Big Companies Are Starting to Hire Again, Defying Predictions of AI Wipeout

After a year of holding back on new hires, companies from tech and transportation to defense now say they need more people to work alongside AI

For months, major employers treated hiring as an expensive last resort. Now, a shift is emerging across industries. Companies ranging from railroad giant CSX to Google parent Alphabet GOOGL have told investors in recent days that they plan to hire to meet growth goals or to seize on emerging technologies.

The push to expand head count, at least modestly, is a reversal from the prevailing corporate messaging during much of the AI era. Major employers largely held back on adding people due to economic uncertainties or a belief that artificial intelligence could shoulder more tasks on the job. But some executives say the costs and limitations of AI now demand that more people be added; others want to hire people back following layoffs.

“We actually need to accelerate hiring a bit. We’re a little bit behind right now,” Booz Allen Hamilton’s Chief Operating Officer Kristine Martin Anderson told investors Friday. “We’re addressing that now.”

The government contractor cut thousands of jobs last year as the Trump administration slashed federal contracts and asked firms to justify their costs. Total head count stood at roughly 30,900 as of June 30, down 7.5% from a year earlier. But the company now sees healthy demand for its services, including in national security for workers who need security clearances.

For much of the past 18 months, big employers were convinced fewer workers meant faster growth. U.S. public companies shrank their white-collar workforces. Now layoffs are shrinking. The most recent week of U.S. jobless claims was the lowest on record since 1969, according to federal data.

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