How AI is changing the nature of entry level work
Entry-level hires are still crucial for businesses – and with AI, companies stand to improve the productivity of their junior employees. Image: REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
- Entry-level jobs in the US have fallen by 35% in the last 18 months, in large part because of AI.
- For those jobs still open, the nature of the work is changing fast as AI carries out routine task execution.
- Entry-level hires are still crucial for businesses – and with AI, companies stand to improve the productivity of their junior employees.
A look at today’s job market suggests new entry-level roles are evaporating as leaders across industries embrace artificial intelligence (AI) to handle foundational tasks, from data entry to coding to customer support.
For instance, postings for entry-level jobs in the US have plummeted by 35% in the last 18 months, in large part because of AI, according to research firm Revelio Labs.
The calculation, at first, appears stark: embrace AI for speed and savings, or preserve the junior levels of the pyramid that organizations have long depended on to survive.
The reality is more complex.
The short-term efficiencies that organizations could gain by cutting junior talent actually mask longer-term risks. Without an influx of digital natives, organizations would experience a range of detrimental impacts: slower AI adoption and application, weakened succession plans, stalled knowledge transfer and cultures that struggle to renew themselves. Without deliberate entry points, the future that workforce leaders are counting on may never fully materialize.
Further, reports now indicate that the work assumed to be done by AI in early-career roles is simply being pushed upward—leaving middle management and senior talent overextended, burned out and increasingly disengaged as they absorb junior tasks.
Rethinking AI and the entry level
The choice between AI productivity and entry-level hires need not be an either/or decision. I believe early-career talent is becoming more—not less—critical in an AI-first world. In fact, even with our widespread use of AI at Cognizant, we hired 25,000 fresh graduates in 2025 and expect to exceed that number this year.
By welcoming entry-level talent, organizations will also increase their ranks of digital natives – workers who will ramp up quickly with AI, without the change management curve of their more seasoned coworkers. With their AI comfort levels, newcomers can more quickly contribute value to the company, as they enjoy instant access to expertise that used to take years to gain. People in early-career roles can use AI to acquire skills more quickly and rapidly ascend to higher value roles.
Having associates that are comfortable with AI tools is a significant competitive advantage, particularly given today’s rapid pace of technological change. And allowing these AI-adept new hires to grow into more senior roles will ensure a healthy talent pyramid for years to come.
How entry-level work will change with AI
Far from disappearing, entry-level work is being redefined. As discussed in our recent report, “The trillion-dollar question: What to do with the workforce in the age of AI,” as more junior-level employees enter the workforce with AI skills honed at educational institutions, the technology is altering what entry-level work looks like and where in the talent pyramid it’s performed. Examples include:
- New hires who are less focused on task execution, and more focused on making judgment calls. Instead of spending their early years doing repetitive, manual tasks, newcomers can begin performing judgment-based work early on. For example, they can be tasked with reviewing and monitoring AI outputs or flagging and routing complex cases to human experts.
- Entry-level workers who can surface AI insights to share with senior teams. Instead of relying solely on mentors and managers to learn, early-career workers could use AI to rapidly explore new ideas, test hypotheses and conduct micro-experiments. They could also use AI to surface emerging trends and gather insights to pass along to senior teams.
- Early-career workers can help make the connection between AI tools and human work. Newcomers can be involved with monitoring workflows, identifying breakdowns and inefficiencies, and ensuring AI outputs stay high-quality. By doing so, they would help build a future workforce that understands both AI tools and the business context in which they operate.
How to facilitate new types of entry-level jobs
Businesses can take steps to ensure their new hires can easily step into these new types of roles. For example:
- Start gradually but design a structured on-ramp: Businesses can assign entry-level workers a subset of low-stakes tasks to perform as they build their experience and expertise, while also offering training programmes to help them more quickly transition to more complex job tasks for which they’d need to hone critical human skills.
- Seek early-career candidates with both AI skills and keen AI discernment: Hiring managers must become adept at identifying people with not just AI technology skills but also a nuanced sense of where and how AI should be used. The best early-career employees will understand when AI is appropriate, how to question AI output and how to improve AI prompts and workflows. Businesses will need to assess not just AI experience but AI reasoning.
- Pair new hires with seasoned coworkers: It will be essential for newcomers to quickly understand business context so they can assess AI-driven outputs and workflows with a critical eye. This can be accelerated through deliberate teaming of new and experienced talent. Seasoned colleagues can help new hires understand business logic, risk awareness, responsible use of AI in the organization and how to interpret AI output.
A smart path forward
Today’s leaders have the opportunity to advance both efficiency and people. They can, and must, balance AI-related efficiency gains with a continued focus on the lower levels of the talent pyramid.
By doing so, they will build a generation of digital-native workers able to accelerate transformation and create a leadership pipeline that is ready to become the workforce of the future.
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