Whereas AI is commonly cited as one of many causes for mass layoffs, notably within the tech sector, for fast-growing corporations it additionally appears to be creating new jobs in lots of corporations, based on a examine printed Tuesday from monetary providers firm Ramp and employment database Revelio Labs.
“Our early result’s that it appears like corporations are beginning to search for extra entry-level hires, possible people who find themselves extra AI native,” mentioned Ara Kharazian, the lead economist at Ramp, a monetary providers firm that discovered an increase in early-career hiring by corporations within the interval they began spending closely on AI.
The examine tracked AI spending and the workforce data of almost 22,000 U.S. corporations between January 2021 and February 2026.
It discovered that corporations that spent extra on AI ended up growing their workforce headcount by a median of 10% over the 2 years after rolling out the expertise. Corporations that made the most important AI funding expanded entry-level job hiring by 12%.
“If you’re a job seeker, or you’re graduating from school, and also you’re selecting between two completely different corporations which can be in any other case comparable, I’d select the one which’s utilizing AI,” Kharazian mentioned. “Our paper reveals that that agency goes to develop sooner.”
The early and intense AI adopters spent greater than $100 monthly per worker on AI and had their workers utilizing superior AI, akin to coding subscriptions, versus easy ChatGPT subscriptions.
The low-intensity, informal AI adopters didn’t see any hiring positive factors and lowered headcount.
The Ramp examine confirmed a optimistic impact on employment from AI as a result of it centered on corporations adopting AI, a lot of them fast-growing, venture-backed corporations hiring AI-native junior workers.
It reached a unique conclusion than a November 2025 Stanford College examine, which examined payroll information throughout your complete labor market and located that employment amongst younger software program builders had declined by almost 20% from its late-2022 peak.
The 2 findings can each be true, Kharazian mentioned, as a result of the Stanford examine was broader and didn’t focus simply on the corporations that use AI.
“Whereas there could also be general weak hiring for younger folks, what we discovered is that hiring is definitely robust on the corporations that use AI, and the corporations that use AI intensely,” he mentioned.
In one other current examine on the affect of AI on jobs, the California AI-unemployment tracker examined the state throughout industries, schooling ranges and area and highlighted some worrying traits.
It appeared to disprove the understanding that AI has been hurting largely youthful workers and people in entry-level jobs.
It discovered that unemployment insurance coverage claims amongst college-educated employees in high-AI-exposed jobs, akin to customer support and software program growth, elevated after ChatGPT’s launch in 2022 and remained elevated by way of Could 2026.
Unemployment insurance coverage claims amongst grasp’s and PhD holders in extremely AI-exposed occupations have additionally risen, transferring from a baseline common of 13,000 claims monthly in November 2022 to between 16,000 and 22,000 claims monthly since mid-2023, the examine discovered.
The examine additionally categorized unemployment claims by age and located {that a} good portion of claims have been from these aged 36 to 65, signaling that AI’s impact doesn’t solely have an effect on early-career jobs.
It additionally discovered the next fee of insurance coverage claims within the San Francisco Bay Space in contrast with the remainder of California, and that job loss claims have been concentrated within the expertise sector.
In 2026, tech corporations have let go of greater than 160,000 employees, based on trueup.io, a web site monitoring business layoffs.
Many corporations have mentioned AI was one of many primary causes for layoffs. Meta, Oracle, Microsoft and different large tech corporations have laid off tens of hundreds of workers, whereas concurrently investing billions in AI information facilities.
Ramp’s findings that heavy AI adoption can result in elevated hiring means that among the corporations asserting massive layoffs could also be responsible of blaming common value slicing on AI, a follow dubbed “AI washing.”
“If you hear CEOs discuss layoffs they usually attribute it to AI, I’d be skeptical,” Kharazian mentioned.
