Why AI Skills Will Dominate Europe’s Tech Job Market by 2025

According to a new salary survey, the labor market is facing a persistent talent shortage, especially in Europe and the Netherlands.

The study predicts that by 2025 the hottest hiring functions will be artificial intelligence, automation and machine learning.

Indeed’s recent research shows a sharp rise in job postings mentioning generative AI (Gen AI) across the US and Europe, with demand for Gen AI skills increasing 3.9‑fold in Germany, 6.8‑fold in France and 4.6‑fold in Ireland.

Data analysis is the field most likely to mention Gen AI, followed by software development.

BairesDev surveyed over 500 companies and found machine learning to be the fastest‑growing skill (383% growth), followed by Angular, Flutter, Kotlin and Terraform.

Core AI platform technologies such as React, .NET, Python, Node and Java are also in high demand, as is data‑infrastructure expertise, which grew 77% this year.

The CTO noted a steady rise in demand for developers skilled in Snowflake, MongoDB and Databricks, emphasizing that data‑related skills are the “pickaxe” for developers in the AI gold rush.

Skill gaps emerge

For software professionals targeting 2025, the report warns of an urgent need for talent to meet growing demand, with the skills gap becoming a major obstacle.

One‑third of Europeans lack basic digital skills, and 40% of adult workers in Europe have insufficient digital competence.

STEM enrollment declines have reduced the pipeline of qualified talent, exacerbating the shortage.

Nevertheless, 35% of Dutch companies plan to expand permanent positions in 2025, and 27% will hire flexible roles; salaries are expected to rise to retain top talent.

The outlook for skilled individuals is positive, with a projected 15% increase in tech job vacancies in the Netherlands and 30% of Dutch software engineers holding a master’s degree in a related field.

Major Dutch cities such as Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Utrecht and Rotterdam host offices of local giants like Booking.com, ING, Unilever, Philips and Heineken, as well as global tech firms IBM, Microsoft, Netflix and Amazon, offering opportunities in cloud computing, data science, cybersecurity, AI, machine learning and full‑stack development.