The job market has been a sore subject for Gen Z. The unemployment rate among young college grads sits at 5.6%, hovering near its highest level in more than a decade outside the pandemic. Meanwhile, prominent executives โ from Anthropicโs Dario Amodei to Fordโs Jim Farley โ have warned that artificial intelligence will slash corporate entry-level jobs.ย
But some companies are realizing that cutting young workers out of the pipeline isnโt a sustainable long-term strategy: $240 billion tech giant IBM just revealed itโs ramping up hiring of Gen Z.
โThe companies three to five years from now that are going to be the most successful are those companies that doubled down on entry-level hiring in this environment,โ Nickle LaMoreaux, IBMโs chief human resources officer, said this week.ย
โWe are tripling our entry-level hiring, and yes, that is for software developers and all these jobs weโre being told AI can do.โ
While she admitted that many of the responsibilities that previously defined entry-level jobs can now be automated, IBM has since rewritten its roles across sectors to account for AI fluency. For example, software engineers will spend less time on routine codingโand more on interacting with customers, and HR staffers will work more on intervening with chatbots, rather than having to answer every question.
The shift, LaMoreaux said, builds more durable skills for workers while creating greater long-term value for the company.
With job market conditions likely to stay tight for young candidates in 2026, applicants who show initiative and comfort with AI may be the ones who break through at companies like IBM. According to LinkedIn, AI literacy is now the fastest-growing skill in the U.S.
Cutting entry-level talent could backfire in the long term, according to IBMโs HR head
As AI increases pressure on companies to be leaner and more productive, early-career hiring has often looked like the simplest place to cut. A report from Korn Ferry found that 37% of organizations plan to replace early career roles with AI.
But while that strategy might be helpful with short-term financials, LaMoreaux argued, it could cause havoc in the future.
Reducing junior headcount risks creating an eventual shortage of mid-level managers. Attempting to poach talent from competitors is likely to be costlier, and outside hires tend to take longer to adapt to internal systems and culture.
Thatโs why, she said, HR leaders need to push back.
โEntry-level hires โ it is your responsibility to make the case for that,โ she said. โBuild the business case now; even though it may not seem so obvious to your leaders, because AI is going to make your job easier three years from now.โ
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna has already heard LaMoreauxโs plea and rejected the idea that AI should translate into fewer opportunities for graduates.
โPeople are talking about either layoffs or freezing hiring, but I actually want to say that we are the opposite,โ Krishna told CNN in October. โI expect we are probably going to hire more people out of college over the next 12 months than we have in the past few years, so youโre going to see that.โ
Just a week after his comments, however, IBM announced it would cut thousands of workers by the end of the year as it shifts focus to high-growth software and AI areas. A company spokesperson told Fortune at the time that the round of layoffs would impact a relatively low single-digit percentage of the companyโs global workforce, and when combined with new hiring, would leave IBMโs U.S. headcount roughly flat.
Fortune reached out to IBM for further comment.
Like IBM, some tech companies are rethinking talent pipelines โ and embracing Gen Z
IBM isnโt alone in betting that younger workers may actually accelerate AI adoption. In fact, according to Melanie Rosenwasser, chief people officer at Dropbox, Gen Z are actually coming to work equipped with better AI skills than their older peers.
โItโs like theyโre biking in the Tour de France and the rest of us still have training wheels,โ Rosenwasser told Bloomberg. โHonestly, thatโs how much theyโre lapping us in proficiency.โ
The file-sharing company is set to expand its internship and new graduate programs by 25% to capitalize on the AI fluency of younger workers.
Ravi Kumar S, CEO of IT firm Cognizant, similarly told Fortune last year that he would be creating more entry-level jobs owing to his bullish view of Gen Z.
โSo many companies have a pyramid with the bottom where school graduates are. That pyramid is going to be broader and shorter, and the path to expertise is going to be faster,โ he said.
โThis year, we are hiring more school graduates than ever before. I can take a school graduate and give them the tooling so they can actually punch above their weight. AI is an amplifier of human potential. Itโs not a displacement strategy.โ
Written by Preston Fore for Fortune as โIBM is tripling the number of Gen Z entry-level jobs after finding the limits of AI adoptionโ and republished with permission.
