As AI fast-tracks Gen Z into leadership, HR chiefs warn the routine work that once built judgement is vanishing
AI adoption is reshaping careers faster at the top of the ladder than at the bottom, and HR leaders warn the gap is creating a new workforce problem. Young professionals are being fast-tracked into leadership just as the routine work that once built their judgement disappears.
Research by International Workplace Group (IWG) found 82 per cent of senior leaders believe AI is fast-tracking the rise of younger leaders. The Z-Suite Report: How a New Generation is Evolving the Boardroom also found 92 per cent of senior leaders would now appoint a Gen Z candidate to a senior leadership role.
Yet leaders managing AI inside their own organisations say adoption is far messier than the headline figures suggest – from staff using unapproved tools to a shrinking runway for graduates.
Gen Z leaders are rising faster with AI
According to the IWG report, 80 per cent of young leaders say AI gives them knowledge they would previously have needed years of experience to gain. A further 79 per cent say AI tools help them perform tasks beyond their current seniority, and 95 per cent of those aged 21 to 29 believe they are likely to hold a senior leadership role by age 30.
Christian Schmitz, CEO of International Workplace Group, said the shift goes beyond speed of promotion.
"This isn't simply about promoting younger leaders sooner. It is about giving people the tools, flexibility and support to make better decisions, adapt faster and create more value for customers," Schmitz said.
That optimism sits alongside warnings about what AI is removing from early careers, echoing the International Monetary Fund's warning of an AI jobs tsunami and its impact on graduates' first jobs.
Why is the entry-level pipeline under pressure?
Anna Crow, head of people and culture at accounting network Plus More (+MORE) Group, said workforce planning across its member firms has shifted from headcount to capability.
"The key question is no longer simply how many people we need, but what skills and capabilities our teams will need to meet future business challenges," Crow said.
The harder question is how junior staff gain experience when the "easy work" is automated.
"Not only do we need to create opportunities for junior team members to 'learn the basics' and get a good grounding, but we need to ensure that they have the ability to operate at a more senior level much earlier on. In practice, this looks like good judgement and critical thinking – the runway for junior team members to learn this is much shorter," she said.
Sam Kidd, co-founder and CEO of legal operations platform LawVu questioned how much early-career grunt work ever taught. He said lawyers often recall years spent gathering documents in a firm's research room.
"Were you really learning anything there? … It was being in the office listening to conversations, listening to how the deals were actually structured," Kidd said.
For Kidd, the bigger risk is AI arriving alongside remote work. "I think probably one of the hardest things is AI combined with the fact that we're not all in the office. I think one of the hardest things inside an organisation now is that transfer of knowledge," he said.
Shadow AI exposes the AI governance gap
At Plus More, an internal audit found staff using unregistered AI tools on work devices despite an existing policy – a pattern often called shadow AI.
"We weren't surprised by the result when we ran this audit. The AI policy was fairly new and leader confidence around it wasn't high. It gave us something concrete to go to the leaders across the network and say that, even if they didn't think their team were using AI, they definitely were and here are the risks of that," Crow said.
The firm now runs a second training stream on critical thinking and when AI output cannot be trusted, alongside tool training on Copilot.
"We've learned that having a policy is not enough; teams need to hear the key messages clearly, repeatedly, and in different ways," she said.
Kidd said many large organisations are moving slowly because mistakes in HR and legal carry real consequences. He added that some companies which encouraged staff to build AI agents freely earlier in 2026 pulled back once the costs arrived.
What should HR leaders do now?
Both leaders warned that waiting is the greater risk.
"I think the only way at this moment is you have to jump in with both feet. Like, you just can't avoid it. And it's just testing and playing and actually having an open conversation," Kidd said.
He said engagement must come with oversight. "You can't avoid it, but you need to make sure that you're looking at the governance side of things, how it kind of works inside your organisation, what are the risk factors."
Crow said accounting faced AI disruption earlier than most sectors, and the lesson applies across industries.
"I still hear people say AI scares them, that it will take jobs, or that they do not see a use for it in their work. That reluctance to engage is risky because it leaves people and organisations unprepared for what is coming. Competitors are already using AI, and the advantage it creates will grow quickly," she said.
For HR leaders redesigning graduate programmes, the task is to replace lost grunt work with deliberate exposure to judgement.
