1 in 6 marketing jobs asks for AI

1.1From none to one in four

Figure 1.1 shows the share of jobs.ie ads with a real AI ask in each period, with marketing and sales jobs counted separately. We use jobs.ie alone for this because it's the one site we have for every period, so the line compares like with like. A job counts as sales if its title says sales, account executive, account manager, business development, customer success or similar. It counts as marketing only if it isn't a sales job and its title says marketing, brand, content, social media, communications, ecommerce or similar.

The asks that do appear in late 2025 are brief. One is a sales operations role at Actavo that lists "familiarity with Excel, AI, and CRM systems" as desirable. By September, the marketing asks on jobs.ie are specific. Femtech Healthcare is hiring a Senior AI Search and SEO Specialist to own how it is found "across Google and emerging AI search platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity". Excel Recruitment, hiring for a luxury retailer, wants an ecommerce and digital marketing manager to "champion innovation by exploring and implementing AI-powered technologies". Dolby, hiring through Cpl, wants its product marketing contractors to "use approved AI tools to speed up content workflows".

1.2How much to trust the middle of the line

The two ends of the line are solid: none of 43 marketing ads asking in late 2025, and 8 of 31 asking in September. The middle is not. April reads lower than January to March, 8.0% against 12.3%, but the archive only saved 25 marketing ads from April, so that difference is one or two ads. And half of January to March's 14 marketing asks came from two posters: Cpl's marketing desk placed four and McSport three. So the data fits a steady rise, and it fits a jump between October and January just as well. We can't draw the path between the ends yet. The December count will help.

2.1Mentions, against asks

Figure 2.1 takes the 636 ads from 24 September and counts them two ways: any ad that mentions AI at all, and ads that actually ask the person to do something with it. Then it splits them by where they came from.

MongoDB opens its ads with "We have redefined the data platform for the AI era". Okta's say "Secure Every Identity, from AI to Human". Udemy's tell you "AI is transforming how people learn, work, and grow". None of those sentences asks anything of the person applying. They're why a simple search for AI makes Irish employers perhaps look far more AI-hungry than they are.

2.2Who does the talking

The talk comes almost entirely from technology firms. Three in four of their ads mention AI. On jobs.ie, where smaller Irish employers post, the gap nearly disappears. In September, 11 of 141 jobs.ie ads mentioned AI and 10 of those were real asks. A year earlier it was 3 mentions and 2 asks out of 279. Small Irish firms don't write AI blurbs about themselves. When they mention AI, they usually want you to use it.

One thing complicates this. Some tech firms make a company-wide rule of it. GitLab tells every applicant that "all team members [are] expected to incorporate AI into their daily workflows". Notion's ads carry a note on AI saying every hire should be excited to use it "as a real collaborator". We count those as a real ask, because a rule that applies to everyone is still a rule that applies to you.

2.3Why other trackers read higher

Indeed's Hiring Lab reports that 14.9% of all Irish job ads now mention AI in some form. Hiring Lab counts AI terms anywhere in an ad, including company blurbs, across every kind of job. The comparable figure for our marketing and sales ads is the 20.9% that mention AI. It's a fair measure of how much AI is in the air. It isn't a measure of how many jobs ask for it. For Irish marketing and sales, that number is 8.8%, less than half.

3.1What gets named

The old tools still run marketing and sales in Ireland. Microsoft Office alone is named in 60 ads, more than every marketing tool type in the table put together (58 ads). Salesforce is named in 52 ads, and the sales tools that sit around it, the prospecting and call-recording software that fills sales conferences, come up in 5 between them. Figma, the design tool product teams live in, isn't named in a single marketing or sales ad. Canva is named in 22.

3.2With AI, the ads rarely name a tool

Employers name their other tools exactly. They say Salesforce, not "a CRM". They say Google Ads, not "paid search tools". But when it comes to AI, 15 of the 18 ads that ask for "AI tools", "AI fluency" or "AI platforms" name no tool at all. 6 ads name an AI product anywhere, and in four of those the name is something else: a search platform to be found on, a product being sold, or a perk (Fin's product marketer gets "unlimited access to Claude Code"). Only two ads name an AI tool the person would actually use in the job. Osborne Recruitment lists ChatGPT. DocuSign asks its sales development reps for familiarity with "Gong, Glean, Gemini, Notebook LM". Excel, for comparison, is named in 46.

