The picture is split. Demand for senior and specialist skills is climbing fast, while entry-level routes are tightening. Demand for AI skills increased nearly 200 percent in a year, with London accounting for 80 percent of AI-related job postings and nearly two-thirds of all technology vacancies in the UK according to Accenture data reported by The Register. That tells you where the work is, and where the competition for people is fiercest.
At the same time, the ladder into the sector is narrowing. The UK tech sector cut graduate jobs by 46 percent in the past year, with a further 53 percent drop projected according to Institute of Student Employers figures reported by The Register. Adzuna has seen a 30% drop in UK entry-level job postings since ChatGPT's launch, with graduates facing the toughest job market since 2018 according to techUK. The demand is real, but the on-ramp for new talent is shrinking at the same moment.
The gap is widest at the junior end. In engineering, entry-level hiring has fallen to -19% while senior hiring sits at -10%, a 9-percentage-point gap according to a GOV.UK snapshot of entry-level hiring. So the roles are there, but employers are reaching for proven people first and leaving early-career pipelines thin. That is a risk: the senior specialists everyone wants today came up through junior roles that are now being cut.
There is one bright spot worth reading closely. Apprenticeships have risen from 3% of AI hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025 according to the DSIT AI Labour Market Survey 2025. Employers are building talent as well as buying it. For anyone planning a graduate intake, that signals a shift: the smart move is to grow the skills you need around live automation work, not around a headcount number fixed months ago.
Start with the roles you are hiring for right now, not a target set last year. List your open and forecast automation vacancies, break each one into the tasks a graduate could own within six to twelve months, and map those tasks to the skills you can teach. That turns a vague intake number into a concrete plan tied to real demand.
Then design the on-ramp deliberately. Pair each graduate with a senior specialist, because the senior shortage will only ease if you keep feeding the junior pipeline that creates tomorrow's experts. Blend apprenticeships and graduate hires so you are building skills as well as buying them, which mirrors where the market is heading according to the DSIT AI Labour Market Survey 2025. And hire for aptitude and curiosity over a fixed tool list, since the tools will change faster than any one intake.
Finally, move quickly. With AI demand up nearly 200 percent in a year according to Accenture data reported by The Register, the strongest early-career people get snapped up fast. A clear plan read from live roles lets you make decisions in days, not months, and that speed is often what wins the person you want.
We read your live automation roles and match them to early-career talent across a database of 15 million people, so your intake plan reflects real demand rather than a guess. We surface a ranked shortlist in under 30 seconds, contact matched people in under a minute and handle recruitment end to end, which keeps your pipeline moving while you focus on the work. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost, through Reed.ai. Ready to plan your next intake? Tell us the roles you are hiring for today.
