The global chair of PwC shares 3 takes on what AI means for jobs

Mohamed Kande, the global chairman of PwC, has an optimistic take on what AI means for jobs.

In an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box at the VivaTech conference in Paris on Thursday, he summarized three ways he thinks AI is reshaping the labor market.

Companies adopting AI “at scale” are increasing their headcount, not cutting it, he said. “They’re increasing the number of workers that they need because they are embracing AI.” Second, Kande said that employees are becoming more valuable the more they use AI, adding that the technology gives them “superpowers.” In the AI age, workers should focus on developing soft skills like EQ, judgment, and collaboration, he said.

Third, the PwC chief said AI is not necessarily going to replace jobs, but will change what many roles look like in the future.

You’ve probably heard similar points from CEOs and AI leaders before, some of whom initially predicted a white-collar job wipeout, but many of whom have since shifted how they talk about displacement, emphasizing augmentation over replacement.

Kande’s view carries weight because he sits at the helm of a 370,000-person firm that’s on the front lines of how AI is changing work.

PwC and its Big Four rivals are helping Fortune 500 clients adapt to the AI era while also rethinking their own businesses, from the skills they prize to the way they charge for work.

The professional services industry is particularly exposed to AI disruption because so much of its work involves analysis, research, coding, compliance, and other knowledge-based tasks.

Kande’s comments echoed some of the findings published this week in PwC’s 2026 global jobs barometer, which analyzed over 1 billion job advertisements globally.

The report found that companies more exposed to AI are growing both head count and wages faster than those less exposed to the technology.

Head count at the most AI-exposed companies grew 52% since 2018, compared with 36% at the least-exposed companies, while wages rose 24% versus 17%, the report found.

In its report, PwC said the divergence is creating a two-tier workforce between companies that are using AI to amplify workers and those that have yet to embrace it.

Fears around AI job displacement tend to focus on junior white-collar workers, as they typically handle the kind of work AI is now taking over: repetitive, data-intensive, and research-heavy tasks.

Globally, PwC’s AI jobs barometer found that entry-level roles highly exposed to AI have flatlined.

PwC itself is planning to reduce hiring for entry-level workers by a third over the next three years in the US, Business Insider exclusively reported in August.

The slowdown in junior hiring raises questions about how professional services firms will build the next generation of talent in an industry that has traditionally relied on a steady pipeline of entry-level workers.

In the US job market, PwC’s jobs barometer found that not all AI-exposed junior roles are shrinking.

Those with higher skill expectations are thriving.

AI-exposed entry-level jobs that had been “seniorized” — meaning they added more than 10 traditionally senior skills — grew 35% between 2019 and 2025.

Comparable AI-exposed entry-level roles that had not been seniorized fell 10%.

The result is more complicated than a simple story of job loss.

AI may be reducing demand for some of the repetitive work that has long defined junior roles, but it is also raising expectations for what entry-level workers need to bring from day one.

In some cases, it’s also changing the kinds of workers companies hire.

In February, PwC’s US arm introduced a new career path for engineers — the first dedicated career track ever created beyond the traditional accounting and consulting roles long associated with the firm.

In November, Kande told the BBC that the global PwC network is “looking for hundreds and hundreds of engineers.