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The AI job debate is far from cut and dry. If anything, we’re seeing a litany of unexpected trends that actually contradict the doom-and-gloom attitudes that seem to get most of the attention in this space.
Through May 2026, roughly 90,000 job cuts have been linked to AI. Some projections suggest up to 15% of U.S. jobs could be eliminated over the next five years. Goldman Sachs data points to about 16,000 net jobs disappearing per month over the past year, with entry-level workers hit the hardest.
That is the part everyone seems to focus on right now. What is easier to miss is what is happening inside companies that are actually leaning into AI.
A recent analysis from Ramp and Revelio Labs, covering tens of thousands of companies, found that firms making sustained investments in AI are growing in headcount, not shrinking. These “high-intensity adopters,” companies spending meaningfully on AI tools early, saw headcount increase by 10.2%.
That growth is not limited to engineering. It shows up across sales, customer service, marketing, finance, and administrative roles. Even more notable, entry-level headcount in these companies rose by around 12%.
Those two realities exist at the same time. While some jobs are certainly being cut, other jobs are being created.
In some companies, AI is being used narrowly to reduce labor costs. In others, it is being integrated into core workflows: writing code, debugging, producing documentation, supporting customers, and accelerating product development.
When those core activities get faster and cheaper, the economics of the business change. It becomes easier to build more, ship more, and support more customers. This actually leads to more expansion in the long run. The bottom line is, expanding companies hire more.
Now, the report itself is careful not to overstate the meaning of these results. It does not claim that AI universally creates jobs. It also notes that many of the companies seeing growth are already tech-forward, often well-funded, and structurally positioned to scale. That nuance definitely matters.
AI is not evenly lifting the job market. It is amplifying the difference between companies that can operationalize it and those that cannot.
For job seekers, that divide shows up in a practical way.
There is a growing gap between:
- Companies where AI is embedded in day-to-day work
- Companies where AI is still experimental or peripheral
The first group is where most of the hiring growth is happening. The second group is where caution, and in some cases downsizing, is more common.
This is why the data feels contradictory. The reality is, these results are not describing one single job market trend, but a split between 2 distinctly different approaches.
Inside AI-forward companies, the expectations for even junior roles are shifting. Entry-level work is no longer just about executing small tasks manually. It increasingly involves coordinating larger outputs with the help of AI. Drafting, iterating, analyzing, and automating parts of the workflow are becoming baseline behaviors. This changes how candidates are evaluated.
If you have never used AI in a practical, work-like context, it is difficult to demonstrate that you can operate in that environment. Not because the tools are complex, but because the workflow is unfamiliar.
On the other hand, candidates who can show that they already use AI to complete real tasks, even at a basic level, tend to stand out faster. They signal that they can plug into how the team already works.
This is one reason the data shows entry-level hiring increasing in AI-intensive firms while declining elsewhere. It is not that junior roles are disappearing entirely. It is that the definition of a “ready” candidate is changing.
There is also a longer-term implication. The report suggests a widening gap between companies that have the capital, technical talent, and operational capacity to turn AI into real gains, and those that do not. Firms in the first category are more likely to grow. Firms in the second are more likely to fall behind.
That gap at the company level turns into a gap at the candidate level.
Job seekers who align with AI-enabled environments are competing in parts of the market that are expanding. Those who do not are competing in parts that are tighter and becoming more selective.
This is where most of the anxiety around AI and jobs gets misdirected. The question is not only how many jobs will exist. It is where those jobs are being created, and what kind of worker they are designed for. Right now, the data points to a clear pattern: growth is concentrated in environments where AI is part of the workflow, not an add-on.
For anyone entering the workforce, or trying to reposition within it, that is the signal worth paying attention to.
Vibe Code Careers exists to help you navigate this shift in the market. We’re here to help you operate inside the part of the market that is actively growing, by building familiarity with the tools and workflows that companies are already using.
Because increasingly, that is the difference between being filtered out and being pulled in.