Issue Automation of entry-level work breaks the leadership pipeline

Summary

This issue warns that automating junior roles could cut off the path through which future leaders are developed. Entry-level jobs have traditionally been testing grounds where early-career staff learn judgment, awareness of stakeholders and how to coordinate complex work. Research by King's College London found that companies highly exposed to AI cut junior headcount between 2021 and 2025, and its authors warned that concentrating job losses at entry level disrupts the usual ways skills are built. Without deliberate redesign, EY argues, fewer people will get the chance to build the capabilities needed to lead in an AI-enabled world. Forward-looking firms are responding by combining AI literacy with leadership basics and avoiding metrics that reward only speed and automation. They are also creating slower tracks for critical thinking through structured review and making junior staff jointly responsible for improving AI systems.