Stanford and King's College Study Finds AI Boosts Hiring but Cuts Entry-Level Roles

Bharat Chandar of Stanford University and Bouke Klein Teeselink of King's College London released a research paper on Sept. 21 examining how artificial intelligence affects corporate hiring. The study draws on 1.25 billion job postings and 154 million employment records from 41 countries, covering January 2021 to March 2026.

The findings show that firms adopting AI added more jobs than those that did not, but the gains were unevenly distributed. Among AI-adopting companies, the number of senior positions rose 6.7% over five years, while entry-level employment fell 3%. The share of junior workers declined by 1.9 percentage points, with reductions seen in countries including Brazil, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.

"AI reduces demand for junior workers and increases demand for senior workers in occupations most affected by AI," the authors wrote. They also noted that job losses at the entry level were more pronounced in wealthier, more digitalized economies.

Meanwhile, the share of employment in computer and math occupations — the categories most exposed to AI — increased by 0.8 percentage points at companies using AI, with a similar shift toward senior staff in those roles.