Workday: AI Builder Skills Up 51%, Basic Prompting Down 25%

Workday's new Global Workforce Report finds demand for basic AI-prompting skills peaked in January 2026 and has since fallen 25%, while demand for hands-on AI builder skills (tool-building, workflow automation, AI engineering) rose 51% between September 2025 and July 2026. The data draws on more than 550 enterprise employers using Workday Recruiting plus survey responses from 6,001 workers and business leaders.

The headline framing is that AI is rewriting jobs faster than it is cutting them. 40% of business leaders expect AI to extract more productivity from current staff; only 28% expect it to reduce headcount. "Employees may not be changing jobs, but their jobs are changing around them," said Phil Willburn, Workday's VP of People Systems, Intelligence & Support.

Mobility inside companies has stalled. Internal moves fell at 57% of employers year-over-year, 50% of surveyed workers didn't attempt a lateral move, and 27% said nothing internal looked attractive. Promotion rates stayed flat globally. Among heavy AI users, 62% think the technology will diminish the value of their current skills, even as 76% expect it to open new career paths. Willburn's own read: "There's a lot of quiet unease in the workplace right now."

Hiring, meanwhile, is getting louder. Median applicants per filled role climbed to 69 from 58, with 84% of job seekers using AI during their searches. Time-to-fill held near 60 days. The report lands amid a broader signal that enterprise AI buyers are getting more selective about what they pay for; WSJ reported this week that only 11% of surveyed businesses can forecast their AI spend, one of 222 enterprise-AI stories we've tracked in the last 90 days.