I think this is the most useful thing in the report for someone applying. When an ad says "AI tools" and stops, the employer may still be early in working out what it means. That's an opening. The applicant who can say exactly which tools they use, for what, and how they check the result, is answering a question the ad hasn't asked yet. And for someone hiring, naming the tools and the work tells the right person the job is for them.

3.3How the tools changed over the year

Figure 3.2 follows the most-named tools on jobs.ie across the four periods, as a share of ads so the different sample sizes don't matter.

Canva and Adobe were level in late 2025, both at 2.2% of ads. By September, Canva was named in 9 ads (6.4%) and Adobe in 4 (2.8%). That fits the first insight: the tools that let one person do more on their own are the ones rising. But treat it with care. Nearly every tool rose on jobs.ie in September, so part of the rise may simply be that September's ads were more detailed. Canva's change rests on nine ads. We'll know more after December.

3.4The clearest ask came from a small firm

The clearest AI ask I found all year came from a small agency in Bray, not a big tech firm. In March, Movie Extras advertised for a social media and business development executive under the heading "AI-enabled execution (required)". It wants someone using "ChatGPT/Claude/Canva AI" to "speed up content creation, research, draft campaigns, improve copy, summarise insights", with the "ability to craft clear prompts, refine outputs, and maintain brand voice and accuracy". That's a job description you could actually prepare for. I don't know yet why the small firm is clearer. My guess is that someone there actually does the work.

This is the ad the first insight points to. If you're hiring, it shows what helps: name the tools, and say what they are for.

3.5By level

Figure 3.3 splits September's ads by level, read from the job title. We separate entry-level titles (graduate, junior, coordinator, trainee, assistant) from executive titles (sales executive, marketing executive, account executive, representative), because in Irish job ads an executive is often a few years into the job. We leave out shop and showroom sales titles, which asked for AI in none of 83 ads.

Across all sources the more senior the job, the more likely it asks for AI. But most of that slope comes from the technology firms, where managers and directors are asked to sell or lead AI. On the job boards alone, entry-level, executive and manager ads all ask at roughly the same low rate, and the numbers at each level are small. This is the counterpoint to what the first insight says about senior people. So I'd put it this way: at the tech firms, AI is being written into senior jobs first; at ordinary Irish employers, level makes much less difference than the kind of job.

The kind of ask does change as you go up. All three entry-level asks are to use AI tools. Executives are asked to use AI (11 ads) or sell it (7). Managers get the widest spread: 10 to use tools, 9 to sell AI, 3 to work on AI search, 2 to lead it and 1 to build. At head and director level, 2 asks are to lead AI, 2 to sell it and 1 to use it. Mediolanum wants its Head of Sales to "continue to develop and leverage the existing AI platform" it uses to make content for financial advisers. Datadog wants its Director of Enterprise Customer Success to "champion practical AI adoption across the team" and coach managers "to use them well without eroding judgment". Four of those five asks are in sales jobs, so the ads say little yet about senior marketers. Our own view is that it is hard to lead what you haven't used.

4.1Sales is flat on jobs.ie, but not everywhere

Chapter 1 showed sales ads on jobs.ie staying under 2% all year. There is a counterpoint, and it is the technology firms. Across all sources in September, sales ads ask for AI more often than on jobs.ie: 39 of 536, or 7.3%, against 1.8% on jobs.ie alone. The difference is who is hiring. The company careers pages are all technology firms, and many of their sales people are hired to sell AI. Fin (formerly Intercom, now part of Salesforce) is hiring people to sell its AI customer service agent. GitLab, Greenhouse, Microsoft and WatchGuard are all hiring sales people whose ads say they will sell AI features. Take the careers pages out and sales on the job boards asks in 10 of 454 ads, or 2.2%. So when we say sales hasn't moved, we mean sales jobs at ordinary Irish employers. Marketing across all sources in September sits at 17 of 100, and on the job boards at 13 of 92.

For someone hiring for sales, the technology firms' ads are the nearest thing to a guide, with one care. Of the 29 sales asks on their careers pages, 16 are to use AI in the job and 10 are to sell it. The other three are to build it or lead it.

