Prompt: AI is removing rungs from the corporate career ladder

Companies are looking to AI to take on more of the work employees do. But some of that work is also how employees learn to do their jobs.

That's becoming a bigger issue as AI moves into tasks traditionally handled by junior employees. If AI can perform routine work faster or more cheaply, companies may need fewer people to do it.

But entry-level work has another purpose. It's how employees gain experience and develop judgment before moving into more senior roles.

Teikametrics CFO Brian Beaupre spent the first decade of his career building financial models and learning the numbers behind major business decisions. Today, he says AI can do much of that work. His concern is that younger employees could miss the struggle that taught previous generations how to recognize when an answer was wrong.

Cybersecurity may be facing a similar shift. A survey of security operations center employees found that AI is likely to eliminate some entry-level SOC roles, even as it creates opportunities for workers to move into more strategic positions.

That creates a challenge for employers: developing workers for more strategic jobs when some of the work that once provided that experience disappears.

AI skills are also becoming another dividing line in the workforce. A new PwC survey of nearly 50,000 workers found 56% fell into what the company called the “engine room,” employees who lack specialized skills and aren't far along in learning AI. Only half of those workers felt confident about their job security, and they were the least likely of the four groups PwC identified to say they felt ready to adapt.

Employee compensation could widen that divide.

A recent Payscale report found that 61% of employers are rewriting job descriptions because of AI, but fewer than half said their salary structures have kept pace. Payscale warned of a “retention time bomb” if companies pay more to recruit workers with AI skills without similarly rewarding existing employees who develop those capabilities.

Taken together, these aren't simply signs that AI is changing jobs. They point to a more fundamental issue for companies: how they develop people will have to change.

For years, the corporate career ladder has depended on employees learning by doing. Junior workers take on lower-level tasks, develop expertise and judgment and gradually assume more responsibility. If AI starts doing more of those early-career tasks, companies may have to find another way to provide that experience.

Some companies are already trying. Beaupre is pairing experienced employees with newer workers who are more comfortable with AI. Senior employees explain how they reached a decision, while younger employees help them work with AI tools. The goal is to preserve some of the learning that could otherwise disappear when AI delivers the finished work.

But that transition won't happen automatically. If companies eliminate junior-level work without creating alternative ways for employees to learn, they may end up with fewer opportunities to develop the experienced talent they will ultimately need.

AI may not eliminate the corporate career ladder, but it could take away many of the rungs people have traditionally used to climb it.

Also in AI news this week:

Nvidia launches AI safety platform after agent security breaches: The AI chipmaker introduced an open source safety platform designed to add runtime guardrails as enterprises give AI agents more autonomy.

AI industry copes with out-of-control agents. Here’s OpenAI’s response: The generative AI vendor delayed its Astra agent release after safety testing raised concerns about increasingly autonomous AI systems.

AMD to acquire World Labs for $8.2B to advance AI models and robotics: The chipmaker agreed to acquire World Labs for $8.2 billion, expanding its ambitions beyond AI infrastructure and into models and robotics.

Meta carves out enterprise offerings, brings in new leadership: The social media company is separating its enterprise AI business and bringing in new leadership as it looks to build a larger presence in the corporate market.

Microsoft transforming Fabric into AI's foundational layer: The tech giant is positioning Fabric as a core data layer for enterprise AI, bringing data management and AI development more closely together.

Bank of England warns of AI debt: The U.K. central bank warned that companies could accumulate “AI debt” when investments fail to deliver expected benefits as quickly as anticipated.

Humanoid buildup overlooks the robots already running factories: While humanoid robots attract attention, millions of industrial robots are already operating in factories, raising more immediate questions about oversight and safety standards.

Liz Hughes is an award-winning editor and writer covering AI and emerging technology and the former editor of AI Business and IoT World Today.