Is AI quietly reshaping the career ladder?: An interview with Lydia Löthman

AI is undoubtably changing work. How it gets done. What jobs are needed. But one of the most important impacts may not be whether jobs disappear, but how people enter the workforce at all. 

Recent research from Örebro University points to a concerning shift in the labor market: younger workers appear to be disproportionately impacted in AI-exposed roles. On May 28, Jobylon is hosting an event exploring what this could mean for the future of work, hiring, and the long-term leadership pipeline. The event brings together researchers, HR leaders, and industry voices to discuss a question many organizations are only beginning to grapple with:

Is AI quietly reshaping the career ladder?

Ahead of the event, we spoke with Lydia Löthman, a doctoral researcher at Örebro University and one of the researchers behind the recent study on AI’s impact on early-career employment in Sweden.

In this short Q&A, Lydia shares some of the research findings that surprised her most, what companies may not be paying enough attention to yet, and why the future of entry-level work deserves more attention from employers today.

How AI is changing early careers

Q: Is AI actually “breaking” the career ladder—or just changing it in ways we don’t
fully understand yet?

Lydia Löthman (LL): It is still too early to draw definitive conclusions, but our research indicates that young people are being employed less frequently in occupations we classify as AI-exposed, primarily white-collar roles that often require higher education, while we find no comparable decline among older workers. This does suggest that something may be happening in entry-level positions.

One possible explanation is that AI tools are becoming increasingly competitive in
performing typical entry-level tasks, while demand for more experienced workers remains relatively stable. Another possibility is that labor demand in these occupations is declining more broadly, but that Swedish labor market institutions, such as the “first in, last out” principle, are concentrating the effects among younger workers.

If the first explanation is correct, new career pathways may emerge in which it becomes more common to gain experience in other fields, through internships, or via self-employment before entering these occupations. If the second explanation is more accurate, these occupations may instead become increasingly difficult for younger generations to enter altogether.

Q: Are we seeing different impacts based on the types of roles or industries?

LL: Yes, for the younger age groups we observe a decline in employment within AI-exposed occupations, but not a corresponding decline in occupations with low AI exposure. The two groups are heterogeneous, but the AI-exposed occupations generally consist of white-collar professions centered around cognitive tasks, such as software developers, lawyers, and economists. The occupations with the lowest AI exposure tend to involve more manual or social tasks, such as childcare and construction work.

Q: What’s one hiring decision companies are making today that could have
unintended long-term consequences?

LL: If companies are behaving in the way our data suggests, namely by hiring fewer young workers into AI-exposed roles, this could of course have longer-term consequences and potentially contribute to future skill shortages.

Q: What part of AI’s transformation on work do you think people are not paying
enough attention to today?

LL: Our analysis shows that women are overrepresented in the occupations experiencing the largest employment declines. This could have substantial consequences and may exacerbate existing labor market inequalities.

Q: What does a “first job” even look like in an AI-shaped workforce?

LL: One way to interpret our findings is that young people may be facing increasing difficulty competing with AI tools in typical entry-level tasks. This could imply that young people have to make themselves more competitive through for example internships, volunteering, self-employment, or experience gained in other fields.

Here it is important to consider that if young people are required to remain in economically uncertain positions for even longer than they do today, this is likely to have negative consequences both at the individual and societal level.

This Q&A is just a small preview of the discussion happening on May 28, when researchers, HR leaders, and industry voices come together to explore AI’s impact on early careers, hiring, and the future workforce.

Join us live in Stockholm or via livestream.