AI adoption across is gathering momentum across companies in most economic sectors, but, generally, it is not being implemented at the expense of jobs and may even boost recruitment, according to recently published research.
Goldman Sachs reported in its AI Adoption Tracker survey for the second quarter 2025, published in June, that 9.2% of US firms were now using AI to produce goods or services, compared to 7.4% in the fourth quarter 2024. While the survey is focused on the US and looks at a wide range of sectors, the trends it identifies are also relevant to the energy industry globally.
Higher AI adoption rates continued to be seen in sub-sectors where work tasks lent themselves to AI-based automation, Goldman Sachs said. Firms with over 250 employees reported the highest adoption rate (14.9%), while medium-sized firms (100-249 employees) reported the largest expected increase in adoption over the next six months.
The research team said that although the number of use cases for AI in production by companies had expanded, concerns remained around data security and the need for adequate infrastructure.
But the adoption of AI has so far made a limited impact on the labour market, running contrary to concerns voiced by some that it would lead to large-scale workforce reductions. “The impact of AI exposure on broad labour market outcomes in most industries remains small and statistically insignificant,” according to the report
Thes findings are echoed in a July report for the Brookings Institute by Tania Babina, Associate Professor at the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland and Anastassia Fedyk, Assistant Professor of Finance at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. They said, that although AI could automate cognitive tasks or increase worker productivity in a way that could reduce the number of workers needed, the labour-displacing effects seem confined to select sectors and occupations.
In fact, the new avenues that AI has opened up to allow increased productivity and sales may have encouraged the creation of new posts. “On aggregate, recent academic research finds evidence that companies’ use of AI has been accompanied by an increase in the workforce,” the authors said.
There was evidence that firms investing more in AI increased their total employee headcount, with employment growth beginning to register around two to three years after AI investments were made and then remaining elevated, according to Babina and Fedyk.
They also said that, as firms invest in AI, the make-up of their workforce starts shifting towards more educated workers, more technically skilled workers, and more independent contributors.
That conclusion dovetails with analysis elsewhere, such as that cited in a recent World Economic Forum article, suggesting that the jobs most at risk in the short-term from AI implementation are likely to be those involving straightforward, repetitive tasks. As that is traditionally the kind of work assigned to young college-educated entrants to a workforce, companies may need to revamp their recruitment strategies to ensure they don’t suffer from a future talent shortage.
An aid, not a threat
The findings outlined in the Goldman Sachs and Brooking Institute reports chime with views heard at recent Future Digital Twin & AI and Future Oil & Gas events where several speakers from the energy and tech industries have portrayed AI as being complementary to, rather than a replacement for, human endeavour.
“AI won’t replace subject matter experts – it can empower them. By validating insights and refining outputs over time, confidence in decisions grows,” Graham McHardy of industrial software firm Seeq Corporation told the Future Oil & Gas 2025 conference held in Aberdeen in June.
Shane McArdle, CEO of digital twin developer Kongsberg Digital, also told the Aberdeen event that AI tools needed to augment frontline work rather than create displacement fears“We need to think about how we can do our jobs better. How can we get the frontline workers running their days more effectively? That’s really the focus we try to have,” he said.
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