A new global survey of chief executives shows more than 40% of companies plan to cut or de‑emphasize junior roles over the next two years as AI assistants take over routine tasks once handled by entry‑level staff.
The 2026 CEO Survey, conducted by the Oliver Wyman Forum and the New York Stock Exchange, gathered responses from 415 chief executives across industries and regions.
Nearly 43% of CEOs said they expect to reduce their focus on entry‑level hiring, up from 17% in last year's survey, indicating a rapid shift in workforce strategy. About one‑third said they intend to prioritise mid‑level workers, and 10% reported they are focusing more on senior talent, according to Gizmodo.
Executives in the survey directly linked the change to advances in AI tools, which they say can already perform a growing share of repetitive work formerly assigned to recent graduates and junior staff.
Tasks such as basic research, drafting internal documents, and routine data processing are increasingly handled by AI assistants, reducing demand for entry‑level clerical and administrative roles.
A separate survey by the British Standards Institution found 39% of junior roles, including admin and research positions, have already been partly replaced by AI through reduced hiring or termination of those roles.
Evidence from labour‑market data suggests the shift is starting to show up in job postings for new graduates. ZipRecruiter's 2026 Graduate Report found entry‑level roles accounted for 38.6% of all openings in March, down from 44% in 2023, while the unemployment rate for recent graduates rose to 5.6% in December.
In the United States, researchers cited by the New York Federal Reserve have flagged a noticeable deterioration in conditions for 22‑ to 27‑year‑olds, particularly in white‑collar fields exposed to AI.
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Other surveys indicate employers are simultaneously raising the bar for the junior positions that remain.
Analysis from early‑career platform Handshake and the National Association of Colleges and Employers shows the share of entry‑level job postings requiring AI skills has roughly doubled or tripled since late 2025, with more than one‑third of such roles now asking for AI proficiency, Nace Web reported.
Openings increasingly call for familiarity with tools that support coding, data analysis, and content creation, and some universities are introducing graduation requirements for basic AI competence starting with the class entering in 2026.
In some sectors, companies are not only slowing junior hiring but also directly planning AI substitution.
Research from the UK's Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found 62% of employers expect junior clerical, managerial, and administrative jobs to be most at risk from AI, and about a quarter of large private organisations say they could replace these roles with AI within a year.
A separate analysis published by the World Economic Forum reported that entry‑level jobs in the United States have fallen by around 35% in the past 18 months, attributing much of that decline to accelerated AI deployment, as per CNBC.
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