Entry-level roles will evolve and expand in the era of artificial intelligence, according to most HR leaders, who expect a major shift for early-career talent.

A joint study from Cognizant and Pearson revealed that HR leaders are expecting AI to reimagine most entry-level positions in the workplace.

Nearly all HR professionals (96%) expect entry-level roles to evolve into positions where employees will supervise or manage AI systems within five years.

The results come despite previous warnings that AI can potentially wipe out a segment of jobs across the world, with entry-level positions predicted to be the most affected by the technological revolution.

But 85% of the respondents in the joint study, who include HR leaders in the United States, United Kingdom and India, said they still consider entry-level roles essential in the AI era.

In fact, 94% are expecting AI to generate entirely new entry-level roles.

The entry-level role shift

However, this AI-era entry-level worker will be much different from the traditional position seen in workplaces today.

According to the report, an entry-level worker in the AI era will more likely be an "air traffic controller" who manages AI outputs, validates AI decisions, interprets results, and escalates edge cases requiring human judgment.

"In practical terms, this is the AI-native mindset pillar at work. Fluency with AI systems is becoming a baseline hiring criterion; notably, this applies across roles that have never been traditionally defined as technical, like marketing, legal, or operations," the report read.

But the emerging challenge with this shift is the lack of qualified talent available, with 64% of HR leaders saying they can't find the right talent because AI is rapidly changing what skills they need to hire for.

Another 60% said their company's learning and development programmes are also unable to catch up with how fast AI is transforming roles.

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