Snowflake research finds AI job creation outweighs job losses, with 77% reporting an increase in their workforce

Snowflake research finds AI job creation outweighs job losses, with 77% reporting an increase in their workforce

The impact of AI on employees is more nuanced than the headlines suggest, with 77% of organizations reporting job creation due to AI, while 46% report job losses, and of those experiencing both, 69% say the net impact of AI on jobs is positive.
AI is delivering high returns. The organization reports a return of approximately $1.49 for every dollar invested. However, 96% still face significant challenges with data quality and quantity, employee skills, and integration with legacy systems, highlighting that measurable return on investment (ROI) does not eliminate operational and data hurdles.
92% of early adopters report positive ROI, and plans to allocate 22% of technology budgets to AI have accelerated as AI is integrated into daily operations, with nearly half (48%) of all code now generated by AI.

Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW), an AI Data Cloud company, in collaboration with Omdia, an Informa TechTarget, today released Gen AI and Agent ROI, a global research report that surveyed 2,050 business and technology leaders across 10 countries to influence their organizations’ current and future AI purchases. The findings reveal that the impact of AI on employees is more nuanced than the headlines suggest, with 77% of organizations experiencing an increase in hiring, while 46% of organizations are experiencing a reduction in roles. Among organizations that experienced both hiring and layoffs, 69% said the overall impact of AI on their workforce was positive, indicating that as adoption accelerates, AI is driving overall employment growth rather than consolidation.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260310850721/en/

According to the Gen AI and Agent ROI report, 77% of organizations report job creation due to AI, while 46% of organizations report job losses.

“The impact of AI will not be uniform. Some roles will dramatically amplify their influence and productivity, while others risk being left behind. The difference will be in how effectively AI is used, using first-principles thinking to solve problems and guide AI agents like high-performing teams,” said Anahita Tahvij, chief data and analytics officer at Snowflake. “The strongest ROI will not come from experimentation alone; it will come from embedding AI into core operations while strengthening data preparation and governance policies. The future of work will be shaped by companies that combine AI ambition with reliable infrastructure and the right skills to turn it into lasting impact.”

AI will drive job loss and employment, positively impacting technical roles

As organizations expand AI across the enterprise, its impact on the workforce is becoming more apparent. AI is driving both job growth and role reduction, but the overall trend is positive, especially for technical teams.

Among respondents, 42% said AI created jobs across their organization, 11% said AI eliminated roles, and 35% reported both, for a total of 77% reporting job creation, while 46% reported job losses. This data also shows that maturity matters. 75% of organizations with multiple AI use cases report a net positive impact on their employees, compared to 56% of organizations still in the early stages of adoption. In other words, the more AI is incorporated, the more likely an organization will see an increase in overall employment.

As AI implementation matures, it will also enhance employee outcomes such as employee productivity and operational efficiency. 75% of organizations deploying AI across many use cases report a net positive impact on work, compared to 56% of organizations using AI in more limited early-stage deployments.

The sectors that benefit from these workforce outcomes are also those that will see the most employment growth, primarily in technical roles. The strongest net gains are concentrated in:

IT operations: 56% reported an increase in work
Cyber security: 46% reported a profit
Software development: 38% reported a profit

Notably, teams with the most advanced AI adoption have experienced the most changes, both in increasing and decreasing their workforce. This suggests that as productivity increases, organizations are not just reducing roles, but are restructuring teams and automating certain tasks while adding new capabilities in other areas. In other words, AI is reshaping these capabilities rather than uniformly expanding or contracting them. This was evident through IT operations, where both job gains and losses were greatest. Here are the teams most affected by AI job losses:

IT operations: 40% reported unemployment
37% reported unemployment
Data analysis: 37% reported unemployment

As AI adoption accelerates, organizations are quickly realizing that the primary constraint to deploying AI at scale is not the technology itself, but the state of the data. While AI is delivering significant benefits (organizations report returns of approximately $1.49 for every dollar invested), 96% say they continue to face significant challenges in scaling their efforts.

When asked about specific challenges hindering the expansion of AI, data emerged as the primary barrier to scaling AI initiatives, with nearly 8 in 10 respondents reporting experiencing technical or data-related challenges. especially:

65% say breaking down AI data silos is difficult
62% say it is difficult to measure and monitor the quality of AI data
62% say preparing data for AI is difficult

More than half of unstructured data actually AI-enabled. Among the 10 countries surveyed, India reported the majority of unstructured data to be AI-enabled at 14%, followed by Australia and New Zealand at 12% and Canada at 10%. The US rate is 8%, close to the global average of 7%.

Governance has emerged as an equally pressing concern. 57% of employees (66% of C-suite leaders) report using unapproved AI tools, and 60% say their organizations need to invest more in data infrastructure and monitoring software. Additionally, 22% of middle managers and individual contributors say data governance is “very difficult” to implement, with 19% of executives sharing a similar view. Taken together, these findings show that while the value of AI is becoming increasingly clear, data readiness and governance will determine how effectively organizations can scale AI.

1 Despite claims that AI pilots cannot provide value, this study tells a different story. As AI moves from pilot programs to production, organizations are seeing measurable value. Among early adopters of AI, 92% report positive ROI, and companies plan to allocate 22% of their technology budgets to AI next year. This shows that investment is accelerating rather than slowing down, and that organizations are leaning toward AI as a proven driver with measurable business impact, rather than treating it as a speculative experiment.

According to respondents, AI is already integrated into the core capabilities of their companies.

50% of software development teams report active use of AI

In contrast, departments such as procurement, sales, and marketing were the slowest to adopt AI, with around 30% of each reporting active use. At the industry level, advertising and media leads with 42% of organizations reporting that they are currently using AI in production, followed by healthcare and life sciences at 34% and both manufacturing and technology at 32%.

Furthermore, nearly half of all code, approximately 48%, is reported to be generated by AI, highlighting how deeply this technology is integrated into everyday workflows. Organizations are also seeing measurable benefits from AI coding tools and apps, with 82% reporting improved code testing, bug detection, and resolution, and 80% citing improved overall code quality. As AI-generated code becomes part of daily workflows, companies will increasingly turn to coding agents to work with trusted corporate data. Through its capabilities, Snowflake cortex code

“Data shows that AI is delivering measurable benefits, but successfully scaling it requires a strong data foundation and governance framework,” said Adam DeMattier, senior director of research. . “Organizations that can integrate data, improve quality, and operate AI responsibly are best positioned to maintain ROI and employee benefits. With our focus on secure, controlled data and AI integration at scale, Snowflake is well-positioned to help companies move from experimentation to enterprise-wide impact.”

learn more:

Read the full research report, Gen AI and Agent ROI, and double-click on the findings in this blog post.
Stay up to date with the latest news and announcements from Snowflake on LinkedIn and X.

1MIT Nanda (July 2025) “The GenAI Divide: The State of AI in Business in 2025.” Available at the following link. MIT Nanda.

methodology

Gen AI and Agent ROI is based on responses from 2,050 respondents from 10 countries (Australia/New Zealand, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, UK, and US) that will influence your organization’s future AI purchases. This research was conducted by Informa TechTarget in collaboration with Omdia from August 13, 2025 to September 17, 2025. All numbers are rounded to the nearest whole number, values less than 0.5 are rounded down, and values greater than 0.5 are rounded up.

About snowflake

Snowflake is an AI-era platform that makes it easier for businesses to innovate faster and get more value from their data. More than 13,300 customers around the world, including hundreds of the world’s largest companies, use Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud to build, use, and share data, applications, and AI. With Snowflake, data and AI are transformative for everyone. Learn more at snowflake.com (NYSE: SNOW).