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| | Brought to you by Alex Panas, global leader of industries, & Becca Coggins, global leader of functional practices and growth platforms
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| | | | Many leaders look back fondly at their first jobs, recalling the lessons and relationships that helped them develop in their careers. Their challenge now is to provide similar opportunities for others as agentic AI rapidly assumes many entry-level tasks and reshapes the workforce. This week, we look at how leaders can help early-career employees build expertise in the new AI-powered era of work. | | | |
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| | | Organizations are increasingly using AI agents to collect data, conduct research, draft documents, and handle other duties that traditionally help younger employees sharpen their skills and judgment. In turn, leaders should update how they design junior roles and support the next generation of talent, according to McKinsey’s Bryan Hancock and Charlotte Seiler. “Companies can use this transition to rethink entry-level work as a foundation for building expertise in an AI-enabled environment—equipping early-career employees to design, develop, and steer AI systems, not just operate within them,” the authors say. They recommend that leaders take a four-step approach: | | | | | Ensure that the best organizational knowledge is embedded in AI systems to help junior employees learn quickly and take on more complex work. | | | | | | | Design new apprenticeship models for entry-level roles, with both AI and human managers providing feedback and coaching. | | | | | | | Build continuous learning into workflows for junior employees. | | | | | | | Rethink hiring models to place greater emphasis on adaptability over narrow expertise. | | | | |
| | | | | | | That’s the share of employees who reported not participating in training in the previous 12 months, according to a survey of 5,500 workers across ten countries conducted for McKinsey’s HR Monitor 2026 report. In addition, more than half of employees reported receiving formal feedback on their work only once a year or not at all. “Many organizations are placing renewed emphasis on measurable performance and systematic capability building. However, this ambition is not yet reflected in practice,” say McKinsey’s Julian Kirchherr, Karel Eloot, Sandra Durth, Ulf Schrader, Vincent Bérubé, and their coauthors.
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| | | “Many organizations struggle not because they lack strong talent or advanced AI tools, but because they fail to integrate them into coherent systems.” | | | McKinsey’s Bengi Korkmaz, Sandra Durth, Vincent Bérubé, and Lucia Darino observe that leaders must reimagine their strategies for linking talent to value creation in the AI age. Top companies are beginning to adopt more flexible operating models that continuously reassess how they can create value and redeploy the right people and agents to the most important opportunities. This approach requires leaders to boost their AI literacy, challenge traditional ways of thinking, and commit to rigorously managing the performance of coordinated human–agent systems.
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| AI is accelerating Standard Chartered’s efforts to refocus its talent development on skills rather than jobs, says Tanuj Kapilashrami, the global bank’s chief strategy and talent officer. “It has become very clear that the adoption of AI at scale is not going to be a tech challenge—it’s a skills, leadership, and culture challenge,” she says in an interview with McKinsey’s Brant Carson and Ishaan Seth. As part of this effort, Standard Chartered launched an internal talent marketplace to help employees stretch their capabilities. Anyone at the bank can post a “gig” online or offer their skills to do the work. About 12,500 employees signed up for a gig in the first year, and those who have participated in the program have much higher retention and engagement rates. “If they do well, they can pivot into a completely different line of work. It’s about learning and growth and having career longevity—and not being stuck in a narrow definition of what you’ve been doing,” Kapilashrami says.
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| Increased AI adoption is making some employees feel anxious and disconnected, but it also creates new opportunities for leaders to unlock the power of humanity. As AI agents assume more administrative, analytical, and coordination tasks, leaders can help their teams focus on cultivating distinctive human skills that will matter most to how work is done in the future. “Enduring advantage will increasingly come from socioemotional and cognitive capabilities such as judgment, empathy, decision-making, and systems thinking—all areas where humans complement, rather than compete with, machines,” says McKinsey’s Sandra Durth. Companies that are finding early success in adopting AI are intentionally redesigning workflows so people and agents can reinforce each other’s strengths, rather than treating human input as an afterthought. As Durth notes: “Technology alone does not transform work—people do.” | | | Lead by transforming talent development in the AI age. | | | | | —Edited by Eric Quiñones, senior editor, New Jersey
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| | | | | Explore McKinsey’s annual book recommendations—a curated collection of nearly 100 thought-provoking titles to inspire fresh ideas and new perspectives. | | Browse the collection  | | | |
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