If AI can do the junior work, why is Accenture still hiring graduates?
What does a company betting billions on AI see in a 21-year-old with no experience?
The graduate job market is having a hard year, and AI gets most of the blame.
That’s the headline version. The reality is messier: some employers are cutting back, some are holding steady, and a few are hiring more than ever.
Accenture is in that last group. At its careers livestream on 22 September, Helen Baker, a managing director at the firm’s Newcastle Advanced Technology Centre, said the company plans to keep hiring hundreds of entry-level people over the next few years. Mark Farbrace, Accenture’s Generative AI Lead, went further, calling early talent “more important than potentially it’s ever been.”
What can a junior teach a CEO?
What can someone with no experience possibly teach a CEO? Mark Farbrace, Accenture’s Generative AI Lead, had an answer: how to use AI. He described a consultant spending an hour each week walking the chief executive of a large UK business through the tools, and picking up, in return, a ground-level view of the issues that mattered most to the company.
It’s a small exchange, but it captures something. Experience still carries weight, yet knowledge is starting to move up the ladder as well as down.
EY has spotted the same pattern. In a February 2026 interview, its global assurance talent leader, Sandra Oliver, described pairing senior leaders with younger colleagues for reverse mentoring on AI.
Neither example suggests younger workers simply know AI better. Both suggest employers are finding value in what juniors bring, alongside what they still need to learn.
Hiring people for different work
IBM provides an example. In March, the company reported plans to triple US entry-level hiring in 2026 while redesigning roles around AI. Its talent leadership described a shift towards analysis, problem-solving and responsible AI use.
That is a US hiring commitment, not a completed intake or evidence of a UK recovery. But it shows that automating tasks can sit alongside a decision to recruit more junior people.
Research suggests why those recruits might become productive sooner. A study in the Quarterly Journal of Economics examined AI assistance across 5,172 customer-support workers. Issues resolved per hour rose 15% overall, and 30% among less-skilled and less-experienced workers.
The study did not measure hiring demand, and its participants were not necessarily graduates. What it found was that, in that workplace, AI helped people still developing their skills to perform better.
What this means for your search
For graduates, the useful takeaway is to build evidence of how you learn and contribute. Try AI on a real task, check its output and practise explaining your decisions. Keep developing the underlying skills, too: using a tool confidently is different from knowing when it is wrong.
When researching employers, ask what graduates do, how their work is changing and who supports their development.
The market remains difficult. But Accenture’s example offers a reason to look closely at individual opportunities: some employers see junior people as contributors to how their business changes, with knowledge to share from the beginning.
References
Institute of Student Employers — Apprenticeships rise as graduate vacancies drop 8%. Student Recruitment Survey 2025; 2024–25 recruitment cycle; 155 employer members. Supports the opening hiring statistic and sample description.
Accenture — Reinvent with Accenture UK Live, 22 September 2026. Supplied recording transcript: Helen’s hiring comments begin at 29:34; Mark’s answer containing the consultant/CEO example begins at 30:54, ending before 31:58. A public recording URL has not been verified.
Recruiting Future — Inside EY’s Talent Strategy for AI and the Future. Interview with Sandra Oliver, 10 February 2026; reverse mentoring discussion at 14:43.
IBM — The bottom rung returns as AI reshapes entry-level jobs. Published 2 March 2026. Reports the plan to triple US entry-level hiring and redesign roles; does not verify completion.
Brynjolfsson, Li and Raymond — Generative AI at Work. Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2025, published online 4 February 2025. Published sample: 5,172 workers; 15% overall productivity increase and 30% among less-skilled and less-experienced workers. These are productivity findings, not hiring estimates.