reprecariat

There's a growing concern among young people around AI replacing entry-level jobs, as we see less entry-level jobs opening up.

While more research is needed to fully understand the impact of AI, we can ask ourselves: what happens if AI replaces entry-level roles? The bar to enter the workforce will rise, requirng more skills, more experience, more internships — just to land a first "proper" job. This has already been happening in the labour market. Entry-level positions have been getting harder to access. According to research by StandOutCV, between 2023-2024, 51.3% of 'entry-level jobs' posted on LinkedIn in the UK required an average 2.7 years of experience — experience that often can only be built through unpaid internships, short-term contracts, or side hustles.

But the impact goes beyond delayed career starts, as it's also an income problem. The jobs that used to serve as entry points have largely been replaced: by interns, temporary workers, or AI tools, at a fraction of the cost and with none of the security. Meanwhile, the roles now labelled "entry-level" demand far more — more skills, more experience, more prior work. Yet the salaries haven't moved to match. Young people are being asked to invest more to get in, earn less on the way up, and do unpaid or low-paid work in between. The result is a generation with structurally lower lifetime earnings than those who came before them. Add rising costs, inflation, and a housing crisis to the mix, and the picture becomes even harder. As Elisa Filby has argued, for those without family support or financial safety nets, the stakes are especially high. 

Many say that AI is just a tool and could make workers more 'productive'. However, with a first "proper" job becoming harder to obtain and increasing demands from employers to reduce (labour) costs, we need to ask ourselves what the gains in productivity actually means. Who's productivity are we talking about? With scarcer entry-level positions, where can young people learn and grow in the first place?

How can AI work with young people rather than against them? How do we build a future where technology supports learning and opportunity — not just cost-cutting?

The conversation around AI and the workforce needs to include the voices of those who stand to lose the most.

written by Hyojin Seo, 20/04/2026