Hiring managers in marketing, design and technology are being advised to abandon traditional job titles in favour of “skill stacks,” according to the Aquent 2026 Australian Salary Guide.
The salary guide analyses 5,404 real-time salaries, revealing a labour market defined by “contradictory forces,” with 67% of businesses reporting workforce shortages despite stagnant wage growth in many sectors.
The data signals a shift to “AI orchestration,” a model where humans steer strategy while AI handles execution, fundamentally changing how teams are structured and compensated.
“The true competitive advantage now lies in ‘AI orchestration’ — finding the hybrid talent capable of steering strategy while technology handles the execution,” said Monique Richards, managing director of Aquent in Australia.
The guide highlights that most decisions companies make in 2026 will hinge on how they adopt AI.
This has sparked demand for emerging “hybrid” roles that blend traditional expertise with new technical literacies.
High-value emerging roles identified in the guide include: AI Product Manager: Median salary of $160,000; AI Automation Engineer: Median salary of $140,000; AI Conversation Designer: Median salary of $130,000.
Employers are moving away from paying for static job titles. Instead, compensation is increasingly anchored to “skill stacks”—practical combinations of technical, digital, and human capabilities (e.g., combining Product Management with AI Governance) that deliver immediate business value.
While automation handles routine tasks, the value of human-centric skills has risen.
Salaries in Account Management and Strategy grew by 4.7%, outpacing the industry average of 3.1%.
Aquent said this underscores the market’s reliance on senior leaders who can manage complex client relationships and shape long-term strategy.
C-Suite salaries are growing at 5.3%, significantly higher than the 3.1% average for directors and individual contributors.
This premium reflects the critical need for leaders capable of navigating digital transformation and regulatory shifts, but it is creating a widening “experience gap” between entry-level staff and executive leadership.
The industry is seeing positive momentum, with the gender pay gap in marketing, design, and technology narrowing to 3.56%, a significant improvement from 5.33% the previous year.
This article originally appeared on Adnews.