AI and the Entry-Level Job

Welcome to the HBR Executive Agenda for March 12, 2026. In this issue: AI and the Entry-Level Job Getting Ready for Agentic AI Developing Employees Who Thrive Through Continuous Change AI and the Entry-Level Job It’s widely predicted that AI will eliminate many entry-level jobs. So when Nickle LaMoreaux, the chief human resources officer of IBM, said last month that her company is adapting to the AI era by tripling its entry-level hires, her comments went viral. What does IBM see that others don’t? I reached out to LaMoreaux to get a fuller sense of the company’s talent strategy. “This is not us just saying, ‘We’re AI optimists,’” says LaMoreaux, who has overseen IBM’s 300,000-strong global workforce since 2020. “It’s a very intentional talent strategy to support a business strategy.” LaMoreaux believes that most companies aren’t investing adequately in AI’s potential. They’re applying the technology primarily to their existing operations, achieving productivity gains that they can quickly apply to the bottom line. Cutting entry-level jobs is often part of the equation. In her mind, this amounts to “false value” that won’t generate long-term benefits. IBM is playing a longer game. AI can indeed do most of the company’s entry-level work. But IBM is seizing an opportunity to bring in large numbers of AI-savvy people who can work with the technology to quickly put out products and solutions that are tailored to clients’ specific needs. One of the first areas of transformation has been coding. AI has proven to be adept at writing code, and the company is relying on its AI-powered coding assistant, “IBM Bob,” to do most of the base-level coding that entry-level employees once handled. The hope is that these employees can focus instead on tweaking the code to solve clients’ challenges. The ramp-up in hiring may well hurt margins over the short term, but IBM views it as necessary to create a workforce that is more agile and customer focused. LaMoreaux declined to say how many entry-level positions IBM is filling this year, but she said the number is in the thousands—and that it’s indeed three times last year’s number. As for the hiring process itself, IBM—like many other companies—says it’s changing some of its hiring criteria. The company is looking less at domain expertise and more at key attributes. In particular, it’s trying to find people who are likely to be “continuous learners,” adaptable to the inevitable changes that lie ahead. “Tools are going to come and go,” says LaMoreaux. “It’s less about, ‘Show me your level of aptitude on a specific tool,’ and more about ‘How are you using it? How have you morphed how you work based on your use of AI?’” IBM reinforces the need to be adaptable throughout one’s career. Employees are required to do 40 hours per year of skills-based learning. Managers rate staff on skill acquisition as much as they do on performance. “You can be considered a low performer if you exceed your business results but don’t grow your skills,” says LaMoreaux. For all of her faith in AI, LaMoreaux says she doesn’t use it to process the huge number of resumes that IBM receives from job candidates. (A number that’s certain to grow after stories like this one.) AI tends to rank in predictable ways—does someone have a higher degree, for example—which she thinks is less and less relevant. “We’re a skills-first organization,” she says. “If I need a software engineer who understands Python, I don’t care if you learned it at a university or taught yourself in your basement.” Getting Ready for Agentic AI Mark your calendars for Wednesday March 18 at 11 am when I’ll be talking to Pinterest CEO Bill Ready about how his company is getting ready for the agentic era. We plan to cover: Why he thinks agentic shoppers are still a long way out How Pinterest is managing the flood of AI-generated, low-quality content taking over the web How he’s thinking about brand trust and reputational risk as decision-making becomes more automated, and more. As always, this conversation is exclusive to HBR Executive subscribers, and we’ll be taking your questions. Register Developing Employees Who Thrive Through Continuous Change Employees today experience far more organizational change than in the past, yet their willingness to support it has sharply declined. To help employees thrive, leaders must build systems that turn continuous transformation into something employees help shape, not simply endure. Our newest HBR Executive Playbook shares how executives can move beyond top-down mandates by creating channels for employee ideas, fostering safe-to-fail cultures, and ensuring managers can clearly explain why each change matters. Read more

AI and the Entry-Level Job

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