ServiceNow CEO warns AI agents could push graduate unemployment above 30% in coming years

ServiceNow CEO: AI could push grad jobless rate above 30%

McDermott argues digital workers will handle much of the grunt work once used to train junior staff Unemployment rates among recent graduates could climb above 30 percent because so many early career routine tasks will be performed by AI agents, ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott has said. His views echo research findings that show organizations across the globe are slashing hiring for junior and entry-level positions. Speaking to CNBC, McDermott said it was natural to be concerned about jobs given the likely impact of AI agents on workforce planning and hiring, pointing to graduate unemployment rates, which sit at around 5.6 percent, according to recent data. "It could easily go into the mid-30s in the next couple of years. What's happening now is that for the non-differentiating roles, so much of the work is going to be done by agents. It's going to be challenging for young people to differentiate themselves in the corporate environment," he said. McDermott also claimed that ServiceNow's AI platform could handle 90 percent of the tasks that humans used to have to in customer service. He said companies such as Pepsi, Panasonic, and Nvidia were already using the platform. "That will definitely put a damper on how many people you need to hire," he opined. In October last year, a study from the British Standards Institution found young college grads are being hit hardest by AI adoption. The survey of business leaders from eight countries around the world - including the UK and US - found that 39 percent have already reduced junior and entry-level headcount in favor of greater AI adoption. Another 43 percent expect to further reduce entry-level roles in the next year in favor of AI and 50 percent "specifically" said AI is helping them reduce headcount. However, tech analyst group Gartner has warned that disproportionate cuts to graduate jobs could have a long-term impact on workforce structure. Highlighting the danger of "pipeline choke," Gartner pointed out that mundane bits of work on which junior staff once cut their teeth would no longer be available in the same numbers, reducing the supply of more experienced staff in years to come. "When a senior staff delegates to AI some of the work that juniors used to do... that approach captures value, but it can stall your growth, so pair it with a robust talent development strategy, or risk choking your future pipeline," said Gabriela Vogel, Gartner VP analyst. ®

'So much of the work is going to be done by agents': ServiceNow CEO says graduate unemployment could reach 30% because of AI agents

ServiceNow says human customer service agents aren't necessary anymore * Graduate unemployment is set to rise as AI agents replace entry-level workers * Palantir and Amazon already expect human headcounts to decrease * ServiceNow says AI agents can do customer service work ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott has becomethe latest in a long list of business leaders to suggest AI adoption, particularly agentic AI, could product major challenges for entry-level workers. Speaking with CNBC, McDermott indicated unemployment among college graduates could reach the mid-30% range within just a few years as AI agents begin to replace more entry-level human workers. As a result, it's making it harder for graduates to stand out in a shrinking market, and we're already seeing this play true with a 5.7% unemployment rate for recent graduates as of late 2025 (per the Federal Reserve Bank of New York). Graduates are losing out on jobs due to AI "So much of the work is going to be done by agents. So it's going to be challenging for young people to differentiate themselves in the corporate environment," McDermott said. Besides graduates, AI also looks to be disrupting other areas in white-collar employment, such as coding and marketing, marking a major shift from previous workforce trends. For example, automation and other industrial revolution changes mostly focused on manual labor, but AI is now affecting knowledge workers. Palantir CEO Alex Karp has also recently disclosed plans to increase revenue while simultaneously reducing headcount by 10x, while Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has also declared an expectation that the company's headcount could shrink. "I do think it's coming quicker than people anticipate," McDermott added, though no clear solution was indicated. ServiceNow's AI tools have already reportedly eliminated around 90% of the use cases that once required human customer service agents. The company recently posted a 25% year-over-year increase in fiscal full-year revenue - with McDermott noting "there is no AI company in the enterprise better positioned for sustainable profitable revenue growth than ServiceNow." Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button! And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.

