The Shrinking Bench: What AI Means for Junior Talent

This is the topic that makes people shift uncomfortably in their seats. Because the truth is simple and unsettling: junior roles are disappearing, the consulting ladder is bending, and nobody knows where this ends.

The Question That Caught Me Off Guard

A 23-year-old analyst asked me recently, “Should I even go into consulting now?” He wasn’t being dramatic. He was staring down student loans, rising rents, and a job market that feels like shifting sand. I wanted to tell him everything would be fine. But that would be dishonest.

Agents Are Not Human, and That Changes Economics

Agents don’t need health insurance. They don’t get sick before a big client meeting. They don’t quietly start interviewing at competitors when they are burned out. They don’t freeze when asked to do something unfamiliar. That is good for the P and L. It is rough for people trying to start their careers.

The Old Model Is Cracking

For decades, firms hired armies of brilliant grads and put them through intellectual hell week every week: long hours, manual analysis, the grind that built tomorrow’s leaders. AI is eroding the very work that trained them.

This isn’t doom. But it is reality.

What We Can Do

We can double down on:

• emotional maturity
• critical thinking
• problem framing
• learning how to challenge AI
• staying mentally sharp when the machine does the easy stuff

Because if we lose our skepticism and curiosity, we lose everything. And I say that as someone who has had to look a terrified young analyst in the eyes and answer questions that didn’t exist ten years ago.