- Graduate unemployment expected to rise as AI agents replace entry-level workers
- Palantir and Amazon already expect a reduction in human workforce
- ServiceNow claims AI agents can do customer service work
ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott has become the latest in a long list of business executives to suggest that the adoption of AI, particularly agentic AI, could create major challenges for entry-level workers.
Talk with CNBCMcDermott said unemployment among college graduates could reach about 30% in just a few years, as AI agents begin to replace more entry-level human workers.
As a result, it’s harder for graduates to stand out in a declining market, and we’re already seeing this borne out with an unemployment rate of 5.7% for recent graduates at the end of 2025 (according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York).
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Graduates are losing jobs to AI
“A lot of the work will be done by agents, so it will be difficult for young people to differentiate themselves in the corporate environment,” McDermott said.
Besides graduates, AI also appears to be disrupting other areas of white-collar employment, such as coding and marketing, marking a major shift from previous workforce trends. For example, automation and other changes related to the Industrial Revolution primarily focused on manual labor, but AI is now affecting knowledge workers.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp also recently revealed plans to increase revenue while reducing headcount by 10, while Amazon CEO Andy Jassy also said he expected the company’s headcount to shrink.
“I think it’s happening faster than expected,” McDermott added, although no clear solution was indicated.
ServiceNow’s AI tools have already reportedly eliminated about 90% of use cases that once required human customer service agents.
The company recently reported a 25% increase in full-year annual revenue – with McDermott emphasizing that “no AI company in the enterprise is better positioned for sustainable, profitable revenue growth than ServiceNow.”
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