IU study shows: AI is changing career entry – future skills are still not being developed sufficiently

• More than half of employees expect AI skills to become a prerequisite for career entry in future
• Many companies are still doing too little to develop future skills such as AI or critical thinking
• Many employees invest little or no time in AI training

Erfurt, 24 September 2026. Artificial intelligence is changing not only existing jobs, but also the way people enter working life – and it is doing so in two ways: on the one hand, AI can be an opportunity for a faster career entry; on the other, it is changing classic entry-level tasks. This is also shown by the representative study “AI in the workplace: How can the change succeed?” by IU International University of Applied Sciences, for which a total of 2,000 employees aged 16 to 65 were surveyed between 31 March and 14 April 2026. The sample is representative of the German labour market by age and gender.

Managers in particular see AI as an opportunity to move into more demanding tasks more quickly:

• 39.5 per cent of the employees surveyed somewhat or completely agree with the statement that “AI gives career entrants the opportunity to take on more demanding tasks more quickly”.
• Among managers, agreement is significantly higher, at 47.9 per cent, than among employees without management responsibility (36.8 per cent).

AI is changing classic entry-level tasks

However, the findings also reveal a downside:

• 41.3 per cent of employees somewhat or completely agree with the statement that “AI is taking over tasks that were previously typically carried out by career entrants.”
• Managers share this assessment more often, at 47.9 per cent, than employees without management responsibility (39.1 per cent).

“It’s a paradox. AI can both speed up and hinder career entry. On the one hand, it helps young employees to take on more challenging tasks more quickly. On the other hand, AI is eliminating precisely those routine tasks through which many people gained their initial professional experience, such as research or presentations forming part of consultancy assignments. This makes it all the more important not to overlook career entrants. They need the opportunity to gain practical experience while also developing their AI skills. This is also an investment in the next generation of skilled workers,” explains Prof. Dr. Anne Gfrerer, Professor of Business Informatics at IU International University of Applied Sciences and an academic expert on the study.

AI skills are becoming a basic requirement

When it comes to AI skills, a narrow majority of respondents are certain: “For career entrants, AI skills are becoming a basic requirement in many professional fields.” Overall, 54.9 per cent of employees somewhat or completely agree with this. Managers share this assessment far more often, at 65.6 per cent, than employees without management responsibility (51.5 per cent).

Overall, 41.3 per cent of employees in each case assume that skills such as prompting or the critical evaluation of AI results will become more important in future. There are clear differences here between managers and employees without management responsibility:

• 51.2 per cent of managers expect prompting to become more important in future, while the figure among employees without management responsibility is 38.1 per cent.

A similar picture emerges for the critical evaluation of AI results:

• Here, 49.6 per cent of managers expect this skill to gain in importance, compared with 38.6 per cent of employees without management responsibility.
• At the same time, employees without management responsibility are far more likely than managers to be unable to assess the future importance of these skills.

“The fact that many employees are not yet able to fully assess the importance of these skills shows that companies need to communicate more clearly the skills and working methods that will be in demand in the future. This is the only way employees can prepare specifically for change,” says Prof. Dr. Philipp Diebold, Professor of Business Informatics at IU International University of Applied Sciences and managing director of a consultancy firm.

Hardly any time for AI training

Yet it is precisely this communication that is lacking in many places: 43.9 per cent of employees in Germany had used no working time at all for AI training in the past 12 months (at the time of the survey).

• Almost half of them (47.4 per cent) explain this by saying that AI training is not necessary.
• Just under a quarter (24.0 per cent) state that their own company does not want them to do so, while a fifth (20.6 per cent) cite a lack of time as the reason.

A gap is also apparent when it comes to support from companies:

• According to employees, companies most frequently provide very strong or fairly strong support for training in specialist skills (51.6 per cent) and communication skills (46.0 per cent).
• Critical thinking – an important future skill from the experts’ point of view – is supported far less often (33.6 per cent, very strongly or fairly strongly).

“The current aim in companies is to use AI in a way that adds value. However, the results reveal a contradiction: many employees do not have the time to explore it, while at the same time AI is often not yet regarded as relevant or necessary. Yet AI is actually supposed to lighten the workload, boost efficiency and save time. Instead, it initially ties up resources – particularly when it is simply added on top, instead of existing working methods being adapted to it. This raises the question of whether the current approach is the right one, or whether a targeted change in working methods is needed to create the basis for truly productive use of AI,” says Diebold.

Despite the gaps in training, employees are confident: 81.6 per cent are sure they can acquire new skills on their own.

About the study

The study “AI in the workplace: How can the change succeed?” by IU International University of Applied Sciences examines how artificial intelligence is changing the world of work in Germany and what role leadership and change management play in this. A total of 2,000 employees in Germany aged 16 to 65 were surveyed for the study. The sample is representative of the German labour market by age and gender. The survey was conducted between 31 March and 14 April 2026 (panel: Horizoom).

The full study is available at: www.iu.de/en/research/studies/ai-and-workplace/

AI and Job Readiness at IU

With the Job Readiness Framework (JRF), IU International University of Applied Sciences has developed its own framework to prepare future career entrants specifically for an AI-shaped labour market. The framework combines specialist knowledge, professional competence and the reflective use of artificial intelligence. A five-level competence model makes AI skills systematically measurable for the first time. Graduates can thus demonstrate that they use AI safely, strategically and responsibly in a work context – not merely as tool users, but as active shapers of work processes.

Interview requests

Prof. Dr. Gfrerer and Prof. Dr. Diebold are available for interviews. Please send enquiries to:

Press Office – IU International University of Applied Sciences
Email: presse@iu.org
Telephone: +49 (0)173/7426 113