THE
ACCOUNT
The latest in finance and business
THE
ACCOUNT
The latest in finance and business
More for less
The growth of AI has been accompanied from the start by dire warnings about the technology displacing humans from the jobs market. No surprise there. More surprising though, is an exponential increase in the number of job ads stipulating AI skills as a requirement while also offering lower salaries, even as they demand more from their recruits.
According to a report on US site, JobLeads, between 2024 and 2025, the number of adverts including “AI knowledge required” among the expected skills shot up by 1,300%, while the average salary being offered fell by 4%.
Though not the worst, finance was one of five sectors experiencing a drop in salaries for new hires, albeit of just 0.9%. That compares with a 7.5% cut for marketing and media, 4% for legal and 2% for IT.
Untroubled by falling wages in other sectors are bio, pharmacology and health (up 18%) and – of greater relevance to CAs, perhaps – consultancy (up 11%).
But the discrepancies may only be temporary. According to JobLeads, the more generalist sectors rushed to demand AI-literate workers before they knew what to do with them, while specialist sectors, such as health, waited to see what their needs would be.
“When millions of candidates can claim AI literacy and when learning those skills becomes a commodity, the reward becomes scarce,” said Jan Hendrik von Ahlen, Managing Director at JobLeads. “As a result, in certain industries, those with deep AI knowledge are no longer competing for scarce specialist roles. They're competing against the flood.”
More for less
The growth of AI has been accompanied from the start by dire warnings about the technology displacing humans from the jobs market. No surprise there. More surprising though, is an exponential increase in the number of job ads stipulating AI skills as a requirement while also offering lower salaries, even as they demand more from their recruits.
According to a report on US site, JobLeads, between 2024 and 2025, the number of adverts including “AI knowledge required” among the expected skills shot up by 1,300%, while the average salary being offered fell by 4%.
Though not the worst, finance was one of five sectors experiencing a drop in salaries for new hires, albeit of just 0.9%. That compares with a 7.5% cut for marketing and media, 4% for legal and 2% for IT.
Untroubled by falling wages in other sectors are bio, pharmacology and health (up 18%) and – of greater relevance to CAs, perhaps – consultancy (up 11%).
But the discrepancies may only be temporary. According to JobLeads, the more generalist sectors rushed to demand AI-literate workers before they knew what to do with them, while specialist sectors, such as health, waited to see what their needs would be.
“When millions of candidates can claim AI literacy and when learning those skills becomes a commodity, the reward becomes scarce,” said Jan Hendrik von Ahlen, Managing Director at JobLeads. “As a result, in certain industries, those with deep AI knowledge are no longer competing for scarce specialist roles. They're competing against the flood.”
And the winner is…
Congratulations to Ian Mackie CA, who was a winner at this year’s Finance & Accountancy Business Awards, also known as the ‘Fabbies’, held last month. Ian is the Operations Director at Hall Morrice and won the Excellence in Finance award.
“This is a fantastic and well-deserved recognition of the impact Ian continues to make across Hall Morrice,” the firm posted on LinkedIn. “Ian’s leadership reflects everything we stand for at Hall Morrice: a commitment to excellence, a collaborative approach, and a focus on continuous improvement across the business.”
This comes after the Aberdeenshire firm was also shortlisted in the Student Placement category at the Northern Star Business Awards.
Congratulations, too, to the former Chair of ICAS Cares, Ruth Adams CA, now Group Compliance Accountant at CRC Evans. The Edinburgh-based firm was named the Finance Team of the Year at the Fabbies.
And the winner is…
Congratulations to Ian Mackie CA, who was a winner at this year’s Finance & Accountancy Business Awards, also known as the ‘Fabbies’, held last month. Ian is the Operations Director at Hall Morrice and won the Excellence in Finance award.
“This is a fantastic and well-deserved recognition of the impact Ian continues to make across Hall Morrice,” the firm posted on LinkedIn. “Ian’s leadership reflects everything we stand for at Hall Morrice: a commitment to excellence, a collaborative approach, and a focus on continuous improvement across the business.”
This comes after the Aberdeenshire firm was also shortlisted in the Student Placement category at the Northern Star Business Awards.
Congratulations, too, to the former Chair of ICAS Cares, Ruth Adams CA, now Group Compliance Accountant at CRC Evans. The Edinburgh-based firm was named the Finance Team of the Year at the Fabbies.
It’s easy being green
Energy costs are likely to be on everyone’s minds over the coming months, as the impact of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is felt in fuel bills. Meanwhile, a new report has revealed that green energy hit a new milestone last year. According to think tank Ember, renewables were able to meet all the new demands for electricity in 2025, with solar power meeting 75% of that growth in demand.
What’s more, China and India registered historic falls in fossil-fuel generation last year (by 0.9% and 3.3% respectively), with both countries adding a record amount of renewables. Less happily, however, there was just a 0.2% drop in fossil fuel generation globally.
“Clean energy is now scaling fast enough to absorb rising global electricity demand, keeping fossil generation flat before its inevitable decline,” said Ember’s Interim Managing Director, Aditya Lolla. “The momentum we are seeing is no longer just an ambition, it is becoming a structural reality.”
It’s easy being green
Energy costs are likely to be on everyone’s minds over the coming months, as the impact of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is felt in fuel bills. Meanwhile, a new report has revealed that green energy hit a new milestone last year. According to think tank Ember, renewables were able to meet all the new demands for electricity in 2025, with solar power meeting 75% of that growth in demand.
