Payroll firm Remote hits $300m ARR as AI drives 50% revenue-per-employee surge

Remote, an Amsterdam-based payroll service provider, has surpassed $300 million in annual recurring revenue and achieved cash-flow positivity, driven by a 50% increase in revenue per employee without expanding its workforce. CEO Job van der Voort attributes this operational efficiency to the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence across all departments, noting that the company is generating significantly more output without adding headcount.

The efficiency gains are underpinned by significant shifts in engineering productivity. AI-powered coding tools have increased engineering output by more than 60% over the last 12 months, with more than 85% of code written by AI in the past month. While this has reduced hiring plans in certain departments, van der Voort confirmed no job cuts have occurred, with the company instead evaluating whether to invest in upskilling existing staff or increasing spend on AI initiatives.

Beyond engineering, the company has integrated AI into broader operations through Remote Labs, an internal marketplace where employees launch applications, and Remote Build, a team of forward-deployed engineers who work directly with clients to create custom workflows. Van der Voort, who utilises multiple instances of AI models simultaneously for internal tool development, stated that these measures have allowed the core payroll business to grow by more than 300% year over year, although the company has not provided independent verification of this specific metric.

In a strategic pivot away from the all-in-one HR suite model adopted by many competitors, Remote is positioning itself as an underlying engine for other platforms. The company recently launched Remote MCP, an interface based on the Model Context Protocol, which allows AI agents and external platforms such as BambooHR and Workday to interact directly with its payroll and compliance data. This move aligns with the rise of agentic AI, potentially allowing users to control Remote’s functions through chat interfaces without interacting with the platform directly.

The company serves tens of thousands of businesses navigating global employment compliance, with the vast majority of clients employing people in traditional office settings rather than remote workforces. As the company scales its AI capabilities, including testing secure interactions with its own systems using open-source agents, it aims to balance rising AI costs with the efficiency gains that support its rapid growth trajectory.