Companies spending the most on AI are growing jobs, Ramp study finds

The report, conducted with labor market analytics firm Revelio Labs, analyzed AI spending and employment records for 21,559 U.S. companies between 2021 and early 2026, citing Ramp transaction data. By linking corporate payments to AI vendors with workforce data, the researchers found that firms with the highest AI spending intensity increased employment by roughly 10% after adopting AI, while low-intensity adopters saw no statistically significant change. Entry-level employment also rose about 12% among heavy adopters.

The findings stand in contrast to warnings from some technology and banking executives that AI will rapidly eliminate office jobs. Instead, Ramp argues that companies making sustained investments in AI are using the technology to grow, with hiring gains extending beyond engineering into sales, administration, finance and customer service roles. The study also found those gains emerged gradually over six to 12 months, suggesting firms require time to integrate AI into workflows before realizing productivity gains.

The researchers caution that AI adopters are not representative of the broader economy. Companies adopting AI were already larger, faster-growing, more technical and more likely to be venture-backed before deploying the technology, making simple comparisons with non-adopters misleading. To account for that, the study compares early adopters with similar firms that had not yet adopted AI rather than firms that never adopted it.