The UK’s top four accounting firms cut graduate recruitment and cut hundreds of career positions as artificial intelligence began to automate the first-level jobs assigned to school training and college graduates.
Deloitte, Europe, KPMG and PWC have collectively employed about 100,000 employees in the past two years – their graduates and school Leaver intake has increased, and some will employ nearly a third of them.
KPMG made the steepest cut, reducing its graduate cohort from 1,399 in 2023 to just 942, a 33% drop. Deloitte cut its plan by 18%, followed by EY and PWC, 11% and 6%.
Faced with consulting and stricter client budgets, businesses want to maintain seven-figure partner spending, and the decline in recruitment is fueled by industry-wide cost-cutting hubs. More and more cuts are provided by generative AI tools such as Chatgpt, which can automate tasks that once were a training ground for junior analysts.
“The four major repetitive work on AI is very serious about repeating the primary work,” said James O’Dowd, managing partner at executive search firm Patrick Morgan.
Meanwhile, all four companies are outsourcing offshore, shifting their work to low-cost locations in India, Malaysia and the Philippines, further eroding the traditional pipeline of UK-based entry-level roles.
The industry’s job listing reflects this trend: Accounting graduate recruitment advertising fell 44% year-on-year, significantly surpassing the wider downturn in graduate job openings.
Despite the reduction in recruitment, the four majors are still competing, positioning themselves at the forefront of the AI economy. Deloitte, PwC and EY are now developing AI Assurance Services – a tool to review and verify the performance, security and bias levels of AI models.
Deloitte audit partner Richard Tedder described AI as “critical for adoption”, and PwC is understood to be launching its own service soon.
The move reflects a broader ambition to make the UK a global AI hub. Government data suggests that AI could add £200 billion to the UK economy, with adoption alone able to provide £78 billion growth over the next decade.
But the challenge remains, especially around public confidence. KPMG’s own research shows that only 42% of UK adults trust AI at present, while nearly three-quarters report not having formal training.
When companies promote an AI boom, many in the graduate work market want to know what the role of the future will be like. While AI creates opportunities in some areas, it is rapidly erasing other areas, especially at the bottom of the company ladder.
As pedal chamber work decreases, automation will only increase, and a basic question is emerging: Where will the next generation of partners come from if AI replaces entry-level?
