Isaac, 33, has been a mid-level software development engineer at a Big Tech firm for four years, and noticed entry-level job postings dropping at his workplace at the start of 2025. The work, however, didn’t vanish with them. Tasks once handled by junior engineers—like writing and testing code, fixing bugs, and contributing to development projects—were absorbed by senior staff, often with the assumption that AI would make up the difference.

And while AI has sped up the velocity of shipping code and features, there are fewer people to do tasks like designing, testing, and working with stakeholders, which AI has zero grasp on. The cracks have been hard to ignore. “Seniors are burning out, and when they leave, there’s no rush to replace them, because ‘the AI will do it’!” Isaac says. Worried that he’ll become the next strung-out senior, he’s looking for his exit, ideally at a smaller tech firm. (Isaac spoke to Fast Company under a pseudonym to avoid possible retaliation.)

The shift is striking, given how recently corporate America was courting Gen Z with fanatic fervor. Organizations raced to prove they understood younger employees. They flooded LinkedIn with thought leadership on the multigenerational workplace of the future, and retooled benefits programs to include wellness stipends and mental health days. Reverse mentorship programs, through which younger employees share knowledge and perspectives with more senior colleagues—touted by companies like Target, Accenture, and PwC—promised to give junior employees a voice in shaping culture and strategy. Some firms even brought Gen Z voices into the boardroom.

Yet now, in the case of firms like Isaac’s, entry-level workers, once heralded as essential to innovation and growth, are struggling to get a toe—let alone a foot—in the door. Internships, starter jobs, and junior roles, the indispensable on-ramps to white-collar careers, have been evaporating for several years due to cost pressures and post-pandemic belt-tightening. Since 2023, entry-level job postings in the U.S. have sunk 35%, according to labor research firm Revelio Labs.

The advent of AI is accelerating the entry-level apocalypse. Two-fifths of global leaders revealed that entry-level roles have already been reduced or cut due to efficiencies made by AI conducting research, admin, and briefing tasks, and 43% expect this to happen in the next year.

“While there’s steady hiring or even growth in the skilled trades, we’re seeing entry-level vacancies fall significantly in tech and customer service and sales roles,” says Mona Mourshed, founder of the workplace development nonprofit Generation. “Being in the business of training and placing people into entry-level roles, we find it deeply concerning.” Graduates are clearly not okay—but neither are the companies that decided they could do without them.

AI at work: the supercar with no driver

The logic was seductive in its simplicity. Cut costs, move faster, shrink training budgets, let AI and a leaner workforce handle the rest. In reality, it’s producing something else entirely: flattened teams with little agency, endless cycles of rework, and exhausted senior employees juggling all task levels at once.

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