Accenture ramps up entry-level hiring as AI reshapes the workforce, bucking industry trend

Accenture exec says the consulting giant is hiring more entry-level workers out of college compared to last year | Fortune

Leaders are split on how AI will change the entry-level labor market: while some warn of a jobs armageddon, others believe it'll usher in a golden era of new opportunities for young workers. Some employers like Meta and PwC have already reeled back their hiring of fresh-faced graduates -- but Accenture's global chief diversity officer, Beck Bailey, says the consulting giant is only ramping up its acquisition of Gen Z talent. "We've made a commitment to hire more entry-level people this year than we did last year," Bailey recently said at Fortune's Workplace Innovation Summit. "Our reasoning is that if you think about the folks who are graduating college this year, they entered college with ChatGPT...We want them in our workforce now to help us." The executive overseeing an employee population of around 786,000 strong is looking to add more college graduates to the company's massive headcount, echoing Accenture CEO Julie Sweet's remarks from last month. And the consulting giant isn't alone in that thinking; other employers like Ford and Nvidia have also expressed the importance of keeping early-career workers in the pipeline. Bailey appeared on a panel with Indeed Chief Revenue Officer Maggie Hulce and University of Michigan Dean of Innovation Jeff DeGraff. The panel, focused on future-proofing your org chart, was hosted by Indeed. Bailey sympathizes with young professionals hearing predictions of mass unemployment driven by AI adoption, while he says roles will "shift and change," new jobs will emerge as others fade into the ether. However, no business leader has all the answers. Only a handful of years into AI's rapid innovation, workplaces still need to adapt and experiment before drawing long-term conclusions. "We're in a place of perhaps the messy middle of this [AI] transformation," the global chief diversity officer continued. "People still need skilling and relationship-building with the technology, and leadership needs to still figure out where it's going." Meanwhile, Hulce, Indeed's chief revenue officer, has also seen the "doomsday" headlines. However, she believes there's not a single path every company is following -- while some employers are choosing to hire fewer people thanks to AI's efficiency gains, others are simply supercharging the work their employees already do. However, she doesn't believe in a total jobs wipeout. "The jobs are changing: it's the human plus AI transformation that's happening," Hulce said in the same panel at the Workplace Innovation Summit. "They're morphing, and the counts of people you need at different types of jobs are changing, but most of the jobs we see will be augmented or aided with AI, not totally done 100% with AI." DeGraff, a management professor and the dean of innovation at the University of Michigan, also noted how workforces change amid their AI planning cycles. Right now, companies are fine-tuning their employee charts in this new transformation era -- and down the line, businesses might look a whole lot different. "In the short term, you're going to adjust the workforce that you've got because you fight with the army you have, not the army you want," DeGraff chimed in onstage at the Fortune event. "But in the long run there's going to be massive changes, enormous changes...What we don't know is what's going to emerge."

Accenture Employs 786,000 People -- And Is Looking for Entry-Level/Gen Z Workers With This Specific Skill

Accenture's global chief diversity officer, Beck Bailey, and CEO Julie Sweet recently spoke about the commitment. Leaders are sharply divided over AI's impact on entry-level employment. Some forecast mass job displacement, while others predict expanded opportunities for recent graduates. Accenture lands on the optimistic side of the debate, with global chief diversity officer Beck Bailey recently announcing that the global technology consulting company is increasing its intake of Gen Z workers this year. "We've made a commitment to hire more entry-level people this year than we did last year," Bailey recently told Fortune. "Our reasoning is that if you think about the folks who are graduating college this year, they entered college with ChatGPT... We want them in our workforce now to help us." Accenture employs around 786,000 workers globally. Bailey echoed CEO Julie Sweet's remarks. Speaking on the Rapid Response podcast in March, Sweet said that Accenture is hiring "more entry-level jobs this year than we did last year" in all of its major markets. Sweet's rationale was similar to Bailey's. She said that recent graduates are better prepared for an AI-driven workplace because they use AI constantly. "The number one advantage for the college graduates we are bringing is that they are much more AI-fluent than someone who has even been here two or three years," Sweet said on the podcast. "Entry-level jobs are important economically," Sweet said. "It's how we create more experienced people." Rather than eliminating junior positions due to AI, Sweet said Accenture is redesigning roles and has revamped training for recruits to focus on communication, strategic thinking and AI fluency. Although Accenture plans to ramp up hiring Gen Z talent, other firms are going in the opposite direction. Accounting firm PwC has made some of the most visible cuts, reducing entry-level hiring in the U.S. by one-third over the next three years, per Business Insider. The Big Four firm has decreased its campus recruiting goals from 1,500 to 1,300 positions in 2025 alone, with plans to hire 661 fewer audit associates by 2028 -- a 39% reduction from current levels. Meanwhile, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff admitted late last year that AI had enabled the company to eliminate 4,000 workers. The cuts occurred in customer service and support roles -- jobs that AI tools can now automate. Which roles can AI most likely replace? A Stanford University study released in August found that the professions most vulnerable to automation were operations managers, accountants, auditors, general managers, software developers, customer service representatives, receptionists and information clerks. Employment in those AI-impacted jobs has declined by 13% since 2022. "There's definitely evidence that AI is beginning to have a big effect," Erik Brynjolfsson, Stanford professor, economist and first author on the study, told Axios in August. He said that the decline in entry-level recruitment represents the "fastest, broadest change" he has witnessed in the workplace, rivaled only by the emergency transition to remote work during the pandemic.