Draup, a global leader in enterprise talent intelligence, today released a new report: Fortune 500 Hiring Trends — What Enterprise Talent Looks Like After AI Adoption. Drawing on Draup’s proprietary workforce intelligence and Fortune 500 job posting data across global markets, the report compares 2024 and 2025 hiring activity to assess shifts in hiring demand, role design and skill requirements as enterprise AI adoption accelerates.
Over the last year, large companies have moved from testing AI to using it more broadly in everyday work. That shift has raised real concerns about job losses, especially as some companies have already linked automation to recent layoffs. At the same time, recent Draup analysis suggests AI-driven productivity gains could support net job growth of 78 million roles over the long term. What’s already visible today is how hiring itself is changing inside Fortune 500 companies.
Draup’s report shows that Fortune 500 companies are still hiring, but in different ways. Demand is shifting toward execution-focused and oversight roles, while hiring is becoming more selective in areas with higher automation potential. Companies are also relying more on contract talent and global hiring to support AI-enabled work at scale.
Key findings from the report include:
- AI skills are spreading fastest outside core IT teams — AI skill mentions grew significantly year-over-year (YoY) across functions including customer support (24.8%), sales and marketing (23.6%), industrial manufacturing (23%) and financial operations (21.3%)
- Hiring declines are concentrated in highly AI-augmentable roles — In finance functions, for example, Fortune 500 job postings declined sharply for roles with high AI augmentation potential, falling by nearly 40% YoY, compared with single-digit declines for roles with lower AI exposure
- Enterprises are hiring more contractors to execute AI adoption — Contract job postings among Fortune 500 companies increased from ~520k to ~610k YoY, representing 17.3% growth
- “Hire for control” skills are growing faster than “hire for growth” skills — Demand for AI governance and model risk skills rose by 81% YoY, while cost optimization and margin protection skills increased by 77.6%, significantly outpacing growth in expansion-oriented roles
- Execution roles are outpacing leadership hiring — Job postings for individual contributor (IC) roles show substantially higher YoY growth than managerial roles, with IC demand rising in the ~30% range across several functions, compared with mostly single-digit growth for management roles
- Fortune 500 hiring growth is diverging sharply by country — Job openings grew fastest in markets such as Kuwait (+82%), Belgium (+64%) and Qatar (+57%), while mature markets including the U.S. (+4%), the U.K. (+2%) and Australia (+4%) saw far slower hiring growth, signaling a rebalancing of global enterprise talent demand
“The era of experimental AI is over—enterprise integration has begun. Fortune 500 companies are redesigning work around execution, not hierarchy,” said Vijay Swaminathan, CEO and co-founder of Draup. “Skills are expanding, roles are consolidating, and operators of AI are in demand. Efficiency, governance, and resilience now anchor growth strategies. Hiring is becoming a signal of operating model transformation—not just talent acquisition.”
As AI becomes part of everyday business, many organizations are having to rethink how they plan their workforce, build new skills and decide where work gets done. Draup supports this shift with data on more than 1 million companies and 850 million professionals worldwide, along with insight into 56,000 technologies and 8,500 labor providers. That combination helps leaders spot emerging skills earlier and adjust talent decisions as needs change.
To read the full Fortune 500 Hiring Trends — What Enterprise Talent Looks Like After AI Adoption report and its findings on how hiring patterns, roles and skill requirements are changing, visit: https://draup.com/talent/data-books/fortune-500-hiring-trends.