The world of white-collar work is facing a seismic shift as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to reshape the employment landscape. On November 21, 2025, Mohamed Kande, the global chairman of accountancy titan PwC, sounded a clear warning: the rapid expansion of AI is likely to mean fewer opportunities for entry-level graduates at firms like his. Speaking to the BBC at a business summit in Singapore, Kande said, "The growth of artificial intelligence may eventually lead to fewer entry-level graduates being hired."
This pronouncement comes during a season of sweeping layoffs across many of the world’s biggest corporations. Businesses are grappling with rising operational costs, tariff pressures, and the need to restructure. While AI is not solely responsible for the current wave of job cuts, its impact on hiring—especially at the entry level—is growing ever more apparent.
According to BBC reporting, PwC itself recently cut more than 5,600 roles worldwide in 2024. Yet, Kande was quick to clarify that these layoffs weren’t caused by AI. Instead, he emphasized that PwC is actively seeking hundreds of new AI engineers, but finding specialized talent has proven difficult. "We are looking for hundreds and hundreds of engineers today to help us drive our AI agenda, but we just cannot find them," he told the BBC. The company’s previous ambition to hire 100,000 people over five years is now off the table. "When we made the plans to hire that many people, the world looked very, very different. Now we have artificial intelligence. We want to hire, but I don't know if it's going to be the same level of people that we hire—it will be a different set of people."
Other major firms are feeling the AI shake-up as well. Clifford Chance, one of the world’s largest law firms, recently announced a 10% reduction in business services staff at its London office—about 50 job losses and changes for up to 35 other roles. The Financial Times reported that increased use of AI and reduced demand for some services, alongside a shift of work to offices in Poland and India, were behind the cuts. Clifford Chance confirmed that the proposed changes align with their strategy to strengthen operations, stating, "The proposed changes could see the creation of new roles, changes to the scope of roles, revised team structures and in some cases a reduction in roles."
Meanwhile, layoffs are echoing throughout the corporate world. Amazon recently announced it will cut about 14,000 corporate jobs, around 4% of its workforce, as it doubles down on AI investments. UPS has disclosed around 48,000 job cuts this year as part of a turnaround effort. Target has eliminated about 1,800 corporate roles. Verizon has begun laying off more than 13,000 employees, General Motors cut 1,700 workers at plants in Michigan and Ohio, Paramount Global plans to axe about 2,000 jobs—roughly 10% of its workforce—while Nestlé is slashing 16,000 jobs worldwide over two years. Lufthansa Group expects to shed 4,000 jobs by 2030, Novo Nordisk is cutting 9,000 positions, Microsoft has removed over 15,000 jobs in 2025 alone, and Intel is shrinking to 75,000 core employees, down from nearly 100,000.
For many employees, the threat of automation is no longer theoretical. Donald King, a 26-year-old former associate in technology consulting at PwC, experienced the new reality firsthand. After joining PwC in 2021 and quickly immersing himself in AI projects, King led a team developing AI agents for Fortune 500 clients such as Oracle. He worked grueling 60- to 80-hour weeks, won first place in an OpenAI hackathon at the firm, and even organized knowledge-sharing events that drew hundreds of colleagues. "I was coding and managing a team onshore and offshore. It was crazy, it’s like, 'Give this 24-year-old millions of dollars of salary spent per month to build AI agents for Fortune 500 companies,'" King told Fortune.
Yet, despite his achievements, King was laid off in October 2024—just hours after presenting his winning AI project. He recorded the meeting and posted it on TikTok, where the video quickly went viral, amassing over 2.1 million views and 75,000 likes. Many viewers were shocked that King would be let go after such a visible success. Reflecting on his experience, King said, "I thought I was safe, especially after I won first place. I just got a little blindsided." He didn’t believe there were "nefarious" intentions behind his layoff, chalking it up to overhiring in previous years, but he did draw a connection between the AI agents he built and subsequent layoffs at client companies. "It’s 100% connected," King said. "It’s automating tasks, 100%, those are gone. If your job is doing those menial types of things, if you’re just emailing a spreadsheet back and forth, you can kiss your job goodbye."
King’s story is emblematic of a broader trend: as AI becomes more capable of handling cognitive tasks—coding, research, scheduling, reviewing contracts—the lowest rungs on the corporate ladder are being eroded. A recent British Standards Institution survey of 850 business leaders across seven countries found that 41% of bosses say AI is allowing them to cut the number of employees. The UK head of PwC echoed this sentiment in September, noting that AI is "certainly reshaping roles." However, he also attributed a drop in graduate recruitment to a broader slowdown in economic activity.
For PwC, the evolving landscape means a fundamental rethink of its business strategy. Kande told the BBC that advising clients on integrating AI into their operations is now central to the firm’s future. Where companies once hired armies of consultants to sift through data and documents, AI models can now complete those tasks in minutes, turning weeks of costly work into a matter of hours. As a result, PwC has dropped long-term plans to increase its headcount and is focusing on hiring a "different set of people"—namely, those with specialized AI expertise.
Yet, even as AI disrupts entry-level opportunities, it’s also creating new jobs for those with the right skills. Kande described the current moment as an "exciting time" for job creation in AI, but acknowledged the skills gap. "We just cannot find them," he said, referring to the hundreds of AI engineers the firm wants to hire.
For some, like Donald King, the AI-driven shakeup has led to unexpected new paths. After his layoff, King turned down job offers from major tech companies and instead founded his own marketing agency, AMDK, which launched in December 2024. The agency already serves a range of clients—from small businesses to billion-dollar enterprises—looking to harness AI for their back-end operations. King says he’s now more cautious about the ramifications of the technology he builds, but he wouldn’t trade his entrepreneurial journey for a return to corporate life. "This is my purpose in life, versus this is someone else’s purpose. [I’m] way happier," he said.
As AI continues to transform the professional services sector, the message from industry leaders is clear: the jobs of tomorrow will look very different from those of today. For graduates and seasoned professionals alike, adaptability, specialized skills, and a willingness to rethink one’s career path may be the best tools for weathering the AI revolution.
