PWC survey finds employers want entry level workers with senior level skills in the age of AI

By Matthew Griffin Computing 29th May 2026

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Entry-level hiring is being redefined as AI absorbs routine tasks, raising the skills bar for new workers.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is raising the bar for entry-level jobs, according to a new PwC analysis of global job ads. Employers in AI-exposed fields are increasingly looking for entry-level workers to have the skills that they previously expected from senior workers, including emotional intelligence, judgment, and leadership.

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The findings come from PwC's 2026 AI jobs barometer, released on June 15, which analysed over 1 billion job advertisements globally. Analysis of 2.4 million entry-level roles in the US found that AI-exposed roles are seven times more likely to list "traditionally senior" skills than they were in 2019.

The include motivational leadership, team building, people and stakeholder management, process management, mentorship, and data-driven decision-making.

PwC defined a skill as "traditionally senior" if it appeared more than 50 times in experienced, non-entry-level, high AI exposure job postings in 2019, but fewer than five times in entry-level, high AI exposure postings in 2019.

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"The good news is that many junior workers will be spared years of drudgery on basic, repetitive tasks. The tough news is that those same workers need to quickly step up to demonstrate skills like leadership and strategic thinking," PwC said in the report.

AI has become increasingly capable of performing repetitive, data-intensive tasks that once made up much of junior white-collar work. That shift has contributed to an overall .

Globally, PwC's AI jobs barometer found that entry-level roles highly exposed to AI have flatlined. PwC itself has by a third over the next three years in the US.

In the US job market, the report found that not all AI-exposed junior roles are shrinking: Those with higher skill expectations are thriving.

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AI-exposed entry-level jobs that had been "seniorised" – meaning they added more than 10 traditionally senior skills – grew 35% between 2019 and 2025. Comparable AI-exposed entry-level roles that had not been seniorised fell 10%.

The changing nature of the work is also pushing companies to overhaul their training and people programs to help young workers adapt.

PwC US introduced a new workplace training initiative in February and has where its entry-level consultants can work from 72 to 13 offices.

The isolation of the COVID years, combined with the way that AI is changing the nature of work, has chipped away at some of PwC's sense of connection around learning and development, especially for younger employees, said Yolanda Seals-Coffield, chief people and inclusion officer for PwC US.

How is AI changing what employers expect from entry-level workers?
PwC found AI-exposed entry roles are seven times more likely to demand traditionally senior skills — leadership, mentorship, stakeholder management — than in 2019.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 15-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.

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