AI is transforming entry-level work. How can companies redesign jobs to keep opportunity alive?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the world of work and is already impacting how organizations hire, develop and advance talent. This is nowhere more visible than at the entry level.

Entry-level jobs have long played a critical role in workforce participation and skills formation. They provide structured pathways into employment and economic opportunity, enabling people to build practical experience and develop skills, while helping organizations cultivate future talent and capability.

Today, this model is being tested, raising the question: how can we ensure that technological progress expands rather than weakens opportunity and that the next generation continues to build experience, judgement and skills needed to thrive?

The challenge extends beyond individual careers. As the foundations of work evolve, organizations must rethink how jobs are designed, how work is organized and how talent is developed to sustain long-term productivity gains, competitiveness and growth.

The World Economic Forum’s latest report, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Entry-Level Work, developed in collaboration with PwC, explores how leaders can safeguard and reinvent early-career pathways in this new environment.

To explore what this redesign looks like in practice, a perspective from Randstad shows how one of the world's largest workforce organizations is putting these principles into action.

The report drew on insights from workforce leaders, employers and experts.

It proposed a framework focused on four dimensions: job access, job design, talent pipelines and education system alignment to help stakeholders identify where strain is emerging, where deliberate action is needed and what objectives should be prioritized to build more resilient pathways into work.

The report highlights job redesign as a key strategic lever, pointing to the need to move beyond traditional role-based workforce structures towards more capability-based models of talent development, where skills are built through diverse experiences and more fluid, non-linear career pathways.

It also examines how employers and educators can work together to strengthen signals of job readiness and create alternative routes into employment as skill requirements evolve faster than current education systems can adapt.

AI adoption is accelerating the need for change across organizations and broader workforce ecosystems. Yet, while many are investing heavily in AI, there is still no established playbook for redesigning work.

As organizations embark on this transformation journey, it is important to remember that the impact of AI will not be determined by the technology alone. It will be shaped by the deliberate choices organizations, educators and policymakers make today.

The Forum's framework gives language to something the organisation is living through at Randstad: what we call “the great workforce adaptation,” a critical moment where businesses and talent must adapt together in response to rapid technological change.

At Randstad, the response has been deliberate: move away from fear of displacement and toward the reality of AI-fueled growth. But that requires more than optimism. It requires redesign.

Our guiding principle is simple: the human remains in the lead. Even as AI handles an increasing share of routine work, we are doubling down on developing the person behind it.

This means elevating entry-level roles to focus on judgment, oversight and human connection, the capabilities that AI cannot replicate. It also means giving people the tools and skills to integrate AI into their daily work, supported by the culture and infrastructure needed to make that adoption stick.

While this shift is often most visible in early career roles, it is not limited to them. The reality is that AI is reshaping work at every level. That is why our approach focuses on building capabilities across the entire workforce, ensuring that people at all stages of their career can adapt, grow and lead in an AI-enabled environment.

We are building a robust foundation of AI literacy by rolling out an AI skills accelerator programme for all employees. This mandatory programme ensures our people are equipped to use AI effectively, understand its potential to drive productivity and remain mindful of the guardrails.

However, skills alone are not enough. AI adoption at scale requires an environment where people feel safe to experiment, challenge outputs and learn from mistakes, which is why we invest in building trust, fostering resilience and motivating performance across all levels of the organization. In a world where people lead AI, our people need to be at their best.

To make this shift real at scale, we are rethinking how work itself is designed. By building a clear and transparent job architecture, we define the skills needed not just for today but for the future. This gives our people clarity on what is expected and opens up more flexible, skills-based career paths across the organization.

Because AI transformation is not just about adopting new tools. It is about redesigning work so that people can operate at their best, with a focus on judgment, creativity and human connection.

That is the real shift underway.

The organizations that succeed will not be those that simply deploy AI fastest but those that most deliberately redesign how people and technology work together.