Our latest AI Pulse survey reveals a growing shift in the entry-level job market, with nearly one in four organizations reporting they are hiring fewer early-career staff.
As AI capabilities accelerate, concerns about the displacement of junior roles have moved from theoretical debates to boardroom realities. Recent warnings from U.S. Senator Mark Warner suggested that AI could spike unemployment for recent graduates, a sentiment that now appears to be reflecting in actual hiring strategies.
The data, drawn from 102 respondents to our weekly AI Pulse survey, indicates that while the majority of firms are holding steady, a significant minority are already contracting their entry-level intake or raising the bar for new hires.
We asked our audience directly about Senator Warner’s warning: “U.S. Senator Mark Warner has warned that AI could spike unemployment for recent grads. Has your company changed its hiring strategy for entry-level roles?”
The results show a market in transition. While 46.1% of respondents stated that their hiring plans have not changed, a combined 29.4% indicated a contraction or tightening of entry-level opportunities. Specifically:
24.5% said, “Yes, we are hiring fewer entry-level staff.”
4.9% noted, “Yes, we kept volume the same but raised skill requirements.”
Only 2.0% of organizations reported hiring more entry-level staff, while 22.5% of respondents were unsure of their company’s stance.
These numbers suggest that while mass displacement isn't universal, the "entry-level" rung of the corporate ladder is beginning to erode or move upward for a significant portion of the market. The data points to a future where junior roles may require mid-level skills—or may simply be automated away.
We also surveyed the audience on their adoption of Google’s Gemini models. With the rapid release of new capabilities, we asked: “How frequently do you currently use Google Gemini (any model) in your professional workflow?”
The adoption rates among our listeners are striking. 46.1% of respondents reported using Gemini daily in their professional workflows.
When combined with those who use it weekly (21.6%), nearly two-thirds of the audience (67.7%) rely on Google’s models as a regular part of their tech stack.
Only 15.7% of respondents said they “Rarely / Never” use the tool, highlighting just how quickly Gemini has established itself as a core competitor in the enterprise AI landscape alongside ChatGPT and Claude.
These insights come from a diverse group of professionals actively navigating the AI shift. The respondent pool spans multiple industries, with the largest representation from:
Professional Services: Marketing (16.7%)
Education (15.7%)
Professional Services: Other (13.7%)
Manufacturing (11.8%)
In our ongoing AI Pulse surveys, we gather insights from listeners of our podcast to get a sense of how our audience feels about various topics in artificial intelligence. Each survey is conducted over a one-week period, coinciding with the first seven days after an episode is released. During that time, our episodes typically receive around 11,000 downloads.
Our survey results reflect a self-selected sample of listeners who choose to participate, and typically we receive a few hundred responses. While this is not a formal or randomized survey, it offers a meaningful snapshot of how our engaged audience perceives AI-related issues.
In summary, when you see percentages in our headlines, they represent the views of those listeners who chose to share their opinions with us. This approach helps us understand the pulse of our community, even if it doesn’t represent a statistically randomized sample of the broader population.