espite fears of AI replacing workers, companies making the biggest bets on the technology are still hiring.
Companies that invested most heavily in AI grew their headcount by 10% over the past two years, according to a recent study from Ramp and Revelio Labs. The researchers analyzed AI spending and workforce data from more than 21,000 U.S. companies. Entry-level hiring rose by 12% among the heaviest AI adopters.
AI adoption was uneven across industries. Companies seeing the strongest headcount growth were larger, more engineering-intensive, and more likely to be venture-backed, particularly in information, finance and insurance, and professional and technical services. Adoption was far less common in industries such as healthcare, accommodation and food services, and arts and entertainment.
Employment growth was broad across job functions. High-intensity AI adopters saw statistically significant increases in engineering, sales, customer service, finance, and administrative headcount, suggesting that AI usage augments the workforce and increases overall economic activity.
"If AI lowers the fixed cost of building software, handling administrative work, doing analysis, or improving customer support, the gains can drive outsized growth and unlock new revenue streams that previously required higher fixed costs in the form of new salaries," Ara Kharazian, Ramp's lead economist who worked on the study, wrote in a blog post.
The findings challenge the narrative that AI adoption inevitably leads to fewer jobs. Headlines about companies citing AI in layoffs, along with warnings from AI leaders about widespread automation and the loss of entry-level jobs, have fueled fears about AI eating the labor market. This study paints a more complicated picture: among companies making the largest investments in AI, hiring continued to grow.
The researchers caution that the findings shouldn't be generalized across the broader economy. Instead, they offer an early look at how heavy AI adopters are changing their hiring patterns.
"We believe [employers] are selecting for a new set of skills, specifically, people who know how to use AI and use it well," Kharazian wrote.
Our Deeper View #
These findings should be taken with a grain of salt. The study focuses primarily on larger, tech-forward companies and doesn't capture how small businesses are using AI or whether companies rely on free AI tools. It also shows a correlation between AI spending and hiring, not that AI directly caused companies to add workers. Even so, the study points to an important distinction: companies seeing the strongest growth don’t just slap AI onto their workflows. They invest heavily in it and integrate it across their organization. While it's still too early to know which jobs AI will ultimately replace, it's important to note that AI literacy is quickly becoming a baseline expectation for workers.