For young Ahmadis entering the workforce, the requirements have changed quickly.
In the United States, job postings mentioning artificial intelligence (AI) reached 4.2 per cent of all postings in December 2025, up from a low of about 1.7 per cent in mid-2023, and finished the year 134 per cent above their pre-pandemic level, while total postings finished only 6 per cent above theirs [1].
The requirement is appearing in Canada too. A scan the AI Desk carried out on Indeed Canada on 18–19 September 2026 found 310 postings seeking AI skills in marketing, sales, finance, HR, product, design, operations and other non-engineering roles in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary.
These were drawn from 763 postings read in full, and were not senior posts alone: 154 had been advertised in the previous 30 days, 92 named a specific tool such as Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot or Gemini, and 38 were student, co-op or new-graduate positions [2].
The demand reaches well beyond any one sector.
Statistics Canada reported in June 2026 that 19.2 per cent of Canadian businesses had used AI in the previous twelve months, triple the 6.1 per cent of two years earlier [3]. By March 2026, 35.9 per cent of Canadian workers had used generative AI tools at work, including 75.1 per cent of those in legislative and senior management occupations and 67.5 per cent in the natural and applied sciences [4].
Employers are paying for the skill.
PwC found that roles requiring AI skills carried an average wage premium of 56 per cent over otherwise comparable roles [5]. Lightcast, examining 1.3 billion postings, put the premium at 28 per cent, nearly US$18,000 a year more, and found that 51 per cent of postings requiring AI skills were outside information technology [6].
The Holy Qur’an directs us to compete in what is good:
“And every one has a goal which dominates him; vie, then, with one another in good works. Wherever you be, Allah will bring you all together.” (Surah al-Baqarah, Ch.2: V.149)
One of the authors of this article, Dr Tauseef Ahmad Khan (National Secretary Ta’lim), raised the matter at the National Majlis-e-Amila in February 2025, noting that artificial intelligence is transforming various fields and that companies are increasingly replacing employees with it. Hazrat Khalifatul Masih V(aa) advised:
“You can also increase your knowledge of artificial intelligence! You can become so proficient in it that you can create new systems for them and thereby secure employment. However, artificial intelligence only does what you feed it and instruct it to do. It does not use its own mind. Ultimately, a human brain is needed to run it. Companies will also look for fertile minds capable of feeding new and innovative ideas into AI. Ahmadis should be among those people. You should strive for this objective.” [7]
When he then asked whether Ahmadis should be encouraged to pursue careers in AI, Huzoor(aa) said it depends on their interests and respective fields, and stressed that AI cannot function independently in every aspect, for human oversight and verification remain essential.
He added that “we must compete with the world”, and that whatever field the world excels in, Ahmadis should endeavor to excel in that field as well, so that we may eventually be in a position to guide others on the ethical boundaries of artificial intelligence [7].
That guidance speaks directly to the fear that AI will simply take these jobs, for the tool cannot run itself.
The opportunity belongs to those who can direct it. For these non-engineering roles, proficiency does not require a degree in computer science. It means writing a clear instruction, checking the output against the source, and knowing where human judgement must remain.
It means using AI to draft a report, clean a spreadsheet or prepare for an interview, and doing so honestly rather than passing off machine work as one’s own.
Our young men and women should not wait for the job market to force this lesson on them. Let us learn these tools now, use them well, and strive in what is good, for the Holy Qur’an states: “And that man will have nothing but what he strives for.” (Surah an-Najm, Ch.53: V.40)
Saad Warraich
AI Desk, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Canada
Dr Tauseef Ahmad Khan
National Secretary Ta’lim, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Canada
References
1. Indeed Hiring Lab, “January 2026 US Labor Market Update: Jobs Mentioning AI Are Growing Amid Broader Hiring Weakness,” 22 January 2026. https://hiringlab.indeed.com/2026/01/22/january-labor-market-update-jobs-mentioning-ai-are-growing-amid-broader-hiring-weakness
2. Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Canada, AI Desk, AI Proficiency Job Scan: scan of Indeed Canada non-engineering listings, compiled by Saad Warraich, 18–19 September 2026. https://claude.ai/artifact/Qnzy7HTJPxUQqJsoZEQkBB Sample: 310 listings across Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary; engineering, software, data, QA and IT-infrastructure roles excluded by design. Method: 102 searches across 34 phrases and 3 cities; 889 unique job identifiers collected and 763 postings read in full. Indeed shows approximately 15 results per search to signed-out visitors, so broad searches were sampled rather than exhausted.
3. Statistics Canada, “Analysis on artificial intelligence use by businesses in Canada, second quarter of 2026,” released 11 June 2026. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-621-m/11-621-m2026010-eng.htm
4. Statistics Canada, “Use of generative artificial intelligence tools among Canadian workers, March 2026,” The Daily, released 30 July 2026. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/260730/dq260730b-eng.htm
5. PwC, Global AI Jobs Barometer 2025, 3 June 2025. https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/artificial-intelligence/job-barometer/2025/report.pdf
6. Lightcast, “Beyond the Buzz: Developing the AI Skills Employers Actually Need,” 23 July 2025. https://www.lightcast.io/resources/blog/beyond-the-buzz-press-release-2025-07-23
7. Al Hakam, “Embody honesty, humility, empathy, fairness, and patience: Canada Jama’at’s National Majlis-e-Amila receives guidance from Huzoor,” 10 February 2025. https://www.alhakam.org/canada-national-amila-2-february-2025
Qur’anic quotations are from the translation of Maulvi Sher Ali.
