Mohamed Kande, global chairman of PwC, is challenging the prevailing narrative that artificial intelligence is destroying white-collar jobs. Speaking on CNBC's Squawk Box at the VivaTech conference in Paris on Thursday, Kande argued that companies deploying AI at scale are actually hiring more workers, not fewer. His reasoning is straightforward: firms that embrace the technology require additional employees to make the investment profitable.
This claim carries weight because Kande leads one of the Big Four accounting firms, placing him at the forefront of how AI is transforming the workplace. Moreover, many executives have spent the past two years predicting the opposite outcome.
The 'Superpowers' Pitch and the Value of Soft Skills
Kande's second point is optimistic. He contends that employees become more valuable as they use AI, which grants them what he calls superpowers. His advice for navigating the shift is not to learn prompt engineering but to focus on emotional intelligence, judgment, and collaboration—skills that machines still struggle to master. The natural conclusion: AI may not necessarily replace jobs, but it will reshape many roles.
This perspective is not entirely new. Several CEOs and AI leaders who once predicted widespread job losses have quietly shifted to discussing augmentation rather than replacement.
PwC's Billion-Job Barometer
The optimism is backed by data. PwC's 2026 Global Jobs Barometer, released this week, analyzed over a billion job advertisements worldwide. It found that headcount at the most AI-exposed companies grew 52% since 2018, compared to 36% at the least-exposed firms. Wages rose 24% versus 17%. PwC describes this as a widening two-tier workforce, where firms using AI to enhance staff are pulling away from those on the sidelines.
However, the positive headline masks a sharper story underneath, particularly affecting younger workers.
The Entry-Level Squeeze
Globally, entry-level roles highly exposed to AI have stagnated. PwC itself plans to cut US entry-level hiring by a third over the next three years, as reported by Business Insider in August. The roles that remain are being seniorised—AI-exposed junior jobs that require more than 10 traditionally senior skills grew 35% between 2019 and 2025, while comparable roles without that upgrade fell 10%.
Thus, the bar for a first job is rising rapidly, even as the nature of work evolves. Kande is acutely aware of the talent shortage. In November, he told the BBC that PwC is looking for hundreds and hundreds of engineers. We just cannot find them. In February, the firm's US arm launched its first dedicated engineering career track, a quiet acknowledgment that the AI era demands a different kind of recruit.
