Companies spending most on AI are hiring faster than everyone else

“We’d have a data set that shows, hey, these firms spent on AI, these firms didn’t, and then have their headcount change over time,” Kharazian said. “That’s where we see the really interesting results.”

AI spend and hiring growth

Among companies that adopted AI and used it most intensively, white-collar headcount grew 10.2% over the two years following adoption. Entry-level hiring jumped 12%. Among light adopters, there was no statistically significant change.

That’s because, for many companies, AI adoption is still in its early stages.

“For many firms adopting AI so far, their adoption of AI is pretty minimal,” Kharazian said. “They may have a chatbot subscription here and there, but it’s not particularly integrated into their workflows and it’s not particularly productivity enhancing.”

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the study defined high-intensity users as companies in the top third of AI spending per employee per month. In practice, that threshold is lower than it might sound. High-intensity firms spent an average of about $30 per employee per month in their first three months of adoption.