LinkedIn Shares Top Job Skills on the Rise

LinkedIn has revealed the top professional skills on the rise, based on LinkedIn member and job listing data, in a new report which serves as an expansion of its annual Work Change report.

LinkedIn’s “Skills on the Rise” overview looks at the top rising skills in 15 different sectors, along with an overall listing of the key skills that are getting more attention, based on which LinkedIn users are adding to their profiles, and which skills are listed in LinkedIn job ads.

And it’ll come as no surprise to learn that AI features heavily, with the buzz tech trend of the moment seeing big spikes in overall attention.

LinkedIn’s overall top 15 skills on the rise for 2025 are:

1. AI Literacy
2. Conflict Mitigation
3. Adaptability
4. Process Optimization
5. Innovative Thinking
6. Public Speaking
7. Solution-Based Selling
8. Customer Engagement & Support
9. Stakeholder Management
10. Large Language Model (LLM) Development & Application
11. Budget & Resource Management
12. Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy
13. Regulatory Compliance
14. Growth Strategy
15. Risk Assessment

 As you can see, AI development is a big focus, among both members and businesses, with “AI literacy”, “Process optimization” and “LLM Development” making the top ten.

Though LinkedIn has also included this note to clarify that not all AI skills are equal:

“LinkedIn data shows that both technical and nontechnical members are adding “Artificial Intelligence” as a skill. For the purposes of this list, we have renamed this skill as “AI Literacy,” to reflect that members adding “Artificial Intelligence” as a skill are increasingly leveraging AI tools like ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot, while not necessarily learning AI technical skills. Other AI technical skills (i.e. LLMs) appear further down on the list.”

In other words, a lot of people who’ve used ChatGPT are adding “AI” as a skill on their profile, but that’s much different to the more technical knowledge required to build AI models and systems. So “AI literacy” is more of a catch-all term to note that a person has some experience using the latest AI tools, but doesn’t necessarily have any technical expertise in model building or analysis.

Nuance aside, AI is clearly something that more businesses are looking for, with LinkedIn noting that the list highlights “emerging areas that professionals are prioritizing and companies are increasingly hiring for.”

“Whether you’re actively on the job hunt or looking to future-proof your career, this list highlights emerging areas of opportunity to help you prepare for what’s next.”

In order to assist with this, LinkedIn has also made a range of LinkedIn Learning courses related to the skills listed available for free until April 18th.

It’s an interesting overview of the evolving marketplace, and the key skills that could help you get more opportunities.

You can check out LinkedIn’s full “Skills on the Rise” report here, which also includes links to industry-specific breakdowns.