The trend: Companies are citing AI in mass layoff memos across the tech world, and entry-level roles are disappearing.

A smaller workforce: Several recent rounds of layoffs and cuts, including at Microsoft, CrowdStrike, and Chegg, have been blamed on AI advancements.

• Business Insider laid off 21% of its workforce. CEO Barbara Peng’s staff memo said that “there’s a huge opportunity for companies who harness AI first.” Business Insider and EMARKETER are both owned by Axel Springer.
• Canadian tech company OpenText laid off 1,600, citing AI as its “number one priority,” per BetaKit. That’s after it cut 1,200 jobs in July 2024. While it plans to hire back 800 in “strategic roles,” that’s still a 2,000 net job loss.
• Salesforce cut $50 million from its personnel costs by deploying AI and reassigning staff, per Entrepreneur. It plans to hire more people to sell its AI products, but it has also reduced hiring of engineers as AI takes hold.

New graduate and entry-level tech hires have also decreased.

• Big Tech’s recent-graduate hiring was down 25% YoY in 2024 and down 50% from 2019, per SignalFire.
• Entry-level hires at startups have dropped 30% from 2019.

While AI is likely not solely to blame for the drop in hiring, many entry-level tasks, such as data entry, coding, and research, can be accomplished with generative AI (genAI).

Key stat: 40% of companies plan to scale down their workforce if employee roles can be replaced by AI, per the World Economic Forum.

“Talking to tech firms I have repeatedly heard discussions about reducing hiring or absolute headcount because of AI,” Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom told Bloomberg. “Business sentiment has taken a dive with the tariff chaos and broader DOGE churn.”

Our take: Those just entering the workforce should take advantage of free AI courses offered by Google, Amazon, and others.

For those already in the tech field, employees need to take the initiative with AI training. While AI knowledge and use is expected at many companies, not all provide on-the-job training. Learning what genAI tools to use and when—and becoming a go-to source for AI prompting—could make those employees invaluable.

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