- Graduate unemployment will rise as AI agents replace newbies
- Palantir and Amazon already expect the number of employees to decrease
- ServiceNow says AI agents can do customer service work
ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott has become the latest in a long line of business leaders to suggest that AI adoption, especially agent AI, can pose major challenges for startups.
talking with CNBCMcDermott indicated that unemployment among college graduates could reach the mid-30% range within just a few years as AI agents begin to replace more entry-level human workers.
As a result, it makes it harder for graduates to stand out in a shrinking market, and we’re already seeing this play out with a 5.7% graduate unemployment rate at the end of 2025 (according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York).
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Candidates are losing jobs due to AI
“So much of the work will be done by agents. So it’s going to be challenging for young people to differentiate themselves in the corporate environment,” McDermott said.
In addition to candidates, AI also looks set to disrupt other areas of white-collar employment, such as coding and marketing, marking a major shift from previous workforce trends. For example, automation and other industrial revolution changes mostly focused on manual labor, but AI is now affecting knowledge workers.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp has also recently revealed plans to increase revenue while reducing headcount by 10x, while Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has also stated an expectation that the company’s headcount may shrink.
“I think it’s coming sooner than people expect,” McDermott added, though no clear solution was indicated.
ServiceNow’s AI tools have already reportedly eliminated about 90% of the use cases that once required human customer service agents.
The company recently posted a 25% year-over-year increase in fiscal full-year revenue—with McDermott noting “there is no AI business in the enterprise better positioned for sustainable profitable revenue growth than ServiceNow.”
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