AI transforms operations, hiring across high-growth tech firms: Report

Artificial intelligence is becoming central to the operations of high-growth, venture-backed technology companies, with businesses increasingly using AI across engineering, finance, human resources, sales, marketing and customer success. A new report by global venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners suggests the technology is driving productivity gains while also reshaping hiring strategies and workforce planning.

AI adoption accelerates across business functions

Artificial intelligence is expected to significantly alter workplace operations over the next year, according to Bessemer Venture Partners' research report. The study found that 86 per cent of respondents were highly confident AI would meaningfully transform how their teams function during the next 12 months, with respondents giving an average confidence score of 4.4 out of five.

The report noted that AI has already become integral to many businesses, with 58 per cent of respondents saying it is either core to operations or actively deployed across their organisations. Another 43 per cent said they were still experimenting with AI tools or were at the early stages of implementation.

Among AI platforms, Anthropic's Claude emerged as the most widely used tool, with 73 per cent of respondents reporting that they use it.

Engineering teams have emerged as the biggest adopters of AI. Around 90 per cent of engineering teams said AI was either actively deployed or considered core to their operations. AI-powered coding assistants were being used by 92 per cent of technology and engineering teams, while AI contributed to 57 per cent of engineering code.

AI reshapes hiring and workforce planning

The growing use of AI is also changing how companies approach recruitment and workforce management.

According to the report, 49 per cent of respondents said their organisations were delivering higher productivity without increasing headcount. Another 25 per cent said they had upskilled employees into AI-related roles, while 13 per cent had slowed or paused hiring due to AI adoption. Around 10 per cent reported creating new AI workflow roles, and 6 per cent said they had replaced certain roles with AI tools.

Finance teams are increasingly relying on AI for financial planning, modelling and contract reviews, although fragmented systems and poor data quality remain major obstacles.

In human resources, AI is widely used for drafting job descriptions, preparing offer letters, supporting recruitment and assisting with performance reviews. However, HR leaders identified data privacy and regulatory compliance as their primary concerns.

Benefits grow, but challenges remain

Sales and go-to-market teams are using AI to support account research and generate call summaries, though many organisations continue to struggle with poor data quality and measuring AI's direct impact on sales pipelines.

Marketing and communications teams reported widespread AI adoption for content creation, but brand safety and quality assurance remain their biggest concerns.

Customer success teams are deploying AI for ticket triage, chatbots and productivity tools, helping reduce support ticket volumes. Despite these gains, many organisations said they still face challenges in demonstrating AI's impact on customer retention.

The report concluded that AI adoption continues to vary across different business functions, with data quality, compliance requirements, fragmented tools and skills gaps influencing the pace of implementation across organisations.

(With inputs from ANI)