When we asked a room of Bath tech leaders what an entry-level AI role looks like, the answer was blunt: there isn’t one. But the work is there, and it’s changing who you should be hiring.
In September we brought two questions to the Bath Technology Leaders Circle, the monthly breakfast for CTOs and senior tech leaders we run with SETsquared Bath. Are you hiring, or planning to hire, entry-level AI roles? And what does one actually look like?
The answer to the first was stark. Only two of the employers in the room planned to hire at entry level in the next year, and some had removed junior roles altogether.
The second was harder to pin down. Most agreed that an entry-level AI role, as a standalone job, doesn’t really exist. AI is showing up across existing roles rather than as a role of its own: designers writing code, analysts doing work that used to need a developer. Some went further and said every role is becoming an AI role. Laura Gemmell from Taught by Humans wrote up the conversation in What Even Is an Entry-Level AI Role?
So there might not be a job called “junior AI”, but there is new entry-level work emerging around AI.
Where the junior AI work is
In a follow-up post, Laura splits AI work into three areas: using AI, building with AI and building AI. She argues the first two are open to people starting out. Someone automates the monthly report, saving two days of senior time. Someone sorts out the data so the tools give answers people can rely on. Someone tests the chatbot before it goes live, or works out which of the tools the team trialled are worth keeping.
It’s the sort of work that exists in roles like:
- Automation Analyst, finding repetitive tasks across the business and working out how to automate them
- AI Operations Associate, setting up tools and helping colleagues use them
- Product Coordinator, testing new AI features in your product with users and feeding back what works
Marketing, comms, customer service and operations roles can offer similar opportunities.
Can’t AI do the junior work now?
Partly, yes. AI is also replacing some of the work juniors traditionally did. One professional services leader described AI as effectively becoming the junior member of the team: producing the first draft while an experienced person checks it. But that creates a longer-term problem. If businesses stop hiring people at entry level, where do the experienced people with the judgement to check that work come from in five or ten years?
And someone starting out today who’s already confident with AI can bring something different to an established team, and perhaps an instinct for getting the best out of the tools and spotting what could be automated.
One professional services firm even described how for their first job they tasked their graduate intake with investigating and working out how to best use AI across the business.
What to look for
The tech leaders we spoke to cared more about how someone thinks than what’s on their CV: curiosity, the critical thinking to question an AI output, and being able to explain their work. As one put it, you can teach someone to code, but you can’t teach them how to think.
Yet plenty of entry-level adverts still default to Python, a STEM degree and years of experience, whether the role actually needs them or not. That can put off people who could be great in the job.
Come and talk it through at Brazen
On AI Day at Brazen, Bristol’s city-wide festival of tech, creativity and culture, Taught by Humans is running a hands-on workshop: Why you should be hiring entry-level AI, Tuesday 10 November, 3pm, St Nicholas Church. It’ll cover what these roles look like in practice, which skills to look for, and how to hire for them.
It’s for founders, hiring managers and team leads wondering whether an entry-level hire could help them do more with AI.
Thinking about hiring?
This conversation is part of the AI Talent Pipeline South West, a TechLocal project delivered by techSPARK and Taught by Humans and fully funded by the UK Government. If you’re considering an entry-level AI or tech role in the South West,the programme can help you shape the role, advertise it for free on the techSPARK Jobs Board, and match you with candidates based on their skills. Roles need to last at least six months and be 25+ hours a week. You don’t need a finished job spec, or to be recruiting right now.