4.2By kind of role: the AI Ask Index

To compare kinds of jobs, we use a simple measure we call the AI Ask Index. It's the share of a group's ads with a real AI ask, divided by the share across all 636 ads on 24 September (8.8%). An index of 1 means the group asks for AI as often as the average job. Above 1 means more often.

Brand, events and general marketing, the biggest marketing group with 55 ads, sits well below average, and so do content and social media jobs. The AI ask in marketing is concentrated in the digital, performance and ecommerce roles, where the work is already done on screens and measured in numbers. The marketing manager who looks after a brand across everything, and the person writing the social posts, are asked much less often. I'd have guessed the opposite for content, since writing is where AI tools are best known.

4.3Job by job: how often your kind of job asks

If you work in marketing or sales, the useful question is how often ads for your kind of job ask for AI. Figure 4.2 splits every job-board ad in the study, 1,683 across the year, into about 25 specific job types and ranks them. We use the job boards here, not the tech firms' own careers pages, because they show what ordinary Irish employers ask for, and we use the whole year so each job type has as many ads behind it as possible. Job types with fewer than 15 ads are shown faded, because a single ad moves them a long way.

For job types with enough ads to trust, digital marketing stands out: 11 of 46 ads asked for AI. After it come content and copywriting (2 of 21) and account executives (3 of 33); ecommerce (2 of 13) looks high too, but rests on fewer than 15 ads. PR and communications asked in 1 of 19, social media in 1 of 20, SDRs and BDRs in 1 of 31, business development in 3 of 104 and general marketing in 3 of 108. Brand jobs, 17 of them, never asked. Neither did 90 field sales jobs or 288 shop and showroom sales jobs.

The technology firms' own careers pages tell a different story for sales. There, in September, account executives asked for AI in 10 of 33 ads, SDRs and BDRs in 8 of 19, sales and revenue operations in 5 of 8 and customer success in 3 of 10. Six of the ten account executive asks are to sell AI, and four are to use it. So if you work in sales at a technology company, AI is already in the ads for your next job. If you work in sales anywhere else, it rarely is yet, and that is the second insight: there is time to get ahead of the ad. In marketing, digital roles ask everywhere; brand, PR and social media roles still rarely do, though I wouldn't read that as a promise it stays that way.

4.4By kind of employer

The biggest difference of all is between large technology firms and everyone else. We checked the careers pages of 33 technology companies and 16 had marketing or sales jobs in Ireland. Those ads ask for AI in 33 of 90 cases, or 36.7%. Ads on the job boards ask in 23 of 546, or 4.2%. Treat that with care: the careers pages were a list we chose, so this measures tech firms, not the careers page as a channel. But it does tell you where the asks are coming from.

On the job boards, recruitment agencies ask for AI more than direct employers do. Recruiters' ads ask in 9 of 90 cases (10.0%), direct employers' in 14 of 456 (3.1%). Six of the recruiters' nine asks are for marketing roles, where the recruiter is hiring for a client that has already decided it wants AI skills.

4.5By place: Dublin and the rest

On the job boards alone, leaving out the tech firms' careers pages, Dublin ads ask for AI more often than ads elsewhere in Ireland. 16 of 252 Dublin ads have a real ask (6.3%), against 5 of 237 outside Dublin (2.1%). The mix of jobs explains some of it, because Dublin has more digital roles and the rest of the country more field sales. But the gap holds within each group: in marketing, 9 of 49 Dublin ads ask against 2 of 36 elsewhere, and in sales, 7 of 203 against 3 of 201. The numbers outside Dublin are small, 5 asks in all, so I'd say "about three times as often" rather than put a precise multiple on it. It's the gap I most want to watch, because it suggests AI skills are being asked for in one city far more than in the rest of the country.

Language roles, the German, French, Nordic and other language jobs that fill Dublin's European sales and support hubs, ask more than average: 10 of 63 (15.9%) against 46 of 573 (8.0%). But most of those roles are at the same technology firms, so this is largely the tech-firm effect again.

5.1Five kinds of ask

The kinds split cleanly by employer. The AI search asks all come from smaller Irish firms or the recruiters working for them: Femtech Healthcare, Yuno Energy, Staffline and Excel Recruitment. They want someone to make sure the company turns up when a customer asks ChatGPT instead of Google. The sell asks come from technology companies, where AI is in the product. We count a sell ask only when the ad says the job itself involves selling or introducing AI, not when the company simply describes itself as an AI company. The lead asks are few and senior: Excel Recruitment for a luxury retailer, Datadog, Accenture and Mediolanum.

