BCG, Bain and Alvarez to ramp up entry level hiring despite AI fears - City AM

Oh, brilliant. Just when you thought the consulting industry had finally embraced the AI efficiency dream — replacing swathes of junior analysts with algorithms, spreadsheets, and the occasional hallucinated slide — Bain & Co and Alvarez & Marsal announce they're ramping up 'graduate hiring' with 'triple-digit numbers' above pre-pandemic levels. Because nothing says 'we believe in the future of work' like hiring fresh-faced graduates to do the grunt work that large language models are already quite good at. Presumably, the plan is to have them shadow the AI, take notes, and one day inherit the privilege of fine-tuning the model that replaced their predecessors. A beautiful cycle of 'upskilling' disguised as job creation.

Alvarez & Marsal's UK boss, in a move that would make a PR consultant weep with joy, says they're 'stepping up junior hiring' despite the existential threat of AI. Why pay for synthetic data when you can get real, anxious, underpaid graduates to generate it for you? The pre-pandemic 'triple-digit numbers' Bain is targeting are, one assumes, a deliberate signal that they have not yet automated the art of making coffee and formatting PowerPoints. For now.

And let's not overlook the delightful irony: these same firms are probably selling 'AI transformation' services to their clients, advising them on how to cut headcount and 'optimise workflows'. Meanwhile, they hoover up entry-level staff like there's no tomorrow — because there isn't, for those graduates once the models mature. The message is clear: come for the CV line, stay until you are replaced by the very technology your employer is building. Standard operating procedure. Truly, the McKinsey playbook is now a genre. Cheers.