AI and the Vanishing Entry-Level Job

The traditional career ladder is under assault. Artificial intelligence rapidly automates routine tasks while entry-level positions disappear at an unprecedented pace. These crucial first rungs launched generations of professionals. Now they're vanishing, creating a strategic threat to organizational sustainability that most business leaders haven't recognized.

The Scale of Disruption

LinkedIn's chief economic opportunity officer Aneesh Raman warns that AI is eliminating the "stepping stone" roles new graduates have historically relied on. He compares the disruption to manufacturing job losses of the 1980s. Dario Amodei, CEO of AI firm Anthropic, delivers an even blunter assessment: AI could eliminate up to half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years. Unemployment could spike to 10-20%. He urges tech leaders and governments to stop "sugar-coating" this possibility and prepare for the mass elimination of entry-level positions across industries.

The impact is already visible, not theoretical. Advanced software tools now handle the simple debugging tasks that once taught junior coders. Document review, the traditional training ground for first-year paralegals, vanishes into AI workflows. Retail chatbots replace face-to-face roles that taught customer service fundamentals.

Recent college graduate unemployment has jumped 30% since late 2022. This far outpaces broader labor market trends. Those who do find work often face underemployment, taking roles that pay less and underutilize their skills. Others encounter job postings demanding years of experience for supposedly "entry-level" positions.

The Hidden Cost to Organizations

Companies celebrate short-term efficiency gains while creating a long-term strategic vulnerability. They're eroding their talent pipeline. Entry-level roles have always served a dual purpose. They give young professionals experience while providing organizations with future leaders who understand the business from the ground up.

Fresh graduates bring updated skills, new perspectives, and innovative thinking that drive organizational adaptation. A majority of executives acknowledge that young employees inject valuable creativity into their businesses, despite planning for more AI automation. Lose that influx, and corporate culture risks stagnation.

The financial irony is equally compelling. Automating junior jobs saves on today's salaries but may inflate tomorrow's costs. Companies that forego internal talent development often pay premium rates to poach experienced professionals from competitors. They essentially pay more for the expertise they chose not to cultivate. Add substantial AI system costs like software subscriptions and cloud computing bills, and the economics become murky.

The Underemployment Trap

For new graduates and early-career workers, the immediate impact of AI’s rise is fewer opportunities to get a foothold. Many of those who do find work are often underemployed taking roles that pay less or don’t fully utilize their skills – or they face job postings that demand years of experience for “entry-level” positions. In fact, as companies automate routine tasks and raise hiring requirements, young candidates face a frustrating paradox: you need experience to get a job, but need a job to get experience. It’s no wonder Gen Z is increasingly pessimistic about their career prospects. Nearly half of Gen Z job seekers in one survey even believe AI has diminished the value of their college degree in the job market.

The long-term penalty of a stalled start can be steep. Research shows that even a brief period of early-career joblessness or underemployment can drag down earnings for years. For example, a six-month gap in employment at age 22 can cost an individual $22,000 in lost income over the next decade. These lost opportunities compound over a career, widening income gaps and slowing professional growth. And the impact isn’t evenly distributed: those without elite networks or family connections are hit hardest.

Redesigning Rather Than Eliminating

Forward-thinking organizations ask a different question: How can we adapt entry-level work rather than abolish it? The most promising approaches combine human potential with AI capabilities. They treat them as partners rather than substitutes.

KPMG provides a good example. New graduates immediately tackle complex, high-value client projects with AI support. They bypass traditional busywork for meaningful learning experiences. At Macfarlanes law firm, junior lawyers interpret complex contracts with AI assistance. This work was previously reserved for senior attorneys while AI handles tedious document review.

This "augmented apprenticeship" model shows impressive results. MIT Sloan research finds that junior and lower-skill workers achieve the biggest productivity gains when working alongside AI. They perform better than when being replaced by it. The optimal scenario isn't AI versus entry-level employees, but AI with entry-level employees.

Building the Future Workforce

Making this transition successful requires intentional investment. Progressive companies implement internships, apprenticeships, and trainee programs that explicitly incorporate AI tools. They use technology as a teaching aid rather than a replacement for human learning.

Academic institutions are adapting too. They embed AI literacy and data skills into curricula so graduates arrive better prepared for AI-enhanced roles. Business schools now teach future managers how to integrate AI into decision-making and workflows.

Compensation and career expectations must evolve alongside the work itself. With routine tasks automated, entry-level roles might involve fewer junior analysts doing grunt work. Instead, there will be more young hires in hybrid positions combining human judgment with AI outputs. The skill of effectively using AI becomes valuable in itself.

Notably, 40% of Gen Z workers say they would accept lower pay for roles with better growth opportunities. This indicates hunger for skill development over immediate compensation. It shouldn't justify underpayment but rather underscores the value young professionals place on meaningful learning experiences.

The Path Forward

We stand at an inflection point. Today's automation decisions will determine whether we create a workforce capable of thriving alongside AI or one permanently scarred by technological displacement. The solution isn't to halt AI adoption. That's neither feasible nor desirable. Instead, we must consciously design human-AI collaboration that preserves opportunity while capturing efficiency gains.

Business leaders must recognize that developing junior talent isn't just social responsibility. It's strategic necessity. Organizations that invest in reimagined entry-level roles, enhanced by AI rather than replaced by it, will build the adaptable, innovative workforces needed to compete in an AI-driven economy.

The next generation of workers needs more than jobs. They need launching pads. Businesses need more than immediate cost savings. They need sustainable talent strategies. By protecting and reinventing that crucial first rung on the career ladder, we ensure both individual opportunity and organizational resilience for the decades ahead.

Sources: Fortune, Axios, Fort Worth Inc., Fast Company, World Economic Forum (2025)