The AI job apocalypse isn’t arriving. At least not the way the headlines keep promising.
Lloyds Banking Group has 800 AI models live in production. Charlie Nunn is training all 67,000 staff, delivered £50m in AI value last year, and when asked directly about mass displacement said: “At this stage, that’s not what we’re seeing.”[1][2]
IBM is tripling US entry-level hiring in 2026.[3] McKinsey is growing its North American hiring by 12 per cent.[4] In a recent Teneo survey, 67 per cent of global CEOs said AI is increasing entry-level headcount, not cutting it.[5]
Where the time goes
Parkinson’s Law explains a lot of this. Work expands to fill the space available. When AI absorbs the routine, that space doesn’t disappear. It gets reoccupied by higher-order thinking, new questions, and problems that were previously too expensive to explore.
And new roles genuinely emerge. Lloyds created 1,200 new technology, data and engineering roles last year.[6] Having spent time building AI capability inside financial services myself, this pattern is familiar. Efficiency gains don’t just flow to the bottom line. They fund ambition that wasn’t previously affordable.
A different question
The organisations I see pulling ahead aren’t asking “how do we use AI to reduce headcount?” They’re asking “what can we now do that we couldn’t do before?”
That’s a fundamentally different question. And it leads somewhere very different.
As IBM’s CHRO put it: if you stop investing in early talent now, the well simply dries up in three to five years.[3]
So here’s the question worth asking in your organisation: are you using AI to shrink, or to grow into the space it creates?
If you are thinking about how AI should shape your workforce plans rather than simply shrink them, I would welcome the chance to talk it through. You will find more on our services page, or please do get in touch.
This article was first shared as a post on LinkedIn.
Sources
- Lloyds Banking Group, Artificial Intelligence at Lloyds Banking Group (800+ models in production, AI Academy for all 67,000 colleagues, around £50m of value from generative AI in 2025).
- The Guardian, Lloyds boss warns bankers must ‘reskill themselves’ to survive AI boom, 29 January 2026.
- IBM, The bottom rung returns as AI reshapes entry-level jobs, 2 March 2026.
- Business Standard (reporting Business Insider), McKinsey to hire 12% more junior employees in 2026, 9 September 2025.
- Teneo, Vision 2026: AI, a (work)force multiplier.
- The Register, Lloyds Bank reviews tech and engineering personnel in reorg, 18 February 2025 (1,200 net new roles across engineering, technology, architecture and data).