(NewsNation) — Artificial intelligence continues to reshape daily life, and its impact may be felt most acutely in the workforce and hiring process.

A new ZipRecruiter survey found that 35% of employers now expect AI to grow their workforce rather than shrink it. The report also found that nearly three-quarters of employers view AI skills as either an advantage or a requirement for workers.

"We're seeing a lot more impact to work that's being done within a job and how that's changing than headcounts across the board," Nicole Bachaud, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter, told NewsNation.

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Bachaud said it would be unfair to blame AI alone for recent job reductions in the tech sector. Earlier this month, Uber cut about 10% of its customer support staff. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has credited AI with enabling the company to eliminate 4,000 customer support roles, while Microsoft has also reduced customer service jobs in recent years, according to Bloomberg.

"We're still seeing a lot of employers working through the pandemic and post-pandemic hiring surge, where they may have hired too many workers," she said.

University of Georgia professor Stephen Mihm agreed that AI is changing the workplace but said its impact may be even more significant in recruitment.

"In many ways, it probably is AI that is really fundamentally transforming that interface between workers, or prospective workers, and employers in ways that are probably only just beginning," he said.

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Still, Mihm noted that while jobs may become more technical, employers are likely to continue relying on traditional methods when evaluating candidates.

A growing trend among employers is the use of "backdoor references," a practice Bachaud says reflects the declining value of resumes and job applications as indicators of candidate quality.

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"Instead of relying on finding the best resume in the stack and being sure that's the best candidate to move forward and interview, employers are seeing more standardized applications and resumes," she said.

Bachaud believes the trend can put entry-level workers at a disadvantage.

"That's making it really difficult to discern who's actually good for the job and leading to more outreach through networks and references," she said. "We're really seeing AI impacting senior-level workers and entry-level workers differently when it comes to how they're able to access these opportunities."

NewsNation's Andrew Dorn contributed to this report.

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