ServiceNow CEO warns graduate unemployment could soar to 35% as bots take over jobs

AI-driven software company ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott is perhaps the most direct in predicting more job losses for Gen Zs with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) agents and bots.

In an interview with CNBC, he stated that AI tools are already competing fiercely with Gen Zers for their first entry-level jobs after college.

“I think young people coming out of university today [are experiencing] 9% unemployment. I think it could easily go into the mid-30s in the next couple of years,” he said.

He also predicted that there will be about three billion digital, non-human agents added to enterprises by 2030. These agents will have the ability to automate routine tasks typically done by entry and mid-level employees. 

“What’s happening now, for the non-differentiating roles, [is] so much of the work is going to be done by agents,” he added.

“So it’s going to be challenging for young people to differentiate themselves in a corporate environment.”

According to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Fortune Magazine noted that approximately 5.6% of recent U.S. college graduates aged 22 to 27 are unemployed, compared to 4.2% of the general population.

Tech leaders are already warning that this trend will continue, while many are hesitant that entry-level hiring will make a comeback anytime soon.

“Today [AI] is like an intern that can work for a couple of hours, but at some point it’ll be like an experienced software engineer that can work for a couple of days,”  OpenAI leader Sam Altman said during a panel with Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy last year. 

McDermott said that if other tech companies follow ServiceNow in handing over entry-level jobs to AI agents where humans were once assigned, “that will definitely put a damper on who you need to hire.”