The Database now reports AI-specific job families, which include titles such as head of AI, applied research scientist, machine learning engineer and AI ethics, providing greater transparency into how the market defines and values these roles. Built on rigorously validated, non-crowdsourced data, the Database covers over 30 million employees across 115 countries and 150 job functions.
"AI is requiring organizations to make faster decisions in an environment where roles, skills and expectations are changing in real time," said Byron Beebe, CEO of Human Capital for Aon. "As organizations redesign jobs to keep pace with AI, traditional frameworks are struggling to keep up. By expanding the Radford McLagan Compensation Database with new AI job families and enhanced analytics, we're helping leaders ground pay decisions in current, defensible market data - even as the market continues to evolve."
As AI reshapes how work gets done, organizations are confronting a shift in the skills they need and how those skills should be valued. Employers increasingly expect roles to evolve in real time, blending technical expertise with responsibilities spanning strategy, governance, risk and operations. As a result, job scope is changing faster than traditional role definitions and compensation frameworks were designed to handle.
Based on insights from the Radford McLagan Compensation Database, core AI roles such as machine learning engineers, applied data and research scientists and AI platform engineers are among the fastest growing roles in the market, alongside rising demand for adjacent skills such as data engineering and cybersecurity. At the same time, pay premiums for AI-driven skills are raising the stakes for organizations seeking to remain competitive while maintaining equity and defensibility in pay decisions.
These insights also complement Aon's AI workforce transformation solutions, which help organizations understand how AI is likely to automate or augment work at scale - guiding investment decisions across jobs, skills and talent strategies.
In addition to the AI-specific job families, Aon enhanced the Radford McLagan Compensation Database to support HR leaders navigating this change by delivering decision-ready compensation intelligence grounded in trusted market data. Key Database enhancements include:
- Flexible, validated data submission: Direct integration with client HRIS and ATS systems via API connections allows organizations to submit data in formats that reflect how roles actually exist today. A new, real-time validation dashboard provides immediate feedback, flags inconsistencies and significantly reduces manual effort, supporting more accurate benchmarks for roles whose scope and responsibilities are evolving faster than traditional job frameworks.
- AI-enabled job matching and compensation assistant: Access to AI-powered tools that simplify compensation benchmarking by accurately matching roles to the market and delivering on-demand pay insights. Using natural-language instructions and seamless data integration, Aon's job-matching agent automates role matching and report configuration, reducing friction while improving benchmark quality. Powered by proprietary machine-learning models, the solution is complemented by Aon's AI Compensation Assistant, which provides on-demand access to compensation data by allowing users to save time through simplified workflows.
- Real-time labor market insights: Live market signals complement traditional survey data to provide current context for pay decisions as conditions shift. By integrating real-time insights alongside rigorously validated compensation data, the Radford McLagan Compensation Database helps organizations understand how AI-driven roles are being valued in the market - supporting timely decisions while maintaining governance, equity and accountability.
"Compensation leaders are being asked to move faster on AI driven roles while also standing behind their decisions under increased board and regulatory scrutiny," said Jason Trull, global head of talent data solutions for Aon. "In that environment, defensibility matters as much as speed, and the quality of the underlying benchmarks becomes critical."
About the Radford McLagan Compensation Database
Aon's Radford McLagan Compensation Database, powered by the firm's Human Capital Analytics platform, has been a trusted industry benchmark for more than 50 years. Built on rigorously validated, non-crowdsourced data, it is relied on by over 8,500 organizations and includes information on more than 30 million employees across 115 countries and 150 job functions. The Database delivers a comprehensive view of global compensation trends, helping organizations make better decisions.
About Aon
Aon plc (NYSE: AON) exists to shape decisions for the better - to protect and enrich the lives of people around the world. Through actionable analytic insight, globally integrated Risk Capital and Human Capital expertise, and locally relevant solutions, our colleagues provide clients in over 120 countries with the clarity and confidence to make better risk and people decisions that protect and grow their businesses.
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