White‑collar roles reshaped by AI

Artificial intelligence is no longer a niche skill in white-collar work; at firms like EY, it is becoming a basic hiring screen. (hr.economictimes.indiatimes.com) Ginnie Carlier, EY Americas’ chief talent and culture officer, said AI is changing recruitment, onboarding, talent development, and promotions. EY now requires early-career applicants to complete an online assessment, and Carlier said the firm is testing more flexible career paths and “agile promotions.” (businessinsider.com) (ey.com) That marks a break from the old consulting model, which relied on large classes of junior hires moving up a fixed pyramid over time. Harvard Business Review wrote in October 2025 that artificial intelligence was already shrinking some entry-level consulting work and forcing firms to rethink that pipeline. (hbr.org) The shift is showing up alongside a fresh round of job cuts across tech. TrueUp’s layoffs tracker said that as of April 13, 2026, tech companies had announced 230 layoffs this year affecting 91,739 people. (trueup.io) Other trackers put the first-quarter total lower, in the tens of thousands rather than above 90,000, which shows how hard it is to pin down a single count in real time. Layoffs.fyi says it is continuously updating its database, and recent roundups citing layoffs.fyi and TrueUp described Q1 cuts as reaching tens of thousands worldwide by late March. (layoffs.fyi) (technext24.com) Several reports have tied a large share of those cuts to automation and artificial intelligence programs, though attribution varies by tracker and company. One recent roundup said nearly 80,000 tech workers were laid off in Q1 2026 and that close to half of those roles were explicitly linked to AI-driven automation and efficiency plans. (creati.ai) (techspot.com) Salesforce is one example of how these forces are colliding inside large employers. Reports published on April 13 said the company planned to cut about 4,000 jobs, mainly in customer support, while also dealing with a third-party data breach and leaning more heavily on AI tools for service work. (newsbytesapp.com) (firstpost.com) Boston Consulting Group argued in an April 2026 report that AI will reshape more jobs than it replaces, with outcomes depending on which tasks can be automated and which still need human judgment. Bloomberg reported in November 2025 that consulting recruiters were already treating AI proficiency as a requirement for Master of Business Administration graduates seeking jobs in the field. (bcg.com) (bloomberg.com) The immediate result is not one clean story of jobs disappearing or staying put. It is a labor market where firms are hiring for fewer routine white-collar tasks, screening for AI fluency earlier, and rewriting career ladders that once ran on tenure. (hr.economictimes.indiatimes.com) (businessinsider.com)