The AI hype check: Fortune companies are not hiring AI-ready workers

October 30, 2025 – New York, US: Orgvue, the organizational design and planning software platform, today announced findings from a new analysis of recent job postings made by Fortune 100 companies that reveals a surprisingly low demand for AI skills.

The analysis of current hiring trends suggests that these organizations are not pushing the adoption of AI technologies as fast as some would believe. With only 11 percent of job postings mentioning AI and just 6 percent of these calling out specific platforms or tools, there seems to be a lack of urgency in bringing in AI skill sets.

The need for these skills is highest in the technology sector, with 26 percent of roles in the industry requiring them. But outside of tech, the call for AI skills is remarkably low—just 9 percent in finance and 8 percent in healthcare being among the highest.

The analysis also shows that demand is focused primarily on senior positions: 18 percent of director-level roles require AI experience, dropping to 8 percent for non-management roles.

Commenting on the analysis, Jessica Modrall, Chief Product Officer at Orgvue, said:

“Our findings show that AI skills are in far less demand than we thought and could signal a disconnect between identifying where AI will deliver value, the roles and people who will be critical in adopting it, and the skill sets they’ll need to do so.

“Numerous public disappointments on the value of AI investment support this. Clearly, something is going wrong between the ambition and implementation of this technology.”

The fire-to-hire cycle

These findings come at a time of enormous workforce change, where news headlines would lead us to believe that large-scale layoffs are happening because of AI.

The study found that over the last year, Fortune 100 companies made more than 86,000 redundancies, many as part of significant layoff rounds. In total, nearly half (48) of these companies went through some form of layoff.

However, the analysis revealed that of those organizations, nearly all (46) were now hiring. In July alone, some 58,000 new roles were posted.

Orgvue found that this fire-to-hire cycle cost Fortune 100 companies $25 billion in severance charges alone in 2024, not counting the associated recruitment, training, and productivity losses. Across the entire Fortune 500, $43 billion in severance was reported in 10-K annual reports.

When the full cost of layoffs is taken into account, organizations are paying out an estimated $1.27 (average) for every dollar saved through workforce reduction. It appears that they are going through significant change at high cost, but seemingly not with the aim of building a more AI-ready workforce.

Speaking directly on the fire-to-hire cycle, Jessica Modrall, Chief Product Officer at Orgvue, added:

“We’re at a point in corporate America where regular redundancies and mass layoffs are becoming normalized. AI is always in the frame as a big reason for this. Yet without clear workforce data on roles, skills, and work, companies could be losing institutional knowledge in an environment where talent is in short supply.

“And while there’s no doubt that the rise of AI is set to shape the future of the workforce, organizations are at risk of making a fundamental mistake in assuming that AI will replace their workforce, when in fact it will transform it.”

Other findings indicate that organizations are placing less emphasis on industry tenure and expertise in shaping their workforce, with 64 percent of job postings being aimed at candidates with less than five years’ experience—a fact that seems to debunk the myth that AI will eliminate entry-level positions. 

The study looked at 10,533 job postings made by Fortune 100 companies in the US between July 29 and August 2, 2025 to understand how layoffs have affected hiring trends among top organizations.

For more insights, visit the research report: The fire-to-hire cycle.

ENDS

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