Agentic AI work means building systems that take actions rather than only producing text, and in this catalogue that work is rated Builds AI: 7,363 of 168,899 live postings, or 4.4%. No employer field says "agentic", so the rating is the measurable proxy.
The number this article rests on: 7,363 live postings that build AI, 4.4% of the catalogue. Measured October 2026.
The word itself is doing marketing work in most job adverts. Counting how many postings print it would measure how employers write, not what they hire for. What can be measured is whether the posting asks someone to build the system that acts, which is what counts as Builds AI, and which tools the posting names to do it.
What counts as an agentic AI job?
A posting is agentic when the person is expected to build or operate a system that plans and executes steps on its own. In this catalogue that maps to Builds AI, which holds 7,363 of 168,899 live postings. Measured October 2026.
The rest of the catalogue uses AI rather than builds it. 142,305 postings are rated Little AI, where a model is a tool in an otherwise unchanged job, and the Levels page sets out where the boundaries fall and why they were drawn there.
Which tools do these postings name?
The three most frequently named tools across the catalogue are Python on 10,338 postings, Aws on 6,301 postings, and Excel on 4,601 postings, out of 14,097 tools recognised in total. 67,944 postings name at least one tool. Measured October 2026.
Tool names are the most reliable signal in an advert, because an employer who lists a framework has usually decided how the work gets done. Each named tool has its own page: Python, Aws, and Excel.
A posting that describes autonomous behaviour without naming a single tool is usually further from production than its language suggests.
What do agentic AI jobs pay?
Postings rated Builds AI that publish a USD range have a median maximum of $264,000 on 3,445 listings, against $189,350 for postings rated Little AI on 32,984 listings. That puts the top of the scale above the bottom of it. Measured October 2026.
Only 44,243 of 168,899 postings publish a USD range at all, so both medians rest on the minority of employers who print a number. The Builds AI listings are where the published ranges cluster.
Which categories hire for agent work?
Ranked by the share of their own postings that reach Builds AI, the three categories that concentrate this work are Research at 64.7%, Data at 25.5%, and Software Engineering at 9.6%. Every other category of the catalogue sits below them on that measure. Measured October 2026.
- Research: 1,765 live postings, 64.7% rated Builds AI, 17.7% remote.
- Data: 5,983 live postings, 25.5% rated Builds AI, 21.9% remote.
- Software Engineering: 37,290 live postings, 9.6% rated Builds AI, 18.8% remote.
The concentration is the point. Agent work is not spread evenly across the market: it sits where the engineering already sits, and a search that ignores the category wastes most of its time on postings that use AI rather than build it.
Can you do agent work remotely?
27,742 of 168,899 live postings say remote, which is 16.4% of the catalogue. Agent work carries no site requirement of its own: the constraint is the data the system touches, not the desk the engineer sits at. Measured October 2026.
Where a posting stays on site, the reason is usually regulated data or hardware the employer will not let out of the building. That is worth reading for, because it tells you more about the system you would be building than the job title does. The remote listings break the share down by category.
Is this senior work?
73,682 of 168,899 live postings are tagged senior or lead, which is 43.6% of the catalogue, against 17,581 tagged junior or intern. Agent work concentrates in the senior half for the same reason it concentrates in Builds AI roles. Measured October 2026.
Seniority is read from the posting, and 23,035 postings say nothing definite about it, so treat the split as a shape rather than a count. If you are starting out, the entry-level guide is the better place to begin.
The jobs right now
Live Builds AI postings, newest first, generated from the catalogue rather than written by hand.
