Here at Graduate Coach, we’ve been saying this for years: your first job out of university will be the hardest to land – but once you’ve got your foot in the door and some experience under your belt, the process becomes easier. In the era of AI, this couldn’t be truer. Graduates face a tougher time getting onto the career ladder as the entry-level jobs once advertised for graduates are declining as companies leverage AI to eliminate or automate repetitive business as usual tasks. However, once you land a position, your time will be spent working on high-impact tasks that could help you to progress much quicker.
In this post, we discuss the graduate job search in the era of AI.
The Class of 2025 Faces Its Hardest Test Yet
According to Adzuna, entry-level jobs in the UK are now at their lowest since 2018, with as many as 140 applicants chasing each graduate role. Across the pond, US tech firms have cut graduate hiring by a quarter since 2023.
The question many are asking is simple: is artificial intelligence stealing graduate jobs—or is something deeper at play?
Is AI Taking Over Graduate Work?
A growing number of young job seekers believe so. They look at the Big Four accountancy firms, where graduate recruitment has fallen between 11% and 29% this year, and draw a straight line to AI. On online forums, frustrated graduates lament that the very tasks which once gave them a foothold—data cleansing, report drafting, administrative work—are now being outsourced to algorithms.
Some HR directors even mention that AI appears more reliable than a fresh graduate for the “grunt work” of the office.
How Gen Z is Responding
This shift has not gone unnoticed by students themselves. A recent Prospects survey of 4,000 undergraduates revealed that one in ten has already altered their degree choice, anticipating that AI will disrupt traditional pathways. Universities, too, are scrambling to respond, weaving AI literacy into curricula while placing new emphasis on human skills—empathy, persuasion, and creativity—that machines cannot replicate.
Some graduates are already embracing the idea of becoming “AI-native”. Others are appealing to policymakers to protect white-collar entry-level routes before they vanish entirely.
Economics or Technology? The Wider Debate
Yet not all experts are convinced AI is the chief culprit. Economists such as Carl-Benedikt Frey at Oxford argue that the real drag on graduate opportunities is economic: inflation, wage pressures, high interest rates, and post-pandemic caution.
History supports this perspective. The global financial crisis of 2008 and the COVID downturn both led to sharp reductions in graduate recruitment. Large employers often cut back not because of automation, but because of over-hiring in prior years or the need to control costs in turbulent times.
The Oversupply Challenge
There is also a structural problem closer to home. With nearly one in three Britons now holding a degree, compared to fewer than one in five in the 1990s, competition has reached unprecedented levels. Employers increasingly prize workplace experience over academic credentials.
For many families, the once-reliable promise of university as a ticket to prosperity is beginning to look precarious. We’ve been saying this from the begining at Graduate Coach. “A degree alone is not enough”
AI as a Paradoxical Opportunity
Yet the story is not wholly bleak. AI may be eroding some traditional entry-level duties, but it also has the potential to elevate graduates faster. An MIT Sloan study of call-centre staff found that inexperienced workers benefitted most from AI, seeing dramatic gains in productivity and confidence.
For new hires, this could mean less time stuck on repetitive admin, and more exposure to challenging, stimulating work early on. For employers, it signals the arrival of a more capable 22-year-old—one able to contribute meaningfully from day one.
Redefining the “First Job”
The graduate labour market is undeniably strained, and AI is accelerating the reshaping of career paths. But rather than “stealing” opportunities, it may be redefining what the first rung on the career ladder looks like.
The real challenge for graduates is not merely to land that elusive first job—but to prepare themselves for a world in which that job has already been transformed.
Final Thoughts
For parents and graduates alike, it is tempting to see artificial intelligence as the thief of opportunity. Yet the truth is more nuanced. The graduate market of 2025 is shaped as much by economic turbulence and oversupply as it is by technological change.
What is clear, however, is that the nature of the “first job” is evolving. Rather than clerical tasks and training wheels, graduates may now be expected to engage with complex work from the outset—often with AI as their co-pilot.
Featured image by: Tara Winstead
;)