AI hasn’t hindered hiring: mployers who invest in neural networks are more active in hiring junior

Despite the widespread talk that artificial intelligence is putting people out of work, a new study shows a less obvious trend. It turned out that companies that actively invest in AI not only do not reduce the hiring of novice specialists, but also more often expand the staff, including employees without much experience.

These findings are contained in a joint study by Ramp and Revelio Labs, reported by TechCrunch.

Against the background of mass layoffs, the market looks contradictory

In the first five months of 2026, American companies cut about 90,000 employees, explaining part of the layoffs with the help of artificial intelligence technologies. Analysts also predict that within the next five years, automation can affect 15% of jobs in the United States.

Because of this, many university graduates fear that the start of a career will become much more difficult, as employers will prefer automation instead of hiring young specialists.

However, new evidence suggests that the situation depends on the type of company and the nature of AI implementation.

The analysis of almost 22 thousand companies showed an unexpected trend

The researchers studied personnel changes and costs for artificial intelligence of almost 22,000 companies. The category of the most active users of AI included organizations that spent an average of about $30 per month per employee on artificial intelligence tools during the first three months of observations.

This group of employers saw an average increase in the number of employees by 10.2%, and the number of vacancies for entry-level specialists increased immediately by 12%.

Hiring growth was observed in almost all key areas of activity:

• software development;
• sale;
• administrative subdivisions;
• customer service;
• marketing;
• finance;
• research directions.

The highest dynamics were demonstrated by companies working in the field of software, Internet services, digital media and other technological industries.

The study authors urge not to jump to conclusions

Despite the positive numbers, the researchers stress that the results cannot be interpreted as proof that artificial intelligence will automatically create new jobs.

A significant portion of the sample is from high-growth technology companies, many of which already have venture funding and are scaling their business independently of AI adoption.

Therefore, it is still impossible to establish a direct causal relationship between investments in artificial intelligence and an increase in the number of employees.

The authors note that their work rather refutes the popular thesis about the inevitable mass disappearance of vacancies due to AI than proves the opposite.

Why companies keep hiring

Research shows that for many technology companies, modern language models are not a replacement for personnel, but a tool for business acceleration.

AI helps to write software code faster, create internal services, documentation, automate routine processes and increase development efficiency. As a result, companies are able to scale faster, which requires expansion of both engineering teams and sales, marketing, support and management teams.

At the same time, organizations limited to testing individual services or purchasing a few subscriptions without a long-term implementation strategy do not demonstrate such staff growth.

The main effect of AI is to widen the gap between companies

The authors of the study believe that the most visible consequence of the spread of artificial intelligence may not be the mass disappearance of jobs, but the increase of inequality between businesses.

Companies with the capital, strong engineering teams, and resources to implement AI at scale gain an additional competitive advantage and continue to grow aggressively.

Organizations that cannot afford such investments or remain at the stage of experiments risk gradually losing their position in the market.

As a result, both popular theses – about the reduction of jobs due to AI and about the increase in hiring due to artificial intelligence – may be true at the same time. They simply describe different categories of companies and different segments of the modern labor market.