AI Investment Shifts Tech Hiring Toward Hardware Roles

The technology jobs market is being reshaped rather than simply reduced, according to an analysis from Singularity.Kiwi of figures reviewed by Business Insider. More than 280,000 technology positions are currently advertised across the 9,000-plus companies tracked by hiring platform TrueUp, a substantial increase from the beginning of 2026.

At the same time, around 190,000 technology workers have lost their jobs this year. The two figures point to a market where employment is expanding in some areas while contracting in others, rather than one experiencing either an across-the-board boom or a general collapse.

The strongest growth is in hardware engineering. Demand has risen around the equipment and infrastructure supporting artificial intelligence, including chips, servers, robotics and data centres. Software engineering vacancies, despite years of predictions that AI tools would sharply reduce the need for programmers, have remained more resilient than expected.

AI changes the shape of demand

TrueUp founder Amit Taylor linked the increase in hardware roles to investment in graphics processing technology, robotics, manufacturing companies in the United States and SpaceX. The surge reflects the physical requirements of building AI systems: computing facilities must be designed, manufactured, installed and maintained before software can run on them.

That spending has made the hardware layer one of the technology sector’s most active sources of recruitment. It also complicates the claim that artificial intelligence is simply destroying technology employment. Companies may be reducing some established roles while adding staff in engineering, infrastructure and related technical areas.

The layoffs remain significant. However, if the current pace continues, the total for 2026 would be well below the approximately 430,000 technology job cuts recorded in 2023, according to the figures cited by Business Insider. This year’s number is therefore painful for affected workers but does not resemble the peak of the post-pandemic retrenchment.

The data does not mean that every part of the workforce is benefiting. Entry-level candidates face particular pressure, and research cited by Singularity.Kiwi found that roughly 227,000 fewer jobs aimed at new entrants opened over a year. A stable or growing overall vacancy count can therefore conceal a tougher market for people trying to begin their careers.

A mixed picture in New Zealand

New Zealand offers a smaller-scale example of the same movement between functions. ANZ New Zealand, the country’s largest bank, proposed in late September to remove more than 100 permanent information-technology positions from a technology workforce of about 1,500 permanent employees. The bank employs roughly 7,000 people in New Zealand overall.

Reporting by the New Zealand Herald, RNZ and Newswire said the proposal could include consolidating software testing through one partner and potentially moving some work offshore. Quality assurance engineers, lead engineers, product owners and project managers were among the roles identified as affected. Consultation was still under way, and the bank had confirmed the broad proposal without confirming the final number of redundancies.

ANZ said it wanted to bring related data, AI and engineering functions together to improve consistency. That planned reorganisation illustrates the broader pattern identified in the TrueUp data: companies are not abandoning technology, but are changing which capabilities they prioritise and how work is organised.

For workers, the distinction matters. A reduction in one team does not necessarily indicate that a company has stopped hiring elsewhere. It may instead signal a shift towards data, artificial intelligence, engineering or infrastructure, while older or more easily consolidated functions face greater scrutiny.

Neither boom nor collapse

The figures reviewed by Business Insider challenge two simplified accounts of the AI economy. They do not support the idea that technology employment has disappeared, because advertised roles have climbed well above the level seen at the start of the year. Nor do they show an uncomplicated hiring boom, because hundreds of thousands of workers have been laid off and early-career opportunities have weakened.

Software vacancies have held up better than many forecasts expected, but that resilience does not remove the pressure created by AI-assisted development tools. Employers may need fewer people for some tasks, while seeking more specialists to build the systems, machines and facilities behind the technology.

The clearest conclusion from the TrueUp figures is that artificial intelligence is redirecting recruitment. Hardware engineers have benefited most visibly in 2026, while infrastructure and AI-linked capabilities are gaining importance. At the same time, workers in affected functions must compete for a smaller or more concentrated set of openings.

Singularity.Kiwi’s reporting therefore presents a labour market in transition: vacancies are rising, layoffs continue, and the winners are increasingly found in the physical and technical foundations of the AI buildout.