The debate over whether AI would reduce employment has recently given rise to new signs of fragmentation. According to a study by Ramp and Revelio Labs, the size of the employees in the higher-input AI enterprises has not been generally reduced, but some have accelerated recruitment, and even the most important junior jobs have grown.
High-intensity enterprise recruitment faster
The study tracks corporate AI expenditure against the work records of nearly 22 million companies. The report defines the company that spent about $30 per month per person per month for the first three months as a “high-intensity adopter”. The total number of employees in such enterprises has increased by 10.2 per cent.
In terms of jobs, there has been an expansion of engineering, sales, administration, passenger service, finance, the market and scientific research jobs. The most significant increase in the information industry was in software, Internet, media and related technology companies.
There's not a full decline in junior positions.
The impact of AI on junior jobs has been the focus of debate. According to Goldman Sachs' previous research, AI over the past year has resulted in a net reduction of about 16,000 jobs in the United States, most notably in Z generation and entry-level employees.
But this new study gives different results. The report shows that in technology-oriented enterprises, the number of junior-level jobs has increased by 12 per cent. This means that at least in some companies, AI does not directly replace a new job.
Growth is more in technology companies.
However, the article also states that this set of data does not provide direct evidence that AI will create employment in general. The sample is clearly biased towards technology-oriented, knowledge-intensive enterprises, many of which may themselves be in a phase of expansion, even with wind-investment support.
In other words, the growth in recruitment is not necessarily driven entirely by AI, or by companies that are expanding, preferring to continue to invest in AI. The authors of the study also admit that the report can only refute the assertion that “AI necessarily entails a wide-ranging reduction of staff” and that it cannot be concluded that AI would create jobs in general.
The resource gap may continue to widen
According to the report, AI, in some software and technology companies, is more like a tool for scaling up operations than just a substitute labour force. The reason is that writing codes, debugging, producing internal tools, writing technical documents and supporting product development may be faster and cheaper because of AI, thus enhancing the corporate willingness to expand.
At the same time, however, the study mentioned that there had been no significant increase in recruitment for companies that had only purchased subscriptions and piloted without continuous input. This means that the real beneficiaries are more likely to be firms that already have the financial, technical and managerial capacity, while under-resourced firms may fall further behind.