There is a strong correlation between the use of artificial intelligence at work and higher earnings. The salary benefits increase as the use of artificial intelligence increases, but level off with heavy use.
A recent analysis of Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland TEK’s labour market survey data shows that the use of artificial intelligence at work clearly correlates with higher earnings among TEK members in the private sector. TEK members are academic engineers (MSc in Tech/Eng), architects and other STEM experts with a university degree.
According to the study, the salary level improves steadily as the use of artificial intelligence increases up to at least five hours a week, but not much more when the working time spent using artificial intelligence exceeds ten hours.
The difference remains even when a wide range of background variables, such as education, work experience, competence level and employer characteristics, are taken into account.
The study examined the salaries and AI use of more than 6,000 TEK members who work in the private sector.
“The salary premium increases significantly even with minimal use of artificial intelligence. Even those who only use artificial intelligence to a limited extent earn more on average than those who do not use artificial intelligence at all”, says TEK’s Research Manager Susanna Bairoh.
Jari Härkönen
“The most active users of artificial intelligence earn up to eight per cent more than employees who use artificial intelligence the least”, Bairoh says.
The salary premium increases as the use of artificial intelligence increases, but the growth levels off quickly when weekly use exceeds a threshold, which is somewhere between five and ten hours per week. The salary benefit from increasing the use of artificial intelligence therefore does not increase indefinitely.
Better performance and better pay
The findings suggest that artificial intelligence mainly supplements – not replaces – the expertise of TEK members. Artificial intelligence appears to function primarily as a tool that complements expertise, which is reflected in increased productivity and better pay.
The analysis shows a clear, statistically significant correlation between the salary of TEK members who work in the private sector and the use of artificial intelligence.
There are at least two factors that help to explain this. The use of artificial intelligence may be related to a person’s general aptitude for learning and openness to embracing change. People who are fast learners and keen to experiment tend to perform better than others professionally and are consequently paid better. On the other hand, highly competent professionals would hardly rely on artificial intelligence at work if it did not improve their work performance. The findings suggest that artificial intelligence boosts users’ performance without replacing their professional competence, leading to higher salaries.
Since 80 per cent of academic engineers and architects use artificial intelligence for less than three hours a week and 20 per cent do not use artificial intelligence at all, the productivity potential of TEK members’ use of artificial intelligence at work is still largely untapped.
Artificial intelligence is adding to the pay gap
Women earn less than men on average in the world of technology. TEK’s surveys show that the pay gap between men and women has remained stubbornly unchanged. The gap is around ten per cent among university-educated technology professionals. The adjusted pay gap is approximately five per cent. The adjusted pay gap measures the difference between the salaries of men and women who graduated from the same universities with the same degrees and work in equally demanding roles in, for example, the private sector.
The use of artificial intelligence and belonging to the so-called AI elite – i.e. those who use artificial intelligence a lot and have a decisive influence on its development – appear to widen the pay gap between university-educated male and female technology professionals. Although the mechanism by which artificial intelligence affects pay is the same for both men and women, the introduction of artificial intelligence has a more favourable effect on men’s salaries than on women’s.
This is because the adoption of artificial intelligence in the workplace is mainly led by management and more senior IT professionals. There are fewer women than men in these roles. Men make up a staggering 79 per cent of the AI elite.
About the study
The study was based on TEK’s labour market survey data from 2025. The salary population consisted of TEK members who work full-time in salaried positions in the private sector (n = 6,438). The data were analysed by TEK in collaboration with Eugen Koev (PhD, Economics), who acts as Senior Economic Advisor to the Executive Team at the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff in Finland (Akava).