IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rco/dpaper/552.html

The Elusive Returns to AI Skills: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Teo Firpo

    (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

  • Lukas Niemann

    (Tanso Technologies)

  • Anastasia Danilov

    (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Abstract

As firms increasingly adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, how they adjust hiring practices for skilled workers remains unclear. This paper investigates whether AI-related skills are rewarded in talent recruitment by conducting a large-scale correspondence study in the United Kingdom. We submit 1,185 résumés to vacancies across a range of occupations, randomly assigning the presence or absence of advanced AI-related qualifications. These AI qualifications are added to résumés as voluntary signals and not explicitly requested in the job postings. We find no statistically significant effect of listing AI qualifications in résumés on interview callback rates. However, a heterogeneity analysis reveals some positive and significant effects for positions in Engineering and Marketing. These results are robust to controlling for the total number of skills listed in job ads, the degree of match between résumés and job descriptions, and the level of expertise required. In an exploratory analysis, we find stronger employer responses to AI-related skills in industries with lower exposure to AI technologies. These findings suggest that the labor market valuation of AI-related qualifications is context-dependent and shaped by sectoral innovation dynamics.

Suggested Citation

  • Teo Firpo & Lukas Niemann & Anastasia Danilov, 2025. "The Elusive Returns to AI Skills: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 552, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    • Handle: RePEc:rco:dpaper:552
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://rationality-and-competition.de/wp-content/uploads/discussion_paper/552.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alekseeva, Liudmila & Azar, José & Giné, Mireia & Samila, Sampsa & Taska, Bledi, 2021. "The demand for AI skills in the labor market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    2. Dieter Verhaest & Elene Bogaert & Jeroen Dereymaeker & Laura Mestdagh & Stijn Baert, 2018. "Do Employers Prefer Overqualified Graduates? A Field Experiment," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(3), pages 361-388, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tao Chen & Shuwen Pi & Qing Sophie Wang, 2025. "Artificial Intelligence and Corporate Investment Efficiency: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies," Working Papers in Economics 25/05, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    2. Rude, Britta & Giesing, Yvonne, 2022. "Technological Change and Immigration - A Race for Talent or of Displaced Workers," VfS Annual Conference 2022 (Basel): Big Data in Economics 264093, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    3. Pham, Tho & Talavera, Oleksandr & Wu, Zhuangchen, 2023. "Labor markets during war time: Evidence from online job advertisements," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 1316-1333.
    4. Sharique Hasan & Alexander Oettl & Sampsa Samila, 2025. "From Model Design to Organizational Design: Complexity Redistribution and Trade-Offs in Generative AI," Papers 2506.22440, arXiv.org.
    5. Fontanelli, Luca & Guerini, Mattia & Miniaci, Raffaele & Secchi, Angelo, "undated". "Predictive AI and productivity growth dynamics: evidence from French firms," FEEM Working Papers 355806, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    6. Koch, Michael & Lodefalk, Magnus, 2024. "Artificial Intelligence and Worker Stress: Evidence from Germany," Ratio Working Papers 377, The Ratio Institute.
    7. Engberg, Erik & Koch, Michael & Lodefalk, Magnus & Schroeder, Sarah, 2025. "Artificial intelligence, tasks, skills, and wages: Worker-level evidence from Germany," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(8).
    8. Baert, By Stijn & Neyt, Brecht & Siedler, Thomas & Tobback, Ilse & Verhaest, Dieter, 2021. "Student internships and employment opportunities after graduation: A field experiment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    9. Alexandra Theben & Nia Plamenova & Ana Freire, 2025. "The “new currency of the future”: a review of literature on the skills needs of the workforce in times of accelerated digitalisation," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 75(1), pages 495-526, February.
    10. Petraşcu Gianina-Maria & Boboc Cristina, 2025. "The Intersection of AI and ESG: Exploring Overlapping Skills in the Romanian Labour Market," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 19(1), pages 1561-1580.
    11. Lorenzo Navarini & Dieter Verhaest, 2024. "Returns to Education and Overeducation Risk: A Dynamic Model," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven 745260, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    12. Marc Pinski & Thomas Hofmann & Alexander Benlian, 2024. "AI Literacy for the top management: An upper echelons perspective on corporate AI orientation and implementation ability," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 34(1), pages 1-23, December.
    13. Kristina McElheran & J. Frank Li & Erik Brynjolfsson & Zachary Kroff & Emin Dinlersoz & Lucia Foster & Nikolas Zolas, 2024. "AI adoption in America: Who, what, and where," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 375-415, March.
    14. Flavio Calvino & Luca Fontanelli, 2025. "Decoding AI: Nine facts about how firms use artificial intelligence in France," LEM Papers Series 2025/13, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    15. Schultheiss, Tobias & Pfister, Curdin & Gnehm, Ann-Sophie & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2023. "Education expansion and high-skill job opportunities for workers: Does a rising tide lift all boats?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    16. Mladen Adamovic & Andreas Leibbrandt, 2023. "A large‐scale field experiment on occupational gender segregation and hiring discrimination," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 34-59, January.
    17. Joshua S. Gans, 2023. "Artificial intelligence adoption in a competitive market," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(358), pages 690-705, April.
    18. Christina Gathmann & Felix Grimm & Erwin Winkler, 2024. "AI, Task Changes in Jobs, and Worker Reallocation," CESifo Working Paper Series 11585, CESifo.
    19. Ishmael Tingbani & Samuel Salia & Christopher A. Hartwell & Alhassan Yahaya, 2025. "Looking in the rear‐view mirror: Evidence from artificial intelligence investment, labour market conditions and firm growth," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 961-982, January.
    20. R. Maria del Rio-Chanona & Ekkehard Ernst & Rossana Merola & Daniel Samaan & Ole Teutloff, 2025. "AI and jobs. A review of theory, estimates, and evidence," Papers 2509.15265, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rco:dpaper:552. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Viviana Lalli (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://rationality-and-competition.de .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.