Survey: 40% of CEOs Plan to Shift Hiring Toward Mid- and Senior-Level Roles as AI Adoption Increases

More than 40% of CEOs plan to cut junior roles over the next one to two years and shift their workforce composition toward mid-level and senior positions. Only 17% intend to make junior roles a bigger part of the mix. The Oliver Wyman survey numbers are flipped from just a year ago.

John Romeo, who leads the Oliver Wyman Forum, said the data reflect a clear change in hiring priorities. “I think the junior level is definitely finding it harder now to enter the workforce,” Romeo said. ” AI agents are able to perform tasks including writing code at the level of a junior developer and evaluating sales leads.

What the agents cannot replicate in many fields is the judgment that comes from on-the-job experience. Consultant and lecturer Ravin Jesuthasan, who has written multiple books on the future of work, said companies are seeking proven insight. “I need someone who’s actually done this before because her experience, her wisdom, her critical thinking and the fact that she solved these problems makes her much more valuable,” Jesuthasan said.

A Harvard University study showed that firms adopting generative AI have reduced junior-level positions while keeping senior employment largely stable. The Oliver Wyman findings build directly on that pattern. Helen Leis, global head of leadership and change at Oliver Wyman, warned that skipping younger hires carries long-term risks.

“To have the mid-level people that can manage an agentic workforce, they need to learn the company and the job,” Leis said. International Business Machines Corp. said in February that it plans to triple entry-level hiring in the US this year and will rewrite job descriptions for the AI era.

The company appears to be an outlier. A Stanford University study in November found that young workers were 16% more likely to lose their jobs in the most AI-exposed fields. Labor economist Teresa Ghilarducci at the New School said the broader trend points to eroding loyalty between companies and employees.

“Firms’ commitment to workers is weaker and weaker,” Ghilarducci said. Fortune reported that foregoing younger talent now in favor of AI agents may leave companies with a shortage of experienced workers in the future. The shift comes as AI agents take on repeatable entry-level work while senior staff are retained for strategic judgment.

Romeo noted that CEOs are turning to mid- and senior-level employees specifically to drive productivity gains. The Oliver Wyman survey captures a global view of executive intentions at a moment when generative AI tools have moved from pilot projects to core operations in many industries.

Jesuthasan’s comments underscore a common view among futurists that institutional memory cannot be fully outsourced to algorithms.

Leis emphasized the pipeline problem: without junior staff gaining experience today, tomorrow’s mid-level managers will lack the grounding needed to oversee AI systems.