Hi, Money reader!

Remember when adding Excel to your resume felt impressive? (Yeah, I never quite mastered those pivot tables, either.)

Well, AI is quickly becoming the new must-have workplace skill — and employers are paying up for it. The latest research suggests you don't need to build AI to benefit from it, but you do need to know how to use it wisely. Let’s get to it. — Kat Peach

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Want a Raise? Learning This Skill Could Earn You Up to 62% More

AI might be coming for some jobs, but it’s also padding plenty of paychecks.

According to PwC’s latest AI Jobs Barometer, positions requiring AI skills now pay an average 62% more than comparable jobs without them, and they're growing nearly eight times faster than the broader labor market.

The takeaway? Learning how to work with AI may be one of the fastest ways to boost your earning potential.

The good news is you don’t need to become a software engineer. Employers increasingly value workers who can use tools like ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms to automate routine tasks, improve workflows and free up time for higher-value work.

A separate PwC survey found 91% of financial services executives are increasing pay for employees with AI expertise, while more than half say compensation will increasingly reflect how well workers use AI to improve productivity.

Still, experts caution against outsourcing your brain. AI is most valuable when it enhances human judgment, not replaces it. PwC says jobs where AI amplifies specialized expertise are seeing stronger wage growth than roles where AI simply lowers the skill barrier.

As AI becomes as commonplace as spreadsheets and email, the biggest advantage may come from combining technical fluency with the creativity, critical thinking and decision-making that machines still can't replicate. — KP

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RECORD RELIEF

170,000 More Defrauded Borrowers to Get Student Loan Forgiveness

After a years-long legal battle, 170,000 more student loan borrowers who were defrauded by their colleges will have $11 billion of their student debt wiped away.

This latest wave of debt relief is part of a record-setting class action lawsuit against the Department of Education. The suit covers roughly 500,000 borrowers and $23 billion of student debt in total, making it the largest class-action case against the federal government in U.S. history.

The lawsuit, which began in 2019 under the first Trump administration, focuses on borrowers who applied for Borrower Defense, a federal debt-cancellation program for people who were defrauded or misled by their colleges about their degrees, loans or career prospects.

Following a wave of closures of several for-profit college chains such as Kaplan, ITT Technical Institute and others, borrowers were saddled with debt from colleges that no longer existed. Many applied for Borrower Defense, but their applications sat for years in a backlog. During the first Trump administration, the Education Department denied almost all of the applications, but a federal judge rejected the decision.

Then in 2022, the Biden administration settled the lawsuit, wiping out a lion’s share of the $23 billion. The settlement agreement also allowed for new applicants to join the class-action suit (these are the borrowers now receiving relief) and set 2026 deadlines for determining relief.

The Trump administration has missed these deadlines, triggering automatic debt cancellation for the 170,000 remaining borrowers. — Adam Hardy

In the newsroom, our editors are talking about...

CASH CROP

The ‘Father of the 401(k)’ Has a New Idea to Get You Saving for Retirement

Ted Benna's Radish plan markets itself as a way for employers to reward good behavior and performance while saving on their taxes.

Money; Getty Images

Fun Money

This issue of Daily Money was written by associate editor Kat Peach and lead data journalist Adam Hardy. It was edited by Kat Peach. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Please email [email protected] with any feedback.