Anthropic study: AI agents work six times as many hours as its staff
The AI company has analysed how agents are changing its own workforce. The share of junior staff among new technical hires fell from 27 to 9 per cent.
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AI developer Anthropic has examined how AI agents are changing its own workforce in a report titled "How employment is changing at Anthropic". According to the report, agents' working hours exceeded those of humans for the first time in March 2026; by August they were already working six times as many hours as the employees who direct them. According to Anthropic economist Peter McCrory, the company could be a "leading indicator" of change in the wider economy.
The shift is most visible among junior staff: their share of new hires in technical departments fell from 27 to 9 per cent, and their share of those departments overall from 21 per cent in early 2025 to 14 per cent. Technical departments now account for 56 rather than 61 per cent of the workforce. "Employees increasingly see their work as managing teams of Claudes," the researchers write.
In a survey, 91 per cent of staff expect an AI discovery at Nobel Prize level by 2030 – compared with 39 per cent of US adults. At the same time, 95 per cent expect Anthropic's headcount to keep growing over the next twelve months. Anthropic stresses that these are personal expectations, not company plans.