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AI skills in data job ads, 2026

Live dataLast updated 29 October 2026

Above averageOften names a tool

27%of 2,756 data ads ask for AI

  1. Data 27%
  2. All 11 roles 25%

Asks for AIAs a requirement

Rank
#7 of 11
As a requirement
10%
Name a tool
32%
Most-named tool
Cursor
Companies asking
322

How many data job ads ask for AI

  • 27% of 2,756 data job ads ask the candidate to use AI in the work, 2 points above the 25% across all roles.
  • 10% say it in the language of a requirement: must, expected, daily, proficient.
  • Data ranks 7 of 11 roles. Engineering ads ask in 30%.
  • 32% of the data ads that ask for AI name a tool. Cursor is named most, then Claude Code.
  • 322 companies ask for AI in at least one data ad.

AI skills in data job ads vs other roles

  1. Design 46%
  2. Marketing 34%
  3. Product 31%
  4. Engineering 30%
  5. People and recruiting 30%
  6. Finance 29%
  7. Data 27%
  8. Legal and compliance 26%
  9. Operations 26%
  10. Customer support and success 20%
  11. Sales 17%
Asks for AIAs a requirementSource: Lemonsignal, 29 October 2026

Companies that ask for AI in data job ads

  1. 1Distyl AI8 of 8 data ads
  2. 2Juniper Square6 of 6 data ads
  3. 3Datafold4 of 4 data ads
  4. 4Komodo Health4 of 4 data ads
  5. 5Ridgeline4 of 4 data ads
  6. 6Cresta3 of 3 data ads
  7. 7DoiT3 of 3 data ads
  8. 8Dune3 of 3 data ads

AI skills and tools data job ads ask for

  • “You use AI coding tools (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or equivalent) as a genuine part of how you work, and you can be specific about where they add real value and where they introduce risk in a governed analytics codebase.”

    PleoStaff Analytics Engineer

  • “Proficiency in collaborative and BI tooling (e.g., Google Suite, Confluence/Jira, Looker), with AI as your default way of working — you use GenAI and agentic workflows as a force multiplier, not an occasional assistant.”

    FeedzaiSenior Analyst Engineer - Intelligence Management

  • “We expect you to already be building AI-assisted or agentic workflows in your daily analytical work, to be able to show how you validate their outputs and where they fail, and to treat AI as a force multiplier.”

    TRM LabsSenior / Staff Threat Intelligence Analyst, Hacks

  • “You build with AI coding agents fluently and have a track record of using them not just to ship features, but to automate the engineering process itself — review, triage, testing, and CI.”

    RoboflowMachine Learning Engineer - Inference Maintainer & Developer Experience

  • “Use AI tools in your own day-to-day work — for tasks like data analysis, documentation, testing, or reporting — to increase personal and team efficiency and free up time for higher-value work.”

    PagerDutySenior HRIS Analyst

  • “Comfort with AI-Assisted Development : Experience using agentic coding tools such as Claude Code, Codex, or similar to build and maintain analytics pipelines, automate recurring reporting, or accelerate exploratory analysis.”

    UpstartStaff Analyst, Investor Analytics

How we counted AI skills in data job ads

From 2,756 data job ads on the public job boards of 1,333 software companies, read on 29 October 2026. An ad counts when it asks the person to use AI in their own work. The role comes from the job title. The full method and its limits.

Questions about AI skills in data job ads

How many data job ads ask for AI skills?

27% of 2,756 data job ads at software companies on 29 October 2026 asked the candidate to use AI in the work, and 10% said it as a requirement.

Which AI tools do data job ads name?

32% of the data ads that ask for AI name a tool. Most named: Cursor (98 ads), Claude Code (96 ads), Claude (85 ads).

How do you test AI skills for data roles?

Give a real task from the job, let the candidate use the AI tool they already use, and read their conversation with the AI as well as what they hand in. Look for whether they check what the AI gives them.

See how candidates really work with AI.

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