Originally appeared as post on LinkedIn by Shawn VanDerziel, President & CEO of the National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE)
There’s no shortage of speculation or hype about AI’s impact on early career talent. So we went straight to the source to verify the reality: the recruiters who are actually hiring.
What we heard is consistent and clear. While some jobs have been created and others have evolved, employers report that the overall impact of AI on early career roles remains limited.
As the graphic below shows, only about 14-15% of surveyed employers have discussed or are actively considering replacing entry-level professional roles with AI. Most organizations haven’t started these conversations in a serious way. That doesn’t mean movement won’t come, but it does suggest that the short-term impact has been overstated.
We also found that just 10% of early career jobs currently include any AI-related components in their job descriptions. All of this aligns with Pew’s research.
Because our research focuses on college-educated talent entering the workforce, it’s helpful to look at broader labor-market trends—and they align with what employers are telling us:
Yale University’s Budget Lab reported in October that the overall labor market has not experienced a “discernible disruption” since ChatGPT’s release in 2022.
Goldman Sachs estimated in August that even with widespread AI adoption, only 2.5% of U.S. employment would be at risk of AI-related job loss.
Hopefully, this puts things in perspective amid the growing chatter about an AI-driven workforce takeover. The reality is that most companies are still experimenting and figuring out how to use AI effectively. For now, AI’s influence appears geared more toward improving efficiency not necessarily eliminating professional entry-level roles.
