Fears of AI-related job losses grow each time another company announces a round of layoffs. In May of 2026, companies announced that nearly 90,000 job cuts are tied to AI, and, by some accounts, up to 15% of US jobs are expected to be eliminated by AI in the next five years. Promises from the tech industry that AI will also create new jobs do little to assuage fears, especially for a generation that wonders if anyone will be hiring when they graduate.
A recent report from Ramp and Revelio Labs, which tracks business AI spending and employee records at nearly 22,000 companies, respectively, complicates that grim narrative.
The report found that companies investing heavily in AI are growing the fastest, even in entry-level roles that many fear will disappear. According to the report, “high adopters” — firms that spent an average of $30 per employee per month on AI in the first three months — saw a 10.2% increase in headcount.
Headcount also increased across all occupations, including engineering, sales, management, customer service, finance, marketing, and scientist roles. The strongest job growth among high-powered individuals was in the information industry, which includes software, Internet, media, and technology-related firms.
Despite these positive signs, the data is not as good as it seems. It’s heavily skewed toward tech, knowledge-based firms — those that may have VC backing and are growing quickly anyway, making it hard to say whether AI is contributing to hiring or just showing up in growing companies anyway.
“This paper does not show that AI is creating jobs worldwide,” the paper’s authors admit, “but it disputes claims that AI will lead to widespread job losses.”
It also counters claims that AI is killing all jobs for young people. A recent study from Goldman Sachs found that AI has already eliminated nearly 16,000 jobs per month over the past year, with Gen Z and entry-level workers bearing the brunt. But for companies that are leading the way in technology, the report finds that the penetration rate has increased by 12%.
So what can we take from this? Perhaps AI is not always a tool for workforce replacement, but can be a tool for firm expansion instead.
“For software and technology companies, AI can make key outputs cheaper or faster to produce: writing code, debugging, building internal tools, producing technical documentation, and supporting product development,” the report reads. “The lower cost of production in this workflow can increase the return on investment for the entire company, not just the engineering team.”
But companies that buy subscriptions and run pilots, yet don’t continue to make sustainable investments, rarely see any benefits from large scale calculations, according to the report.
That sets the stage for a growing gap between firms that have the resources — such as capital, technical staff, innovation networks, and management bandwidth — to turn AI adoption into a real business advantage and those that are still experimenting with subscriptions. In other words, the report suggests that firms that already have resources in place will see the greatest benefits.
The authors of this newspaper speculate that such divisions may continue to grow, saying: “Firms that do not have such channels may fall behind.”
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