How will organizations attract聽and develop聽the AI-native workforce they鈥檒l聽need tomorrow when entry-level roles are shrinking today? Here鈥檚 the future-ready, early talent strategy you need.
Fewer opportunities for early talent
The job marketplace has contracted significantly for those with less than five years of professional experience. Research published by 麻豆原创 shows that openings in the 10 most common entry-level job titles declined by 35% in just one year, from 2024 to 2025.*
Budget constraints, hiring freezes, and uncertainty around the ROI of early talent as AI increasingly takes on routine and manual tasks are among the reasons cited by HR leaders today.
Applications skyrocket
AI is also having a major impact on the recruitment process. With such limited opportunities available, more than half of early talent candidates use AI to help them land a job鈥攁 process that now takes eight months on average and involves more than 300 job applications.*
HR is feeling the pressure managing the candidate pipeline, with聽the number of applicants per early talent job opening doubling since 2021.聽A聽high volume of candidates聽are聽submitting聽AI-generated r茅sum茅s and applications, and it鈥檚 becoming much harder to detect high-fidelity signals around skills, fit, and potential.聽
It鈥檚聽a painful聽scenario for everyone involved. Fragile and unsustainable. And the聽implications聽will be聽profound for enterprises that聽don鈥檛聽act quickly.聽聽
HR leaders voice concerns
Playing out the current聽trajectory聽to its natural conclusion, what happens when all the聽fresh talent eventually dries up? Already,聽HR leaders聽are alarmed by this risk.聽鈥淯ltimately, if we stop investing in early talent, we will wind up eliminating our talent pipeline,鈥� one聽global head of early talent聽programs at a high-tech organization聽told researchers.*
A senior HR director at a high-tech organization commented: 鈥淚f we continue down this path and don鈥檛 provide a way for early talent to get started, it鈥檚 going to lead to massive skill shortages in the future.鈥�
Widespread reductions in early talent hiring will lead to skills gaps that聽will聽prove expensive to remedy. Organizations will struggle to build company capabilities,聽retain聽knowledge, and develop future leaders.聽聽
But by far the most common concern from leaders was around not seeing early talent as AI-native. If the AI capabilities of this cohort are overlooked, companies may miss out on a key opportunity to scale AI innovation and adoption across the business.
What鈥檚 the answer?
Today,聽there鈥檚聽an opportunity for HR leaders to be more intentional聽and strategic, to reimagine聽their approach聽to early talent from the ground up. With the right early talent strategy, organizations can gain a competitive advantage.
Here are three steps to consider.
Step 1: Rethink entry-level roles
Traditionally, junior employees have mainly been given routine, repetitive tasks. Combined with frustratingly slow career progression, the result is eroding morale and commitment.
This聽approach must evolve.聽The nature of work is changing rapidly,聽and early talent no longer need to take on those routine tasks. These employees need the opportunity to develop at speed and to be supported in performing聽work that聽meaningfully addresses聽business challenges.聽聽
HR has the chance to reshape entry-level positions,聽to provide support, guidance, and tools to enable聽junior staff聽to contribute聽in聽more聽impactful聽ways. This may involve them聽working聽with proper guidance聽to support聽more critical聽projects, interacting with customers,聽and聽even聽owning some tasks end to end.聽
This approach not only enables early talent to contribute more positively to the business at an earlier stage, but when combined with clear goals, regular feedback loops, and occasional coaching, it also fosters greater engagement and commitment.
Step 2: Support your strategy with technology
Hiring and developing early talent have become more complex鈥攆rom deciphering AI-generated applications, to redesigning roles and meeting their aspirations in a fast-changing business context. And with the nature of early talent work shifting, leaders need tools to help understand the new capabilities that will predict long-term success and demonstrate the value of early talent initiatives.
Here鈥檚 where technology can help. During the hiring process,聽technology聽can help聽employers聽see beyond the聽noise of聽AI聽applications聽and rediscover the聽meaningful聽signals聽they聽need to create candidate shortlists and strengthen hiring decisions. Meanwhile, technology can also help to maintain engagement with other high-potential聽candidates聽who applied鈥攆or when the next opportunities arise.聽聽
Once early talent begin work, today鈥檚 technology can help you track their participation in early talent programs and progression towards their goals. It also helps facilitate individualized learning opportunities and demonstrate the ROI of your early talent investments. For research-based recommendations on the role of technology in early talent selection and development, check out this .
Step 3: Reframe the business case for early talent
As the nature of early talent work is changing alongside the technology used to support them, HR leaders agree that the old business case for early talent investments needs to be reimagined. Many organizations are focused on mitigating critical skill gaps and engaging in large-scale AI transformations. While early talent lack experience, they are eager to engage in continuous learning and understand how to work effectively alongside AI.
Research also reveals that鈥攁s they work alongside modern tools and technologies鈥攅arly talent can contribute to high-value, meaningful work much faster than in the past.
A modern early talent business case is one that involves focusing on faster time to meaningful work, reducing critical skill gaps, and leveraging the AI-native capabilities of today鈥檚 entry-level workers.
Build your early talent strategy
Will HR leaders watch on as a generation of AI-savvy talent remains underused, or act now and build the skills pipelines necessary for a future-ready workforce?
Get further insights on this topic by reading our report, 鈥�.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;痴颈蝉颈迟&苍产蝉辫;辞耻谤&苍产蝉辫; to stay tuned for when phase two of this research gets published later this year.
Dr. Autumn D. Krauss is chief scientist at 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors.
*, 麻豆原创, 2026.
