After years of cuts, tech giants reopen the door to juniors
AI-native talent is reshaping hiring strategies across the industry.
Last week, Marc Benioff, founder and CEO of Salesforce, announced on X that the company would launch a recruitment drive for 1,000 junior employees.
“We’re hiring 1,000 new grads & interns right now to ride the AI exponential. You are right they said AI would kill entry-level jobs. Meanwhile these grads & interns are building it.” He concluded by calling on students graduating in 2026 to submit their resumes.
As part of this initiative, dozens of students are expected to be recruited at Salesforce’s Israeli development center for software development and product management roles.
“For us, juniors are full partners on the journey,” said Einat Frish, Director of Tech Recruitment EMEA at Salesforce. “They bring a fresh perspective and the ability to learn quickly, which is critical to the pace of technological change today. We are looking for those who are not content to watch the revolution from the sidelines, but are already working alongside artificial intelligence and see learning as a continuous process beyond their degree.”
This hiring push comes at a time when the tech industry is experiencing one of its largest waves of layoffs in recent years. In March alone, 45,800 tech workers were laid off. That figure excludes additional layoffs announced in April by Oracle and Microsoft, which said it would offer voluntary retirement to 7% of its workforce and cancel hiring for approximately 6,000 open positions.
Altogether, more than 92,000 tech workers have been laid off so far this year, according to Layoffs.fyi. Data published in April showed that 13% of layoffs across all sectors in the U.S. were attributed to AI, compared to just 5% in 2025.
Junior employees have been among the hardest hit. They are often the first to be laid off and are increasingly excluded from new hiring plans. In recent years, tech companies have largely avoided hiring entry-level talent. Computer science graduates have found themselves sending out hundreds of resumes with little response.
A study by Bank of America found that since 2022, the unemployment rate among recent graduates has exceeded the general unemployment rate for the first time in decades. Yet, just as the door to high-tech appears to be closing for young professionals, a number of leading companies, including IBM, McKinsey & Company, and Salesforce, are betting on a new generation fluent in artificial intelligence.
The logic is straightforward: in a world where AI tools evolve weekly, those who grew up with them, students, interns, and recent graduates, may be best positioned to drive the next wave of innovation.
A study from Stanford University examining job exposure to AI found that the impact is uneven. Workers aged 22-25 in AI-exposed roles, such as software development and customer service, saw employment decline by 13% since late 2022. Meanwhile, workers aged 30 and above in the same roles experienced employment growth of 6%-13%.
The explanation is that AI increasingly replaces routine and repetitive tasks, which are typically assigned to junior employees. While the overall labor market impact remains limited, the study’s editor, Erik Brynjolfsson, later noted that “AI has made a significant contribution to the slowdown in hiring for entry-level positions.”
In Israel, the situation is particularly acute. According to the Portland Foundation, only 360 out of 6,500 graduates in relevant fields entered the high-tech sector last year. Data from the Israel Innovation Authority shows that just 10% of the 17,000 open tech positions were entry-level roles, and not all of them were based in Israel.
At the same time, Israeli companies are increasingly hiring abroad. The share of positions filled outside Israel rose from 25% to 52% last year, as companies sought to cut costs. Meanwhile, 38% of layoffs in Israeli high-tech since the start of the war have been among junior employees.
Still, announcements like Salesforce’s offer a rare sign of optimism, a potential reopening of a pathway that has largely been shut to young professionals.
Salesforce is not alone. In February, IBM announced plans to triple its hiring for entry-level roles in the U.S. by 2026. Dropbox expanded its internship program by 25%.
The concern for companies is long-term: if they eliminate entry-level hiring today, they risk a shortage of mid-level talent in the future.
“While the industry debates the future of junior roles, we are not only preserving them, we are putting them at the center of building our most advanced AI technologies,” Frish said.
In Israeli startups, the trend may already be shifting.
“We’re seeing a clear change in the talent profile,” said Yaniv Golan, managing partner at lool Ventures. “Traditional experience is no longer the entry ticket. Instead, we’re seeing a generation that is AI-native, people whose entire way of working is built around using AI as a force multiplier.”
According to Golan, these employees can perform tasks that once required entire teams. “They arrive without entrenched assumptions, with a low barrier to adopting new technologies, and with an ability to build products far more efficiently.”
At Lusha, the shift is already underway.
“This is a fundamental change, from a seniority-based system to a skills-based economy,” said Moran Yona-Metz, VP People & Culture. “Organizations will benefit, but it’s not an easy transition.”
She emphasized that the process is gradual. “We’re identifying employees, both experienced and junior, who are early adopters of AI. Eventually, we expect to hire more juniors. That will be the next step.”
One persistent challenge remains: while juniors may be highly skilled in AI tools, they often lack the experience to evaluate whether AI-generated outputs are reliable.
“It takes time to learn how to operate within an organization and manage projects,” Yona-Metz said. “That cannot be skipped. The solution isn’t replacing everyone with juniors, it’s creating the right balance between juniors, seniors, and experienced managers.”
