What: New research shows that remote work, rather than generative AI, is the primary driver behind the decline in junior hiring and entry-level job ads across retail and other sectors.

Why it is important: Distinguishing between the effects of AI and remote work enables more targeted workforce planning, ensuring that retailers invest in the right areas for sustainable growth and resilience.

Recent large-scale studies across the US, UK, Canada, and Australia reveal that the decline in junior hiring and entry-level job postings is more closely linked to the rise of remote work than to generative AI adoption. While both AI and WFH are correlated with reduced early-career opportunities, robust statistical analysis shows that the impact of remote work remains significant even when controlling for AI exposure, while the effect of AI often becomes statistically negligible. This finding challenges the prevailing narrative that automation is the main threat to entry-level jobs, highlighting instead how post-pandemic changes in workplace structure are reshaping talent pipelines and job requirements. For retailers, this means that workforce development, recruitment, and onboarding strategies must be adapted to address the realities of remote work, ensuring that early-career employees receive the mentorship, training, and experience needed for long-term success. By distinguishing between technological and organizational drivers of labor market change, retailers can make more informed decisions about where to invest for sustainable growth and future leadership development.

IADS Notes: Stanford Digital Economy Lab in September 2025 finds that generative AI adoption is driving significant changes in retail employment, particularly impacting entry-level roles and prompting a shift toward workforce augmentation rather than replacement. The most successful retailers are those who leverage AI to enhance, not replace, their workforce—enabling employees to focus on higher-value tasks and supporting long-term talent development. Strada in June 2026 reports that, despite fears of automation, most employers expect AI to increase entry-level hiring in 2026, but the nature of these roles is changing, with greater emphasis on critical thinking, adaptability, and real-world experience. Harvard Business Review in March 2026 warns that aggressive AI automation in entry-level retail positions threatens long-term business sustainability by undermining talent development, institutional knowledge, and customer relationships. The Economist in May 2026 and BCG in September 2025 both emphasize that AI and automation are fundamentally reshaping job roles, skill requirements, and workforce strategies, highlighting the need for systematic upskilling, balanced AI-human integration, and robust governance. Collectively, these sources illustrate that while both AI and remote work are transforming entry-level hiring and job requirements, the most resilient retailers are those who balance technological innovation with human capital investment, upskilling, and the preservation of talent pipelines and customer relationships.

Entry-level hiring is more at risk due to remote work than AI