Employers are rethinking graduate programs as AI reshapes entry-level work, but human skills still decide who gets hired
Digital skills are now a baseline requirement for most jobs, and the workers who have them are being paid more for doing the same work, according to recent research from job site Indeed and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The findings arrive as a generation of graduates who grew up with digital platforms enters the workforce, and as employers rethink how they hire and develop early career talent for an AI-shaped workplace.
The Indeed and ADB Skills That Pay 2026 report analysed more than six million job postings across six markets in the Asia-Pacific, covering the period from 2019 to 2024. It found nearly nine in 10 job advertisements now require some level of digital competency, with just 13 per cent listing no digital skills at all.
The pay gap tracks proficiency. Researchers compared postings with the same job title at the same employer, controlling for other requirements, to isolate the wage difference linked to digital skills. In country-level results published so far, advanced capabilities such as programming, AI and machine learning attracted premiums of around 26 per cent and roughly 30 per cent.
AI-related skills add a further uplift, which Indeed puts at around 4 per cent for roles requiring AI use and about 6 per cent for AI development.
Why demand for digital skills will only grow
"Digital skills are no longer a nice-to-have – they've become a baseline requirement for career progression and higher earnings," said Callam Pickering, senior Asia-Pacific (APAC) economist at Indeed.
The sharpest growth is happening outside the technology sector. According to the report, roles in retail, customer service, education and healthcare are moving beyond basic digital literacy towards data analysis and AI-powered tools.
In discussion with HRD, Pickering said responsibility for closing skills gaps increasingly sits with employers.
"On the job training and skill development will be critical to attracting talent and avoiding critical shortages. New digital skills emerge rapidly, particularly regarding artificial intelligence, and finding candidates who tick every box is often difficult. Closing the gap between a good candidate and the ideal candidate falls to the employer – many skill gaps can be addressed through on-the-job training and investment in human capital," he said.
Silvia Garcia Mandico, an economist at the ADB and co-author of the study, said: "This underscores the importance of expanding opportunities for workers to acquire and continuously upgrade their digital skills, so they can adapt to technological change and share in its benefits."
Graduates arrive fluent, but employers still hire for judgement
Younger workers may hold an early advantage, as HRD has explored in its coverage of how AI is redefining entry-level roles for young workers. But Shanan Green, chief executive officer of the Australian Association of Graduate Employers (AAGE), said technical fluency alone is not what employers screen for.
"When we survey or talk to our employer members about the skills that they continue to assess for and prioritise in their recruitment of students and graduates, it continues to be the skills like communication and critical thinking and judgment and teamwork," Green told HRD.
She said the capabilities that matter most are learned in the workplace. "Their decision-making capability, their understanding of when and how to use the technology, and importantly sometimes when not to – they're the sorts of things that you learn from being on the job."
How are employers redesigning graduate programs?
The AAGE's The Future of Early Careers report, developed with research firm McCrindle, found 47 per cent of employers recruit graduates as part of strategic workforce planning. But forecasting which graduate roles they will need has become the top recruitment challenge, cited by 38 per cent of employers in 2026, up from 25 per cent in 2025.
Green said leading employers are building AI into program design. "The organisations that are really focused on their early careers programs are aware of the fact that AI is augmenting the types of roles or the work that people might do in those early career positions or those graduate programs, and they are responding to that by investing in or designing their graduate program accordingly," she said.
The report found 81 per cent of employers run a formal graduate development program, 92 per cent assign graduates a buddy and 70 per cent provide a formal mentor. Yet only 19 per cent offer a structured talent program once the graduate program ends – a gap that matters as research warns AI is squeezing entry-level jobs and future leaders.
HRD's own audience appears split on how fast to move. In a small, informal LinkedIn poll asking whether organisations are redesigning roles to hire for digital skills, 44 per cent said the work was well underway and 33 per cent said they planned to start. A further 22 per cent said it was not on their radar, and no respondents said they were just getting started.
That divide reflects wider pressure on employers to rethink workforce plans amid an AI hiring surge. For Green, the answer is balance. Employers want digital literacy alongside the ability to keep learning and apply judgement, she said, "because you can't have one without the other."
