Abstract: Against the backdrop of the current major practical issue of "stabilizing employment", the wide application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology inevitably has a profound impact on the labor market. How to effectively address the structural shocks it brings has become a key issue for promoting China's high-quality development. Based on this, this paper uses the China Patent Application Database as the foundation to measure the deep integration level of AI with the real economy. Combined with the data of A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2023, a two-way fixed effect model is constructed to systematically examine the impact of the deep integration of AI with the real economy on employment changes in enterprises and its mechanism. The research findings are as follows: First, the deep integration of AI with the real economy significantly promotes the net growth rate of employment in enterprises, and this conclusion remains valid after a series of robustness tests. Second, the mechanism test shows that the creation effect, scale effect, and substitution effect constitute the important internal paths through which AI drives employment changes in enterprises. Third, the heterogeneity analysis indicates that the promoting effect of the deep integration of AI with the real economy on employment is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises, non-high-tech enterprises, enterprises in industries with lower concentration, regions with more complete digital infrastructure, and better business environments. Fourth, the extended analysis further shows that the employment change effect caused by the integration of AI and the real economy significantly widens the internal salary gap within enterprises. Meanwhile, the driving effect of internal integration within the real economy industry on employment is significantly stronger than that of internal integration within the AI industry.