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PwC UK received 60,000 applications for 2,000 entry-level positions last year, as graduates seek work in a white-collar job market threatened by the deployment of AI.
The number of applications for admission in 2026 has increased by 35% compared to the previous year, as experts predict that AI will reshape the traditional “pyramid” structure of consulting firms. PwC has already abandoned its goal of adding 100,000 employees worldwide by the middle of this year.
However, Philippa O’Connor, chief people officer at PwC UK, told the FT that the Big Four accountancy firms chose not to replace or offshore some routine tasks because they wanted junior staff to learn to understand subjectivity, such as auditing, which “might be black and white for an AI machine”.
While PwC acknowledged that it was “eliminating low-value activities” as technology and AI evolved, O’Connor added: “When we did strategic workforce planning, we had a version of the pyramid that removed the larger elements at the bottom of the pyramid. And we looked three to five years down the road and asked, ‘What are the skills that managers at the time thought couldn’t be automated? How did we train them?'”
O’Connor spoke as Anthropic’s recent announcement of enterprise AI tools caused a selloff in more traditional tech stocks and fueled fears about the future of white-collar jobs.
Job numbers across the UK’s financial, professional services and information and communications sectors have already fallen over the past year due to the economy-wide employment downturn, and some predict the AI-driven shakeout will continue.
Top consultancies, including PwC, have frozen starting salaries, and many experts predict that the “pyramid” structure, in which companies hire thousands of lower-level employees and thin out those at the top, will change by employing fewer people at the bottom.
O’Connor said PwC will continue to invest in its entry-level staff to help them develop the judgment they need to lead client-facing roles.
“To run a successful business with the knowledge, experience, and skillset to meet customer needs, these skills cannot be earned, they must be built.” [internally]” she said.
He said recent graduate recruitment has been “several hundred fewer” than in the past, but job cuts across PwC’s UK operations over the past year “have been more about the UK market than the impact of AI”.
Amid a sector-wide slump, PwC UK reported flat revenue growth last year as its consulting and risk advisory divisions in the UK contracted, as audit, trading and tax performance improved.
PwC is not following the lead of consulting firms like McKinsey & Co., which requires new graduate candidates to use AI assistants to complete some job exams. “We can teach people to prompt,” O’Connor says. “What we want is people who can truly thrive within our organization and culture. … We don’t want people who can give us a good prompt, get the answer from an AI, and then tell us.”
O’Connor said the increase in graduate student applications has allowed accounting firms to “raise the bar” and select candidates who can provide higher-value work.
When assessing candidates, PwC places greater emphasis on ‘people’ skills such as communication, empathy, emotional resilience and the ability to adapt to change.
Increased productivity through AI already means “graduate trainees are doing things that senior employees were doing three to five years ago,” she said, adding: “What’s impacting us right now is that we’re putting more pressure on human skills.”
Additional reporting by Ellesheva Kissin