CEO of AI Company Says Gen Z Needs to Get Ready for 30 Percent Unemployment

Can't-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech If you think it's hard to find a job now, ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott says just wait until AI really gets going. Speaking to CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" panel, the AI software executive laid out an apocalyptic employment future for Gen Z in which nearly one in every three people will soon be unemployed. "I think it's very natural to be concerned about jobs. I think young people coming out of university today [are experiencing] 9 percent unemployment," McDermott told CNBC. "I think it could easily go into the mid-30s in the next couple of years." "So much of the work is going to be done by agents, so it's going to be challenging for young people to differentiate themselves in the corporate environment," he said. The CEO isn't exactly a neutral party as he stokes fears about AI. ServiceNow's software-as-a-service model has struggled on the stock market in recent months, lagging due to investor excitement around AI agents. The company is increasingly moving its eggs from software into the AI basket, as evidenced by its "strategic collaboration to power agentic AI experiences" with OpenAI, which was announced earlier this year. As a CNBC intraday trading ticker showed, the company's stock even got a tiny boost as McDermott delivered his doomsday prognosis live on air. Like other tech CEOs, McDermott doesn't pause to wonder if it's worth slowing down and considering what all this could mean for the mass of workers and families who will struggle under such a scenario. His attitude, instead, is enthusiasm. "We will have billions of users in the next several years that we could never have gotten from human beings," he added. If there's any good news, it's that CEOs don't get the final word -- at least if politicians like Bernie Sanders have anything to say about it. In recent months, Sanders has essentially dared the AI industry to put up or shut up, arguing that if AI really is about to destroy the economy as we know it, the logical move would be to shut everything down until we can figure out what it all means for the economy and workers.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink warns AI could leave the class of 2026 facing the highest unemployment in years -- even without a recession | Fortune

With graduation season just weeks away, millions of college seniors are preparing to walk across commencement stages and become the youngest members of the workforce. But for the class of 2026, that transition may be rockier than ever, with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink issuing a warning that the promise of a four-year degree as a pathway to a stable career is beginning to crack. Fink stressed at BlackRock's 2026 Infrastructure Summit that he's "worried that when this year's college graduates enter the workforce, we could see the highest unemployment rate among them in years -- even without a recession." At the core of his concern: tech is rapidly reshaping the very entry-level roles that have long served as the first rung for college graduates. "The speed at which AI is changing, we're not adapting our society fast enough," the 73-year-old added. "Really post World War II, the pathway to a white-collar job was a college education, and AI is going to disrupt many of those types of jobs." The unemployment rate among recent college graduates ages 22 to 27 currently sits at 5.6%, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York -- near levels not seen since 2013, excluding the pandemic. And demand for early-career roles continues to tighten. Job postings on Handshake, a platform for college students and recent graduates, fell more than 16% between August 2024 and August 2025, while the average number of applications per role has jumped 26%. For Gen Z soon entering the workforce, it's an early sign that the traditional first rung of the career ladder is starting to give way. Despite the warning, Fink pushed back on the idea that college is no longer worth it at all -- and he pointed to his own experience. After graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1974 with a political science degree, Fink said he didn't feel ready for the workforce. He went on to earn an MBA with a focus in real estate and then launched a career first at investment firm First Boston (later acquired by Credit Suisse) before spending the last four decades building BlackRock into the world's largest asset manager. Still, he cautioned that the college-to-career pipeline is no longer universal, arguing that the traditional four-year degree is becoming just one of several viable paths to success. "The key for life for everyone is to find their purpose," Fink said. "For some people, their purpose will remain to get a four-year or advanced degree, and they could take that forward -- but that's not going to be the pathway for everybody." Where demand is growing -- with not enough supply -- is in the skilled trades, fueled in part by the expansion of AI infrastructure like data centers. "[AI] is going to create many jobs and we're not prepared as a society to fulfill those jobs," Fink said. "And to me, this is a crisis." To help address the gap, BlackRock committed last week to invest $100 million in skilled-trade programs. The initiative aims to work with nonprofit and workforce development partners to reach 50,000 workers over the next five years in roles like electricians, HVAC technicians, plumbers, and ironworkers. "AI is going to create a lot of skilled jobs needs and the biggest issue confronting our country today and other countries is the speed at which this change is occurring," he added. Fink isn't alone in his concerns. More than half of employers view the job market for the class of 2026 as "poor" or "fair," according to a survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers -- the most pessimistic reading since the start of the pandemic. Still, many CEOs are striking a more optimistic tone, framing the moment not just as disruption, but opportunity. AMD CEO Lisa Su pointed to the upside for graduates entering the workforce who lean on the technology to find new ways to innovate. "The Class of 2026 will be graduating at an exciting time, as AI transforms our world and expands what is possible," she said in a statement announcing her as MIT's 2026 commencement speaker. "And I look forward to celebrating them as they prepare to share their skills and ideas with the world." Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan struck a similar tone -- acknowledging the anxiety many young people feel, but encouraging them to channel it. "If you ask them if they're scared, they say they are. And I understand that," Moynihan told CBS News earlier this year. "But I say, harness it ... It'll be your world ahead of you."

