- PwC is cutting 200 entry-level positions as artificial intelligence reshapes the workplace, leaving many Gen Z graduates facing greater challenges in launching their careers. The firm’s U.K. chief admitted that graduate hiring is “under pressure” due to advancing technology and global economic headwinds. While PwC joins companies like Amazon in integrating AI to streamline operations, as many as 95% of AI pilots are failing, according to MIT.
Gen Z college graduates are eager to launch their careers but are instead hitting a wall.
Despite promises that degrees would open doors to stable, well-paying jobs, just landing an interview is an uphill battle. Even execs are slowly admitting what graduates already know: entry-level hiring is shrinking fast.
“AI is reshaping roles, global markets remain volatile, and graduate intakes everywhere are under pressure,” Marco Amitrano, head of PwC’s U.K. practice, recently wrote in a LinkedIn post.
“At PwC, our entry-level numbers are lower this year, reflecting the wider slowdown in investment, hiring and deal-making across the economy.”
By the numbers, the accounting and consultancy company is hiring 200 fewer entry-level talent this year (1,300 versus 1,500). For a young Amitrano, this pullback could have been life-changing; after all, he started his career 33 years ago through to a PwC entry-level role. Today, however, the landscape looks different, with AI partly to blame for the (potentially temporary) slowdown for young people.
“Innovation in AI is certainly reshaping roles. For now, the development of new tools and the parallel investment in skills are offsetting more serious disruption,” he added in an op-ed for The Times. “
Yet this balance may not last forever. Our research shows that job postings for AI-exposed occupations are growing at a slower pace compared to those with lower exposure—and this gap is widening.”
Widespread productivity gains have yet to be seen
Even though AI is viewed as a way to turbocharge productivity in the workplace, it hasn’t been the saving grace anticipated. In fact, a recent study from MIT found that 95% of AI pilots at companies are failing. This is especially problematic for the U.K., which is already facing productivity levels falling to Victorian-era lows.
Amitrano cited struggling productivity as the single biggest contributor behind a lower graduate intake at PwC this year.
“Right now, many businesses—both domestic and international—are watching and waiting,” he wrote for The Times. “Activity is improving, but it’s still far removed from the levels of investment, hiring and deal-making that we saw immediately after the pandemic.”
The entry-level cuts at PwC may not end this year. According to documents obtained by Business Insider, the Big Four firm has plans to cut entry-level hiring in the U.S. by almost a third over the next three years.
These practices may only grow the number of young NEETs—or people not in employment, education, or training. Already, about 4 million young people fall into this category.
Fortune reached out to PwC for further comment.
Companies are cutting thanks to AI—but it may not pan out
PwC is not alone in admitting its workforce is shrinking, thanks in part to AI.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in June that AI will lead to there being a need for fewer workers at the e-commerce giant.
“It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.”
At Salesforce, the changes are even more stark. The software company’s CEO, Marc Benioff, admitted late last month that AI had allowed him to cut 4,000 workers.
“I was able to rebalance my headcount on my support,” Benioff revealed on the podcast The Logan Bartlett Show. “I’ve reduced it from 9,000 heads to about 5,000, because I need less heads.
But despite changes across industries, it remains to be seen whether AI-induced reshuffling will continue—or if companies will take a playbook out of Klarna, which began rehiring humans after going too far with AI cuts.
“As cost unfortunately seems to have been a too predominant evaluation factor when organizing this, what you end up having is lower quality,” Klarna’s CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told Bloomberg in May. “Really investing in the quality of the human support is the way of the future for us.”
