Why Accenture Is Hiring More Entry-Level Workers This Year

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.

Other employers are pulling back

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. 

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.