Before joining Microsoft as a junior software engineer last year, Ume Habiba imagined spending most of her time fixing bugs and juggling other mundane tasks.
Instead, the University of Maryland graduate was responsible for building new features for Azure Networking, one of Microsoft’s flagship products.
Habiba’s miscalculation? She never thought she’d be relying on AI tools like Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot to do the tedious tasks that early-career developers have long had to do.
“It was crazy,” said Habiba, 24, of New York. “I never expected to be featured in the first place.”
Gen Z’s experience shows that jobs that have long been a rite of passage for new employees – boring but basic tasks of teaching them the ropes – are increasingly being handled by AI.
Meanwhile, Microsoft and other employers are now entrusting junior employees with more advanced projects than previously assigned to junior employees. This is a readjustment that can make the job more attractive for beginners, but it can also create a steeper and less forgiving learning curve.
“AI is changing the entry-level experience for an entire generation of white-collar workers,” said Peter Cappelli, professor of management and director of the Center for Human Resources at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. “Companies need to seriously consider how they support these new employees.”
“I never expected to be featured in the first place,” Habiba said. BI’s Christian Rodriguez
limited opportunity
AI has the potential to reshape not only what entry-level jobs look like, but also how many companies need them.
In 2025, job ads for junior roles on Indeed decreased by 7% compared to the previous year, while job ads for senior roles increased by 4%. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for new graduates was 5.7% in the first quarter, compared to 4.2% for all workers, according to the New York Fed.
Laura Ulrich, director of economic research at Indeed, said the disconnect reflects the economic uncertainty of AI’s automation capabilities combined with the cost of AI itself.
Although some employers are pushing back against this trend, former Cisco CEO John Chambers told Business Insider he expects AI to drive down overall entry-level demand in the short term and eventually create new job categories. He compared the AI boom to the rise of the internet, but said the AI transformation will happen much faster and impact more industries.
“I’m optimistic about how this will turn out,” said Chambers, who now heads venture capital firm JC2 Ventures. “But there will be a time lag.”
Improving productivity with AI
Some employers are already saying that AI is making them more productive and less dependent on others for new graduates in entry-level jobs.
At Okta, junior auditors were spending hours reviewing compliance documents for discrepancies, said Rebecca Port, the identity management company’s chief human resources officer. Now, an AI assistant compares these documents to “gold standard” examples and reports anomalies in real time.
Port said the changes have allowed junior auditors to focus on more advanced analysis, such as assessing why something is not compliant and how to improve it.
“We are leveraging AI to automate some of the simple tasks and routine tasks,” she said.
Similarly, Microsoft’s junior salespeople can now use AI tools to practice their pitches before meeting with prospects, said Katy George, the tech giant’s corporate vice president of workforce transformation. Previously, you had to ask a more experienced colleague to role-play.
“A grand experiment”
Despite AI’s time-saving benefits, some observers warn that automating too much entry-level work can have a negative impact on young recruits.
For example, Chambers said repetitive tasks help people understand how things work, spot mistakes and develop intuition.
“AI cannot replace experience,” he said.
What’s more, it can take years to develop the knowledge needed to make tough decisions under pressure, navigate office politics and navigate other delicate dynamics in the workplace, says Jennifer Tosti Karas, a professor of organizational behavior at Babson College.
“We have to remember that this is still their first job,” Tosti Karas said. “AI doesn’t make them more mature.”
Microsoft and other employers are now entrusting junior employees with more advanced projects than were traditionally given to junior employees. BI’s Christian Rodriguez
Another concern she sees is generational friction. Today’s youngest workers will have early career experiences that may not resonate with their Millennial or Gen X bosses, Tosti Karas said. Older workers may view them as not paying their dues, which “could create resentment,” she says.
Tosti Karas added that employers are essentially testing new models for developing young talent that may or may not work. “This feels like a grand experiment,” she said.
Imposter syndrome
To avoid potential pitfalls, some employers are rethinking how they train and develop early-stage talent.
Accounting giants EY and KPMG recently told Business Insider that they are experimenting with AI-driven training for entry-level new employees and, in some cases, more experienced staff.
EY said it plans to use simulated audit scenarios and built-in learning tools as it rolls out AI agents across its assurance business, while KPMG said it is testing simulation tools to help particularly junior staff learn the ins and outs of tax preparation as AI begins to take over operations.
Still, the drastic change in responsibilities can be scary.
Habiba, a Microsoft engineer, said he is excited that AI can help write code, generate unit tests, and automate other parts of the development process. But as she tackled the more difficult aspects of the mission, such as network infrastructure and product optimization, “a sense of impostor syndrome definitely came up,” she said.
In the end, Habiba got the job done and credits not only the AI but several experienced colleagues for helping her. George said this is the type of leadership Microsoft is working on through “multigenerational teams” that combine junior and senior employees.
The close collaboration with senior colleagues also emphasized to Habiba that technical competence alone is no longer enough. She said communication, collaboration and interpersonal skills are becoming more important, not less.
“Now anyone can code,” Habiba says. “What else do you bring to the table?