What’s more, China and India registered historic falls in fossil-fuel generation last year (by 0.9% and 3.3% respectively), with both countries adding a record amount of renewables. Less happily, however, there was just a 0.2% drop in fossil fuel generation globally.
“Clean energy is now scaling fast enough to absorb rising global electricity demand, keeping fossil generation flat before its inevitable decline,” said Ember’s Interim Managing Director, Aditya Lolla. “The momentum we are seeing is no longer just an ambition, it is becoming a structural reality.”
Eastern promise
When BBC Economics Editor Faisal Islam addressed the ICAS Annual Dinner last year he spoke a lot about the rise of China. This included BYD, which, earlier this year, overtook Tesla as the world’s top-selling brand of electric vehicles.
That would have seemed impossible as recently as three years ago, albeit BYD was given a leg-up by many consumers turning against Tesla boss Elon Musk for his very public role in the polarised world of politics.
Perhaps the most significant development was the launch of DeepSeek AI in January 2025. Six months earlier OpenAI’s Sam Altman boasted that no other firm coming into the AI market could get close to ChatGPT’s capability.
While the overwhelming majority of our readers using a large language model are likely to turn to ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, Chinese firms now have 30% of the global AI market. And reports show that the capabilities of the Chinese models are gaining ground on US competitors, almost to the point of parity. Bots from China and Singapore have caused significant spikes in web traffic around the world over the past 12 months; most analysts believe they were scraping data to train AI models.
Both OpenAI and Anthropic, maker of Claude, look set to have their IPOs this year. To meet their valuations, which will each exceed $800bn (£600bn), and the demands of shareholders, these companies will have to seriously ramp up their revenue – both are continuing to post multi-billion-dollar losses, but are hoping to turn it round by 2030.
Of course, any company in a regulated industry or sector won’t use a Chinese AI model because of its likely connection to the government (although there is a whole other issue around the minimal regulation of AI in the West), and any business handling data for and on behalf of its clients should use a proprietary version. If you have any doubts in this area, it is well worth reading the recent ICAS report, Generative AI and Professional Judgement in Accounting.
But many users will make their decisions with both eyes fixed firmly on the bottom line. And millions of individuals in the UK and elsewhere have no qualms about using TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese multinational. Meanwhile, AI benchmarking firm Artificial Analysis recently calculated that Anthropic’s Claude costs nearly nine times more than Zhipu, the cheapest Chinese AI model, to handle the same workload.
Meanwhile, several studies have suggested the US economy would be in recession if not for the trillions of dollars being invested in AI infrastructure. So what happens if, as some commentators think likely, it becomes apparent that OpenAI and Anthropic have no chance of hitting their revenue targets? The fallout would surely have repercussions beyond Wall Street.
They used to say that when America sneezes the world catches a cold. But in the battle for global AI supremacy, China has already had its jabs.
Ryan Herman
Eastern promise
When BBC Economics Editor Faisal Islam addressed the ICAS Annual Dinner last year he spoke a lot about the rise of China. This included BYD, which, earlier this year, overtook Tesla as the world’s top-selling brand of electric vehicles.
That would have seemed impossible as recently as three years ago, albeit BYD was given a leg-up by many consumers turning against Tesla boss Elon Musk for his very public role in the polarised world of politics.
Perhaps the most significant development was the launch of DeepSeek AI in January 2025. Six months earlier OpenAI’s Sam Altman boasted that no other firm coming into the AI market could get close to ChatGPT’s capability.
While the overwhelming majority of our readers using a large language model are likely to turn to ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, Chinese firms now have 30% of the global AI market. And reports show that the capabilities of the Chinese models are gaining ground on US competitors, almost to the point of parity. Bots from China and Singapore have caused significant spikes in web traffic around the world over the past 12 months; most analysts believe they were scraping data to train AI models.
Both OpenAI and Anthropic, maker of Claude, look set to have their IPOs this year. To meet their valuations, which will each exceed $800bn (£600bn), and the demands of shareholders, these companies will have to seriously ramp up their revenue – both are continuing to post multi-billion-dollar losses, but are hoping to turn it round by 2030.
Of course, any company in a regulated industry or sector won’t use a Chinese AI model because of its likely connection to the government (although there is a whole other issue around the minimal regulation of AI in the West) and any business handling data for and on behalf of its clients should use a proprietary version. If you have any doubts in this area, it is well worth reading the recent ICAS report, Generative AI and Professional Judgement in Accounting.
But many users will make their decisions with both eyes fixed firmly on the bottom line. And millions of individuals in the UK and elsewhere have no qualms about using TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese multinational. Meanwhile, AI benchmarking firm Artificial Analysis recently calculated that Anthropic’s Claude costs nearly nine times more than Zhipu, the cheapest Chinese AI model, to handle the same workload.
Meanwhile, several studies have suggested the US economy would be in recession if not for the trillions of dollars being invested in AI infrastructure. So what happens if, as some commentators think likely, it becomes apparent that OpenAI and Anthropic have no chance of hitting their revenue targets? The fallout would surely have repercussions beyond Wall Street.
They used to say that when America sneezes the world catches a cold. But in the battle for global AI supremacy, China has already had its jabs.
Ryan Herman
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