AI cuts to junior jobs may weaken companies’ talent pipelines
MIT researcher Andrew McAfee says entry-level roles train future leaders and bring AI fluency that companies may lose if they automate too quickly.
By Hana Yoshida · Markets Reporter
3 min read
MIT research scientist Andrew McAfee is warning that companies may hurt their long-term hiring base if they use AI to replace too many entry-level roles. The risk, he told Harvard Business Review in April, is that employers could lose both a training path for future leaders and a group of workers already comfortable using AI tools.
McAfee, who co-leads MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy, said junior employees often learn complex knowledge work by doing routine tasks alongside more experienced colleagues. If companies automate that work too quickly, he said, they weaken what he called the "apprenticeship ladder."
The issue goes beyond training, according to McAfee, who is also a cofounder of Workhelix, a startup focused on AI return on investment. He said younger workers can bring companies practical AI habits that older workers may adopt more slowly.
A November 2025 Deloitte study found that about 76% of Gen Z respondents had used a standalone AI tool, the highest share among generations surveyed. McAfee told Harvard Business Review that companies reducing entry-level hiring may be cutting off the "most enthusiastic power users of AI" inside their organizations.
Young workers face a tighter entry-level market
The warning comes as new graduates show growing concern about the effect of automation on early-career work. Handshake, which focuses on entry-level hiring, said postings on its platform were down 2% from a year earlier and 12% below pre-pandemic levels in its Class of 2026 Network Trends report.
The New York Fed puts unemployment for college graduates ages 22 to 27 at 5.6%. Monster said nearly nine in 10 graduates in the class of 2026 were worried that AI or automation could replace entry-level jobs, up from 64% in 2025.
Some executives have added to those concerns. Fortune has reported that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had predicted AI could eliminate as many as half of entry-level white-collar jobs, though he later softened those warnings.
Goldman Sachs offered a more measured view in a recent analysis. The bank found that college-educated young workers historically have had earnings losses about half as large as other displaced workers over the decade after losing a job, and that they have been more likely to move into occupations that work with new technologies.
"Contrary to current concerns that the costs of AI will fall especially hard on new graduates," the Goldman report said, "younger workers have actually been able to adjust more flexibly through occupational mobility and skill upgrading in the past."
Some employers keep hiring early-career workers
Several large technology companies are still investing in junior talent. IBM said it would triple entry-level hiring as part of an effort to build stronger long-term skills.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said in October 2025 that the company expected to hire more people out of college over the next 12 months than it had in recent years. He contrasted that plan with companies discussing layoffs or hiring freezes.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in April that the company was hiring 1,000 new graduates and interns to work on its AI systems. On X, he wrote that those early-career workers were helping build Agentforce and Headless360 at Salesforce.
Amazon also plans to keep its intern pipeline steady. Business Insider reported that the company intends to hire 11,000 software engineering interns in 2026, roughly in line with prior years. AWS CEO Matt Garman said Amazon is hiring as many software developers as before and that he sees demand accelerating.
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.