure 4).

The particularly high premium in Wholesale and Retail Trade may indicate the value of AI skills when layered onto core retail and logistics roles, and signals both the strategic value and scarcity of such capabilities in the market.

Figure 4: AI skills in Wholesale and Retail Trade attract the highest wage premium of any industry

Average wage premium for jobs if they are listed with ‘AI skills’, 2024, by sector

^{Sources: PwC analysis of Lightcast data}

The average wage premium is calculated by averaging findings per industry. We do not weight by sample size. Our analysis includes occupations more exposed to AI (not those less exposed to AI).

AI Jobs Barometer | Wholesale and Retail Trade

AI is changing the skills workers need to succeed

As AI adoption grows, the skills required to perform some jobs is changing too. Skills sought by employers in Wholesale & Retail Trade for AI-exposed jobs are changing particularly quickly in Singapore, the US, and Germany.

Between 2019 and 2024, the net skill change in the industry was similar for augmentable and automatable jobs. However, it differed across regions. Net skill change was higher for augmentable jobs in Singapore, indicating transformation in service and retail roles. In Germany, France, Spain and Switzerland, on the other hand, automatable jobs experienced higher net skill change, likely linked to changes in logistics or warehousing.

As AI adoption grows, the skills required to perform some jobs is changing too.

Figure 5: In most countries, augmentable jobs have experienced similar net skill change to automatable jobs

Net skill change for jobs more exposed to augmentation and automation in the Wholesale and Retail Trade sector between 2019 and 2024, by territory

^{Sources: PwC analysis of Lightcast data}

For this analysis we use a subset of developed countries that have good data availability.

AI Jobs Barometer | Wholesale and Retail Trade

Next steps for business leaders

1. Use AI for enterprise-wide transformation. Many organisations are starting to use AI for isolated use cases. But the real benefit comes when AI is used to transform value creation at an enterprise-wide level, generating new revenue streams and gaining competitive advantage.

2. Treat AI as a growth strategy, not just an efficiency strategy. Companies are using AI not just to control headcount but rather to help workers create more value. Companies who use AI only to reduce staff numbers may miss out on the much bigger opportunities to use AI to claim new markets or generate new revenue streams.

3. Prioritise agentic AI which is an exponential workforce multiplier. With AI agents at their command, workers can achieve much more. Business leaders who adopt agents early won’t just cut costs – they can create organisations that think, adapt, and execute faster than competitors. PwC’s agent OS helps businesses get the greatest value from their agents by enabling them to work as a team – sharing context, operating across platforms, and learning from one another.

4. Enable your workforce to have the skills to make the most of AI’s power. As AI creates huge churn in the skills workers need, build a clear, data-based picture of skills gaps and create a plan for closing them.

5. Unlock AI’s transformative potential by building trust. Our research suggests the growth dividend from AI is not guaranteed and depends on more than just technical success – it also hinges on responsible deployment, clear governance and public and organisational trust.

Learn more