Prompt: AI is removing rungs from the corporate career ladder

Companies are looking to AI to take on more of the work employees do. But some of that work is also how employees learn to do their jobs.

That's becoming a bigger issue as AI moves into tasks traditionally handled by junior employees. If AI can perform routine work faster or more cheaply, companies may need fewer people to do it.

But entry-level work has another purpose. It's how employees gain experience and develop judgment before moving into more senior roles.

Teikametrics CFO Brian Beaupre spent the first decade of his career building financial models and learning the numbers behind major business decisions. Today, he says AI can do much of that work. His concern is that younger employees could miss the struggle that taught previous generations how to recognize when an answer was wrong.

Cybersecurity may be facing a similar shift. A survey of security operations center employees found that AI is likely to eliminate some entry-level SOC roles, even as it creates opportunities for workers to move into more strategic positions.

That creates a challenge for employers: developing workers for more strategic jobs when some of the work that once provided that experience disappears.

AI skills are also becoming another dividing line in the workforce. A new PwC survey of nearly 50,000 workers found 56% fell into what the company called the “engine room,” employees who lack specialized skills and aren't far along in learning AI. Only half of those workers felt confident about their job security, and they were the least likely of the four groups PwC identified to say they felt ready to adapt.

Employee compensation could widen that divide.

A recent Payscale report found that 61% of employers are rewriting job descriptions because of AI, but fewer than half said their salary structures have kept pace. Payscale warned of a “retention time bomb” if companies pay more to recruit workers with AI skills without similarly rewarding existing employees who develop those capabilities.