A column by Bianca Junqueira, CRO and partner at Jumpstart, published in RH Pra Você · August 4, 2026
AI does not have to replace the next generation of professionals — but it will change who is prepared for what comes next.
Artificial intelligence arrived in the labour market with a double promise: raise company productivity and transform how people work. But while large organisations celebrate efficiency gains, a concern is growing among one specific part of the workforce — young people trying to land a first professional opportunity.
The automation paradox in entry-level roles
AI’s impact on entry-level jobs reveals one of the new economy’s sharpest paradoxes. Many of the tasks traditionally given to people starting out — organising information, basic analysis, first-line support, operational work — are among the first that artificial intelligence automates. The problem is that those functions, however simple they look, have always played an important part in forming new talent.
The risk of a practical-learning deficit
The start of a career was never only about delivering results. It was also a learning stage, where young professionals built repertoire, understood processes and developed the skills needed to take on more strategic positions later. With accelerated automation comes the risk that the market will demand experience from a generation at exactly the moment automation is reducing their opportunities to learn.
This is already visible in market indicators. In the United States, a significant share of recent graduates struggles to find jobs matching their education, in an environment where companies have begun reviewing hiring for functions that AI tools can partly replace. The challenge is not only the number of openings, but the shift in which skills organisations value.
Even so, treating AI as an inevitable threat would be an incomplete reading. History shows that major technological shifts tend to eliminate some activities while creating new roles and markets. What is different this time is the speed of the transformation, and the need to prepare professionals to work alongside intelligent systems.
The human skills that matter in the new economy
The path is not competing with artificial intelligence, but developing capabilities that amplify human value. Critical thinking, creativity, communication, problem-solving and strategic vision all become more important in an environment where machines can absorb repetitive tasks.
Preparing the next generation
The conversation about the future of work needs to go beyond asking which jobs will be replaced. The central question is how companies, universities and governments can prepare a new generation for an economy where technology is present in practically every profession.
We should see artificial intelligence not only as a force of replacement, but as a tool of transformation. The greater risk is not that the technology exists — it is leaving professionals without access to the knowledge needed to use it. In an increasingly digital economy, the competitive advantage will not belong only to those who master AI, but to those who learn to work with it.
Originally published (in Portuguese) in RH Pra Você.