The AI search asks are worth a second look. None appear in our late 2025 ads, and this kind of ask is the nearest thing in these ads to using AI for something that couldn't be done before.

Agents, the word of the year in tech, show up mostly as a product someone else is selling. Only one marketing or sales job in Ireland asks the person to build them. Wayflyer wants its Technical Revenue Operations Analyst to "build, deploy and continuously sharpen AI-native workflows and agents that augment how Sales, CS and the wider Revenue org work". The only other build ask is MongoDB's, for a sales operations analyst to build "statistical and machine learning models" for forecasting.

5.2Speed comes first

To see what "use AI tools" means in practice, we read every sentence about AI or automation in the 43 tools asks across the year, 82 sentences in all, and sorted them by what they say the AI is for.

So employers are buying pace and volume far more than better writing. Dolby, hiring product marketers through Cpl, wants someone to "speed up content adaptation, versioning and workflow tracking" and asks for "comfort using AI tools to move fast". Okta wants its EMEA Digital Media Manager to "use AI and automation to increase speed and scale". Tines wants people who "use AI and automation to cut mechanical work". It's a practical, slightly unglamorous view of AI: it does the dull parts faster.

It's also a natural place to start. If you're looking for a job, this is the opening the third insight describes: show what AI lets you do that couldn't be done before, as well as what it lets you do faster. If you're hiring and you want ambition, an ad that starts from speed may not reach the people who have it.

5.3Some ads ask for judgement too

Several ads pair speed with a warning. Tines wants someone who "uses AI in their own work and understands where its judgement breaks down". Dropbox asks for "the ability to validate outputs". Ballyhoura Development wants AI used while "maintaining human oversight, accuracy". In each of these, quality is something to protect while the work gets faster.

6.1No ad warns applicants off AI in their CV

We looked for employers telling applicants not to use AI in their CV or cover letter. In 1,773 ads across the year, not one did.

6.2The first rules for candidates

But in September, a few technology firms had started writing rules for candidates who use AI. Datadog links 15 of its Irish ads to its AI guidelines for candidates, under headings like "Interviewing at Datadog AI Guidelines". Squarespace asks applicants who "plan to use AI in any capacity during your candidate journey" to read its Candidate AI Policy. And Tines goes further. Three of its ads carry a line aimed not at people but at software applying for them: it tells AI agents not to apply for the role.

That's an employer expecting AI agents to fill in applications on people's behalf, and trying to turn them away inside the ad itself. It's the first sign in Irish job ads of something I expect we'll see a lot more of. None of these rules appeared on jobs.ie, where smaller Irish employers post.

6.3AI may read your application

Traffic runs the other way too. 12 of the 636 ads on 24 September say AI may be used to screen applicants, all from technology firms: LearnUpon, Okta (four ads), Salesforce, Clio, WatchGuard (four ads), Workday. WatchGuard's is the most specific: AI may help with "reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses". LearnUpon promises that while it uses AI "to enhance the speed and quality of our screening and assessment practices", its "hiring decisions are always human". Okta's notice is there because of a New York City law on automated hiring tools. So at least some of what Irish applicants are told about AI screening comes from American law, not Irish law. None of the jobs.ie marketing and sales ads carried a notice like this all year.

7.1More ads show a salary

On jobs.ie, the share of marketing and sales ads that show a salary went from 24.0% in late 2025 to 27.4% in January to March, 32.6% in April and 28.4% in September. That's slow progress for job seekers, and seven in ten ads still don't say what the job pays.

7.2Does AI pay more? We can't say yet

We wanted to know whether Irish jobs that ask for AI pay more. There are claims from abroad that they do. PwC's 2026 AI Jobs Barometer puts the premium for AI skills at 62% worldwide, across all kinds of jobs, and US salary sites claim AI product managers earn 15 to 20% more than other product managers. We can't test either for Irish marketing and sales yet. Only 17 of the 56 ads with a real AI ask showed a salary, and twelve of those were technology firms (Dropbox, Notion, Squarespace, Tines, Okta and Microsoft) that pay well whatever the ad asks for. A difference in seventeen ads tells you more about who is hiring than about AI. We'll keep collecting salaries each quarter until there are enough to compare fairly.