AI-driven cuts to graduate roles could weaken future leadership pipelines

Employers replacing entry-level roles with artificial intelligence could weaken their future leadership pipelines and organisational culture, according to a global report examining how AI is reshaping graduate work.

The report from CEMS, the Global Alliance in Management Education, argues that entry-level positions play a wider role than completing junior-level tasks, providing the environment in which employees develop judgement, responsibility, organisational knowledge and leadership skills.

The Missing Rung? AI and the Future of Entry-Level Work draws on interviews and research with students in more than 20 countries, alongside contributions from multinational employers and academics across the CEMS alliance.

Its contributors argue that while AI is increasingly absorbing tasks traditionally performed by graduates, such as routine drafting, data gathering and initial analysis, employers should be cautious about assuming this removes the need for junior employees altogether.

Instead, entry-level roles are likely to change as graduates work alongside AI and take on different responsibilities earlier in their careers.

The findings raise questions for employers about how workforce planning and AI adoption could affect longer-term talent development. Removing junior roles may deliver efficiencies in the short term, but CEMS argues it could also reduce opportunities for employees to gain the experience required to progress into management and leadership positions.

Nicole de Fontaines, executive director of CEMS, said: “Entry-level roles are far more than a way of getting work done. They are where young people learn judgement, responsibility and how to lead across cultures and where a company’s values are passed from one generation to the next.

“Companies that continue to hire and develop graduates are not simply filling vacancies. They are investing in the people, and the culture, on which their long-term success depends. Responsible, innovative, globally minded future leaders are not hired ready-made. They are grown, through the real-world experience that entry-level roles provide.”

Frank Steinert, global head of HR regions at Henkel, a CEMS corporate partner, said: “If you go to the extreme and say you are not hiring entry-level positions, you may have created a significant risk for future growth. A few years down the road, the natural progression of your leadership pipeline breaks down and that also damages the company culture you built up diligently over years or decades.”

The report also challenges predictions that AI will simply remove the bottom rung of the career ladder.

Citing Gartner data, it says fewer than one per cent of 1.4 million layoffs recorded in 2025 were attributable to AI productivity gains. It also points to Bain & Company research which found AI-related job postings have increased by 21 per cent a year since 2019.

CEMS argues this changing employment landscape could create opportunities for graduates with strong AI skills because experience with current AI technology remains relatively limited across organisations.

It says graduates who can combine AI tools, build working solutions and apply independent judgement could become valuable sources of expertise within organisations relatively quickly.

But technical capability alone will not be enough, according to the report. It identifies judgement, resilience, ethical decision-making and a strong sense of identity as increasingly important differentiators as AI becomes commonplace in the workplace.

This creates a broader workforce development challenge: ensuring greater use of AI does not inadvertently remove the opportunities through which younger employees develop human skills, workplace relationships and experience.

Gianmarco Mazzocchi and Merthe Weusthuis, CEMS alumni at corporate partner Whiteshield, said: “Many companies have been too aggressive in their plans to replace employees with AI tools, and the real cost is starting to show. Continuing to hire graduates is crucial for the leadership pipeline. Our leaders have nearly always come up through the ranks – people you can gradually build into exceptional managers and senior leaders, particularly coming straight from university.”

The report also calls on business schools and universities to embed AI within teaching and assessment rather than restricting its use, while ensuring students continue to demonstrate their own reasoning and judgement.

It argues closer partnerships between employers and education providers will become increasingly important as technology changes the skills expected from people entering the workforce.

De Fontaines added: “The tough graduate job market is not a myth, and we do not pretend otherwise. It is genuinely challenging for students moving into the workplace right now, with some roles likely to disappear as AI reshapes work against a difficult economic and geopolitical backdrop. Yet the fuller picture is far from the one in which every junior role vanishes.

“The bottom rung, our contributors told us, is not missing in many cases so much as changing shape. That is a real opportunity for ambitious graduates to contribute more meaningfully and earlier in their careers than ever before – something we know from our previous research that they have craved for many years.”