Is AI ending entry-level hiring? An agency owner says they have not hired a college graduate "in some time" and don't expect to

At Digiday's AI Marketing Strategies event on 24 September, executives speaking under Chatham House rules admitted that AI adoption is discouraging them from hiring entry-level staff. "We haven't hired college-level grads in some time, and I don't anticipate that we will be," said the owner of a small-to-mid-sized performance marketing agency, which once hired almost exclusively at entry level and saw many of those hires become its best employees. "It's not like I don't like college grads. I do - it's just a business issue," the owner said, adding that AI now fills many of the tasks junior staff used to handle. Another participant called cutting graduate hiring short-sighted and said junior roles should be redesigned rather than eliminated. This is how AI removes jobs without a layoff: no one is fired, the first rung of the ladder simply stops being offered, and no layoff count or WARN notice will ever record it.