Graduates are managing AI - but are they learning much else?

**Graduates are managing AI - but are they learning much else?**

Managing AI agents is a major part of Lotte Underwood’s role

Recent graduate Lotte Underwood is a public relations executive with a difference - she spends more time working with AI than actually doing PR.

Underwood, 25, joined London-based PR agency Fight or Flight in November last year in the newly created role of "AI associate" after finishing a degree and then a masters in marketing.

She is part of a newly formed, dedicated AI team that has developed about 30 AI agents. Their specific duties include industry research, client reporting, preparing for media interviews, helping clients write clearer briefs, and generating images.

A large part of Underwood’s job is to oversee those agents, review their outputs and pass them on to team members who work directly with clients and the media.

Another important responsibility is tracking how clients show up in the answers from AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and others.

"A huge part is being in client meetings and calls to work out what is actually going to be most helpful from these agents," says Underwood.

Dillan Patel, for instance, joined engineering software company Stride 18 months ago as an intern. A business management graduate, he was assigned to develop an internal chatbot meant to capture the knowledge of a senior employee who was moving into retirement.

Patel, 24, is now an AI automation analyst, responsible for creating more internal agents to deliver specific information to individual teams, while also spotting which manual or repetitive tasks across the company could be handled by AI.

"My role focuses on finding practical ways to use technology, automation, data and AI to improve how we operate," says Coventry-based Patel.

Graduates with this kind of AI expertise are also sought after by companies such as ArvatoConnect, an outsourced contact centre business.

Chief executive Debra Maxwell says the company’s usual graduate intake is paused this year, but she intends to restart it next year with a stronger emphasis on AI.

"We would be looking for more AI-disruptor type roles, where you can challenge us as an organisation to think more holistically about where AI can be applied and where we could grow our business from," says London-based Maxwell.

"We see our graduates as not filling administrative roles, but actually adding value to the organisation in a different way."

Maxwell adds: "For example, one of our recent graduates is using AI to do deep dives on specific markets, and provide more information for when we're bidding [for new contracts]. It's basically giving him a more rounded role."

Maxwell argues that if AI can make a graduate job broader and more central to the organisation, companies can build a more loyal, engaged workforce that can contribute more meaningfully much earlier.

Research from consultancy PwC found that some graduate roles are taking on more responsibility because of AI, as it enables companies to expect more senior capabilities from junior recruits.

It analysed 2.4 million entry-level jobs in the US. It found that the entry-level roles most affected by AI are now seven times more likely to require traditionally senior-level skills. These include motivational leadership, strategic decision making and team building.

PwC found that those entry-level roles with higher expectations have grown 35% since 2019, while other entry-level roles have shrunk by 10%.

Cian Clinton, who joined consultancy Valliance last September after graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 2024, says AI’s role in his job makes him feel less like a graduate and more like an equal member of the team. He uses about 10 AI agents every day for different tasks.

"Your ideas and your creativity are a lot more valued because you actually get to implement those firsthand, and the responsibility you take on is a lot greater because of that," says London-based Clinton, 23.

"I am now taking on responsibilities which would usually take me four or five years to get to."

He believes his career progression will now be faster as a result.

"AI is killing the 'pyramid' approach…progression is no longer based on your knowledge bank. Now it's more based on your critical thinking and understanding of the processes," says Clinton.

There is no question that Underwood, Patel and Clinton are gaining useful AI knowledge that can support them throughout their careers.

But with so much of their working time centred on AI, does it matter how much - or how little - time they are spending learning about the professional field they are meant to be working in?

Underwood says she would still like to learn the traditional PR skills her role is not currently focused on, but she is confident about her future in the agency’s expanding AI team.

"There's certain things that I haven't had the chance to do yet, like directly pitching to the media. I absolutely plan to do this," she says.

Graduates becoming too AI-focused is a concern for Simon Pratt, chief operating officer at Portman Finance Group. He says being able to use AI well is important, but the company’s two-year graduate programme is entirely centred on "learning the trade".

"Our graduates rotate across four areas at six-month intervals, working directly alongside senior relationship managers to learn their trade," Northampton-based Pratt explains.

"They'll learn all of our financial products, how to draft credit papers for submission to lenders, and how to build meaningful relationships with our customers. They'll progress to running transactions from start to finish."

Claire Reed, PwC UK’s chief technology and innovation officer, believes graduate roles that are too heavily focused on AI will not necessarily give graduates long-term career progression.

"There will be no graduate job now that doesn't require a baseline of AI literacy," says Glasgow-based Reed.

"But AI skills on their own are not going to help you in your career. You've got to couple that with that sector knowledge of what that client actually wants."

Back in Coventry, Dillan Patel is confident his AI work will remain valuable, and he wants to keep developing it.

"I don't think I'd want to explore different positions within the business. Through my involvement in AI-related projects, I already work closely with different areas of the business and I'm gaining valuable knowledge and experience along the way," he says.