ML/AI Work Research · Demand intelligence
AI Jobs Demand Index
As of 2026-04, search demand for AI roles across 18 markets stands at 186 (June 2022 = 100) — up 86% over four years (ML/AI Work Demand Index, computed from Google Ads monthly search volumes for a 155-keyword basket of AI job titles).
Demand index — 18 markets, 2022-06 → 2026-04
Search demand for AI roles is up 86% across 18 markets since June 2022; the US alone is up 63%, the EU-15 112%.
4-year growth by country
Germany leads at +118% — roughly 1.4× the US pace. Only markets with ≥5 role keywords above a meaningful baseline are scored; smaller EU markets don't clear the bar yet.
Seasonality — calendar-month index (100 = trend)
AI-job search peaks in Apr (135) and bottoms in Dec (68) — a 67-point swing around trend.
Methodology
Source: Google Ads monthly search volumes (via DataForSEO) for a 155-keyword basket of AI job titles and employer-brand terms, pulled for 18 markets over a 4-year window (2022-06 → 2026-04). The index is the median of per-keyword series, each normalized to its own first-6-months baseline = 100, smoothed with a 3-month trailing average — head terms and one-off anomalies cannot dominate it. Seasonality is the ratio of each month to its centered 12-month moving average. Search demand measures job-seeker interest, not vacancies; see the demand × supply gap for the two sides together, and the portal methodology for corpus definitions.
Cite this
ML/AI Work, "ML/AI Work Demand Index", dataset v2026.06, n=155, as of 2026-04-01. https://mlai.work/research/demand-index