ServiceNow CEO predicts Gen Z college graduates will face at least 30% unemployment in just the next couple of years as AI takes over | Fortune

"I think young people coming out of university today [are experiencing] 9% unemployment," Bill McDermott, the CEO of AI-driven software company ServiceNow, recently told CNBC. "I think it could easily go into the mid-30s in the next couple of years." When evaluating what is disrupting the budding workforce, the boss of the $123 billion American tech giant pointed the finger at AI agents. McDermott predicted that there will be about three billion digital, non-human agents added to enterprises by 2030, which have the ability to automate routine tasks typically done by entry and mid-level employees. "What's happening now, for the non-differentiating roles, [is] so much of the work is going to be done by agents," the ServiceNow CEO continued. "So it's going to be challenging for young people to differentiate themselves in a corporate environment." Already, around 5.6% of recent U.S. college graduates aged 22 to 27 are unemployed, compared to 4.2% of the general population, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. And looking ahead, CEOs and experts alike are hesitant that entry-level hiring will make a comeback anytime soon. McDermott added that if other leaders follow ServiceNow in giving AI agents use cases humans were once assigned, "that will definitely put a damper on who you need to hire." "Today [AI] is like an intern that can work for a couple of hours, but at some point it'll be like an experienced software engineer that can work for a couple of days," Altman said during a panel with Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy last year. As AI continues to advance at a breakneck pace, employment for vulnerable young workers has taken a turn for the worse. Since ChatGPT took the world by storm in 2022, U.S. job postings have plummeted by nearly 32%, according to a November 2025 analysis of Federal Reserve data. And 2026 reports have failed to drum up optimism, as the American economy unexpectedly shed 92,000 jobs in February, marking the biggest decline since last October. And just as McDermott observed, young inexperienced workers are most susceptible to the shift. About 58% of Gen Z students who graduated in 2024 and 2025 were still looking for their first job, compared to just 25% of millennial and Gen X graduates in previous years, according to a Kickresume report released last year. Job postings on early-career talent platform Handshake also fell more than 16% between August 2024 and August 2025, while the average number of applications per role has jumped 26%. Even industries that are famous for plucking young, spry talent right out of college and putting them in high-paying jobs are reeling back. Hiring for new graduates in the tech sector at 15 of the largest companies fell by over 50% since 2019, according to a 2025 report from VC firm SignalFire. Before the pandemic, these Gen Z grads made up 15% of Big Tech hires -- now, they only account for 7%. Leaders are split on whether the current job market, marked by massive layoffs and stalled hiring, is reflective of AI automation or a correction of pandemic-era overhiring. But many can agree on one thing: entry-level jobs are the most endangered by AI. J. Scott Davis, assistant vice president of the Dallas Fed, believes young workers primarily have book smarts easily automatable by AI tools -- unlike work experience. "Returns on job experience are increasing in AI-exposed occupations," Davis recently wrote. "Young workers with primarily codifiable knowledge and limited experience will likely face challenging job markets."

ServiceNow CEO Predicts 30% College Grad Unemployment Due to AI | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. Unemployment for new college graduates "could easily go into the mid-30s in the next couple of years," Bill McDermott, whose company offers an AI platform for employers, said in an interview Friday (March 13) with CNBC. "So much of the work is going to be done by agents," So it's going to be challenging for young people to differentiate themselves in the corporate environment," he added. The report noted that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York put the unemployment rate for recent college graduates at the end of 2025 at about 5.7%. New graduates also faced an underemployment rate of 42.5%, the highest level since 2020. Meanwhile, companies across industries are laying off workers and reducing costs thanks to new AI tools, CNBC added. Among them is Block, which announced last month that it plans to eliminate close to half its workforce amid greater AI automation. The report pointed to expert opinion arguing that, compared to past tech revolutions, AI is doing away with many white-collar jobs, including in the coding and marketing space, while letting businesses reduce hiring and boost productivity with fewer employees. McDermott told CNBC that his company's tools will help businesses cut hiring costs, adding that the software firm has already taken out 90% of the customer service use cases that had once relied on humans. "I do think it's coming quicker than people anticipate," he said. After the Block layoff news broke last month, PYMNTS wrote that while AI-related job cuts invariably lead to fears of a larger employment crisis, current labor research shows a more complicated picture. That report cited findings from the World Economic Forum which contended that while automation and AI will some certain tasks, they will also bring about new categories of work, especially in data, AI oversight, cybersecurity and human-centric services. The report stresses transition rather than permanent contraction. A large portion of workers' skills are expected to evolve over the next five years, which will require retraining and adaptation. "The pressure is real, but it is directional. Roles centered on routine information processing are most exposed. Roles combining domain expertise, judgment and technological fluency are expanding," PYMNTS added. PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster has argued that 2026 will be the year AI in which adoption shifts from experimentation to operational reality. "Instead of pilot projects and chat interfaces, companies are embedding AI into payments flows, customer engagement systems and enterprise software stacks," the report said. "Once intelligence is part of the infrastructure, it reshapes the organization itself."