AI cutting entry-level jobs bosses warn

7th July 2025 |   Journal Of Sales Transformation

AI is threatening call centre and other customer service jobs, according to business leaders.

Chief executive of fintech Klarna, Sebastian Siemiatkowski recently highlighted the impact of AI on jobs. Last year, the fintech announced a hiring freeze and said that it had replaced 700 of its 3,000 customer service jobs with a virtual assistant tool. Customer service staff are being focused on more complex enquiries.

In May, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei sparked controversy with his comments predicting that AI could potentially eliminate half of all white-collar entry-level jobs. Indeed, data from Robert Walters’ Market Intelligence shows that junior and entry-level roles have declined by up to 35% over the past 18 months, with the tech sector registering the steepest declines.

Among the sectors taking a hit since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 are retail, IT and finance and accountancy, as well as customer service.

Despite this, demand from job-seekers for entry-level roles is still increasing: between 2023 and 2024 applications per entry-level role surged by just over 62%, according to the Institute of Student Employers.