Report: AI-spending companies hire more, even for entry-level jobs
A new report from Ramp and Revelio Labs shows that companies investing heavily in artificial intelligence are experiencing faster headcount growth, including in entry-level roles. However, the findings are concentrated in tech-forward firms and may not apply universally.
A recent analysis by Ramp and Revelio Labs, which track enterprise AI spending and workforce data from nearly 22,000 companies, challenges the prevailing narrative that AI leads to widespread job losses. The report indicates that "high-intensity adopters" — firms spending an average of $30 per employee per month on AI in the initial three months — saw their headcount increase by 10.2 percent. Job growth was observed across various functions, including engineering, sales, administration, customer service, finance, marketing, and science roles. The strongest growth occurred in the information sector, encompassing software, internet, media, and tech-adjacent firms.
Despite these positive indicators, the report's authors caution that the data does not prove AI universally creates jobs. The findings are skewed towards tech-forward, venture-backed companies that were likely expanding regardless. "This paper does not show that AI universally creates jobs," the authors state, but it does counter claims that AI will lead to broad job losses.
The report also addresses concerns about junior positions. While Goldman Sachs research found that AI has eliminated about 16,000 net jobs per month over the past year, disproportionately affecting Gen Z and entry-level workers, this report found that entry-level headcount actually rose by 12 percent at tech-forward firms.
The authors suggest that AI may function as a tool for firm expansion rather than labor substitution. For software and technology firms, AI can lower production costs for core tasks like coding and debugging, making it more profitable to expand the entire firm. However, companies that merely experiment with subscriptions without sustained investment see no headcount gains. This sets up a potential divide between resource-rich firms that can leverage AI for growth and those that cannot.
The report speculates that this gap may widen, with firms lacking capital, technical staff, or management capacity falling behind. The takeaway: AI's impact on employment is complex and heavily dependent on company context.
