AI is Eliminating Junior Jobs: How Can Adult Education Restore the Talent Pipeline?

AI is Changing the Workforce

Forecasts predict that by 2030, 92 million jobs will be displaced, while 170 million new AI-related roles will be created. This shift highlights the dual impact of AI: it eliminates traditional roles while simultaneously generating entirely new professions. On the surface, the numbers may seem to balance out with additional demand for talent, but in practice, the equation doesn’t work. The new jobs require advanced technical skills or new skills not yet available in the workforce, and most companies already struggle to find qualified candidates who can fill them. 

This skills gap is about the difference between the skills that people have – including those pushed out of the workforce by AI – but also about the lack of sufficient training for these new AI roles and skills. There aren’t enough education and training programs that prepare workers for the emerging AI opportunities – threatening both economic growth and workforce stability.

AI Created a Global Junior Talent Crisis

Young adults graduate from high-schools, colleges, and universities only to discover that entry-level jobs have diminished. In 2024, entry-level tech postings dropped to less than 3%, compared to 20–25% in previous years. In recruiting alone, the numbers are stark: 49,000 tech recruiting jobs vanished in 2023 and another 22,000 in 2024. 

The reason is simple – AI tools can now perform tasks once reserved for juniors. Clerks, analysts, paralegals, graphic designers, and content writers are among the hardest hit. Instead of assigning repetitive or routine tasks to new hires, companies now rely on AI chatbots and platforms to do the same job faster, cheaper, and often with fewer errors than humans.

Consider how this plays out across professions: clerks replaced by automation that manages records and paperwork; analysts replaced by machine learning models that can process data at scale and present the trends; paralegals pushed aside by AI legal systems trained on laws and verdicts; graphic designers undercut by generative AI design platforms that create stunning visuals; and content writers substituted with ChatGPT and other AI writing assistants. 

Short-Term Layoff Cost Savings Might Translate into Long-Term Damage

What was once the natural entry point into a career path is now handled by algorithms. The result is massive layoffs across enterprises and SMBs alike: 23.5% of U.S. companies report replacing workers with ChatGPT, while over 77,000 layoffs in 2025 alone were directly linked to AI and automation. Employers reinforce the trend by preferring to upskill existing staff rather than hiring new juniors – saving both the costs of training and the risk of human error.

Behind these decisions lies a cost-saving mindset. A ChatGPT Pro subscription costs $20 per month, while hiring a junior employee costs thousands. Juniors also require months of onboarding, training, and supervision – while AI bots come ready, willing, and able. Leaders are also riding the “AI buzz” and directing teams to ‘use AI everywhere’ and conditioning new hires by checking whether AI can do the job (as Shopify’s CEO does). For many junior-level tasks, the answer is yes.

But this short-term gain carries long-term consequences. Seniors will eventually retire and without juniors learning and progressing today, there will be no mid-level or senior professionals to succeed them tomorrow. The absence of entry-level roles deepens the intergenerational divide in the workforce. The difference in age and generation between current mid-level managers and the juniors that will eventually be recruited after the crisis would be considerable. Companies that prioritize quick savings now will eventually face the urgent need to rebuild a pipeline of talent, training entry-levels at breakneck speed to sustain their organizations in the future.

How Adult Education Can Respond to AI

Adult education is the bridge between available talent, with no relevant experience, and the industry, who needs educated and skilled individuals to take jobs in the industry. There it comes as no surprise that adult education institutions – like universities, colleges, and vocational training centers – could and should play a role in preparing the workforce for the AI era.

The individuals taught are not only young adults starting their career, but also many career-changers and people who lost their jobs to AI. Both populations need new skills that train them to new professions, or other existing professions that were significantly changed by AI technology.

The first step is AI literacy. Every educator today must equip learners with the ability to understand, use, and thrive alongside AI. The simplest way to do that is integrating AI into the learning experience itself. Educators can leverage AI tools to create presentations, design interactive content, and even assign AI-assisted homework, preparing students for the reality of working with AI tools in their everyday professional lives. By embedding AI into the classroom, learners become fluent in applying these technologies rather than fearing them. Every educator needs to understand what AI is, how it works, and what are its limitations – because students nowadays know it faster.

The second step is to teach for the jobs created by AI. Universities and vocational schools have long trained people for specific professions, but are slow to adapt to training for the new AI roles. Entirely new professions are emerging, such as AI Viber Coders, AI Ethics Specialists, and AI Workflow Automation Experts. Traditional tech roles also require new AI skills – e.g. AI Full-Stack Developers, AI Product Managers, or AI Data Analysts. Education providers must shift their curricula to reflect these changes, ensuring students are trained for the roles that will dominate the next years.

Finally, institutions must adopt a reskilling and upskilling mindset. Adult learners who have never worked in tech need accessible pathways to enter AI-driven industries within months, while current employees must continuously update their skills to stay relevant and keep their jobs. This requires agility: updating syllabi frequently (preferably through courseware providers), aligning degrees and courses with industry needs, and moving quickly to keep pace with AI innovation. 

At Wawiwa, for example, we embrace an AI Everywhere approach – integrating AI into all of our training programs, business operations, and teaching methods. This ensures students learn how to use AI rather than be replaced by it. 

Educators worldwide need to ask themselves two difficult questions: 

1. Does the world need what we currently teach in the AI era? (If not, it’s time to drop entire degrees and courses).
2. How does AI change the job roles we’re training for? What should we teach now given the AI revolution?
   
   For each institution, the answers are different. If you need help thinking about these questions and AI’s implications on your university, college, or training center – let’s talk.