While AI is often cited as one of the reasons for mass layoffs, particularly in the tech sector, for fast-growing companies it also seems to be creating new jobs in many companies, according to a study published Tuesday from financial services company Ramp and employment database Revelio Labs.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur early result is that it looks like firms are starting to look for more entry-level hires, likely people who are more AI native,\u201d said Ara Kharazian, the lead economist at Ramp, a financial services company that found a rise in early-career hiring by companies in the period they started spending heavily on AI.<\/p>\n
The study<\/a> tracked AI spending and the workforce records of nearly 22,000 U.S. companies between January 2021 and February 2026.<\/p>\n It found that firms that spent more on AI ended up increasing their workforce headcount by an average of 10% over the two years after rolling out the technology. Companies that made the largest AI investment expanded entry-level job hiring by 12%. <\/p>\n \u201cIf you are a job seeker, or you are graduating from college, and you\u2019re choosing between two different firms that are otherwise similar, I would choose the one that\u2019s using AI,\u201d Kharazian said. \u201cOur paper shows that that firm is going to grow faster.\u201d<\/p>\n The early and intense AI adopters spent more than $100 per month per employee on AI and had their employees using advanced AI, such as coding subscriptions, as opposed to simple ChatGPT subscriptions. <\/p>\n The low-intensity, casual AI adopters didn\u2019t see any hiring gains and reduced headcount.<\/p>\n The Ramp study<\/a> showed a positive effect on employment from AI because it focused on firms adopting AI, many of them fast-growing, venture-backed companies hiring AI-native junior employees. <\/p>\n It reached a different conclusion than a November 2025 Stanford University<\/a> study, which examined payroll data across the entire labor market and found that employment among young software developers had declined by nearly 20% from its late-2022 peak.<\/p>\n The two findings can both be true, Kharazian said, because the Stanford study was broader and didn\u2019t focus just on the firms that use AI. <\/p>\n \u201cWhile there may be overall weak hiring for young people, what we found is that hiring is actually strong at the firms that use AI, and the firms that use AI intensely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In another recent study on the impact of AI on jobs, the California AI-unemployment tracker<\/a> examined the state across industries, education levels and region and highlighted some worrying trends. <\/p>\n It seemed to disprove the understanding that AI has been hurting mostly younger employees and those in entry-level jobs.<\/p>\n It found that unemployment insurance claims among college-educated workers in high-AI-exposed jobs, such as customer service and software development, increased after ChatGPT\u2019s release in 2022 and remained elevated through May 2026. <\/p>\n Unemployment insurance claims among master\u2019s and PhD holders in highly AI-exposed occupations have also risen, moving from a baseline average of 13,000 claims per month in November 2022 to between 16,000 and 22,000 claims per month since mid-2023, the study found. <\/p>\n The study also categorized unemployment claims by age and found that a significant portion of claims<\/a> were from those aged 36 to 65, signaling that AI\u2019s effect doesn\u2019t only affect early-career jobs. <\/p>\n It also found a higher rate of insurance claims in the San Francisco Bay Area compared with the rest of California, and that job loss claims were concentrated in the technology sector.<\/p>\n