More data is showing the opposite of what many people expected with AI adoption and jobs. Ramp found that the more AI adoption a company has the more their headcount grows.
At Box, we recently did a survey of 1,600 mid and large sized companies, and the findings were similar. 58% of respondents expected headcount to rise over the next three years. Interestingly, that figure climbs to 79% among the most mature adopters of AI. The more advanced AI adopters expected to grow their headcount at a greater rate in the future than others.
Of course it's true that the companies that can afford to adopt AI the most are also the ones that likely are seeing growth in their business, leading to more headcount. So the point of the story isn't necessarily that by adopting AI you will inherently grow.
*But* the most important takeaway is that the opposite is not proving out. The fears a couple years ago would have been that the companies adopting AI the most would be hiring fewer people.
But in reality this is what actually you should expect to happen. If a company can get more customers because they use AI in sales for account or market intelligence, they hire more sales people not fewer. If you can build way more software than before, you end up hiring more engineers because the projects get bigger and you take on more. And so on.
Narrative violation: A new study of 21,559 firms in the U.S. finds that “companies that adopt AI tend to grow faster following adoption”.
“Firms making the largest AI investments grow employment by roughly 10% following adoption, while low-intensity adopters see no statistically significant change.”
“Entry-level headcount rises 12% for high-intensity adopters.”
“Gains emerge gradually and are broad across roles, including engineering, sales, administration, and customer service.”
“The results counter predictions that AI adoption will lead to broad job loss.”
The study is based on observed AI spending from Ramp card and bill pay data linked to Revelio Labs workforce records.
