Last year saw the lowest number of graduate jobs available since ISE (Institute of Student Employers) records began in 1991, with 1.2 million graduates in the UK competing for 17,000 jobs in 2023-24.
According to the Global Chairman of PwC, Mohamed Kande, this dramatic fall in graduate jobs is due to AI. PwC itself hires 1,300 UK graduates every year, but has recently announced that they will be stopping long-term plans to increase headcount.
Other major employers of recent graduates are cutting jobs left, right and centre in the wake of AI. According to Business Insider, HP plans to cut up to 6,000 jobs by2028, Amazon is cutting 14,000 jobs and Klarna CEO Sebastien Siemiatkowski said that the company could operate effectively with half its current staff.
The common trend here is that AI is able to complete automated tasks much more efficiently and cost effectively than humans. This is stripping away many of the key entry-level jobs that graduates rely on in order to begin their journey on the career ladder. With university fees on the rise, currently costing students £9,535 per year, paired with a decreasing number of graduate jobs available, this is an unsettling time for graduates.
However, not all hope is lost. With the above information in mind, I decided to conduct an investigation myself into how students can prepare themselves for the new age of AI employment.
It seemed most pertinent to ask the one at the heart of all this mess for their advice for students on the situation: AI (ChatGPT). However, the advice it gave didn’t allow me to draw any significant conclusions:
“Don’t try to beat AI at speed or scale. Build what it can’t replicate: judgment, investigation and ethical responsibility. The graduates who succeed will use AI as a tool, not a substitute for thinking.”
I didn’t consider this advice particularly helpful, so I prompted it further, by tailoring its answers to my experience and my future career. This time, it presented a concise 12-month plan on how I can use AI to my own advantage. This included learning basic Python, web scraping and delving into data visualisation for politics.
This is probably a lot to take on top of a degree, but nonetheless it did drive home one key message; AI is here to stay, and the only way graduates will guarantee success is by understanding and harnessing AI in their field.
It is not necessary to go overboard and suddenly decide to switch degree from psychology to AI engineering. That said, it is necessary to investigate the current effects of AI in your own field of interest.
Furthermore, what is less visible within the number of job losses at companies like Amazon, PwC and Klarna, is that the jobs AI can and will replace are those dominated by women. In fact, a UN report found that AI in the workplace is nearly three times more likely to take a woman’s job than a man’s. This is because women are overrepresented in fields such as admin, in which 78% of the workforce is female, and underrepresented in engineering and technology (21% of tech teams).
So, for female graduates, it is a different ball game. I therefore asked ChatGPT for specific advice for female graduates:
“For women, the biggest career risk is not lacking ability but underestimating it. Apply sooner, speak earlier, and use every tool — including AI — to amplify your voice, not replace it.”
This sounds much more promising and empowering. I wonder how long it would take to turn ChatGPT into the first ever AI suffragette?
A company that is already following ChatGPT’s advice is Supermums, a London-based company that teaches women how to utilise Salesforce, AI and data. Companies like this are integral to breaking down the AI glass ceiling, providing women with the skills to survive and thrive in a global AI talent pool that is currently only 22% female.
Nevertheless, these companies won’t be able to solve more systemic issues that are arising from AI. Women only make up 16.9% of the engineering workforce in the UK, and girls make up just17% of engineering and technology apprenticeship starts. Therefore, girls are already being left behind before they’ve left high school.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to promise students of any age a fully AI-proof job, even if we take ChatGPT’s advice to start using Python every day. What is possible, however, is to utilise AI for our own future career ambitions. As for the next generation, there will need to be much more integration of AI into education, and a wider culture shift to make sure that young girls don’t get left behind by AI.
It is time to work with AI, not avoid it.
As the common phrase goes, keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
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Hannah is a third year Politics with Quantitative Research Methods student at the University of Leeds. She is currently undertaking a year abroad at Sciences Po Aix. She is interested in social justice, AI and democracy, and is currently enjoying learning French and recovering from running the Manchester Marathon 2025! Outside of politics, she’s in a pop dance group and she is also a singer in a music band.
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