PwC to Cut 30% of Entry-Level Roles Amid AI Wave — Implications for Consulting Careers

A headline stirring anxiety among international students and accounting hopefuls: PwC has announced it will slash nearly one-third of its U.S. entry-level roles by 2028, signaling a seismic shift across the once-unassailable Big Four accounting firms.

In the 2025 fiscal year, PwC hired around 3,242 new tax assistant roles. But internal forecasts project this number will fall to just 2,197 by 2028 — a 32% drop. Audit roles are hit even harder: of the 1,676 hires made this year, the firm plans to eliminate 661 slots, nearly 39%. The rationale? Technological disruption, AI taking on basic tasks, and historically low attrition rates. Business Insider+1

PwC is not alone. In recent months the firm has already laid off roughly 1,500 U.S.-based employees — about 2% of its workforce — primarily in audit and tax. Reuters

So why is this happening? Below is a synthesis of motivations drawn from the soft sell article’s insights and actual industry data:

Key Drivers Behind the Shift

1. AI Replacing Entry-Level Functions

Many entry-level tasks in auditing, tax and assurance are routine, rules-based, and thus increasingly automatable. Firms are offloading such work to AI and automation, choosing to reserve human resources for tasks demanding judgment and strategy.

2. Low Turnover Reduces Replacement Needs

After a period of aggressive hiring, combined with record low voluntary departures, firms are simply holding onto existing talent rather than replenishing with large cohorts of fresh graduates.

3. Weak Demand for Big Projects

Economic slowdown, shrinking advisory budgets, and reductions in government contracts have squeezed pipelines for consulting engagements — projects that traditionally fueled hiring at Big Four firms.

4. Offshoring and Outsourcing

PwC has shifted many base-level tasks to offshore centers in India, the Philippines, and Argentina. As these capabilities grow, there is less need to staff equivalent roles domestically.

As one soft article put it: if this trend continues, “Next Four” firms might leapfrog the Big Four in influence and scale.

New Opportunities: Data / AI / Advanced Skills Roles

While entry-level positions are being squeezed, demand is rising for talent with backgrounds in data science, AI, automation, and digital transformation. Just two months ago, Meta spent a staggering $200 million to lure a Chinese AI expert away from Apple, setting a new industry poaching record. The total compensation package even surpassed that of Apple CEO Tim Cook, as well as NBA players LeBron James and Stephen Curry.

So far, Meta has recruited over 50 core members from OpenAI, xAI, Google, and Anthropic — including at least 13 AI specialists from Google, 3 engineers from Apple, 3 staff from xAI, and 2 scientists from Anthropic — with the top compensation packages reaching as high as $200 million.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has also been on a hiring spree. Recently, he directly recruited Banghua Zhu (Tsinghua University undergraduate, PhD from UC Berkeley, specializing in generative AI and multimodal models, now joining NVIDIA as a Principal Research Scientist) and Jianta o Jiao (Tsinghua University undergraduate, PhD from Stanford, currently an assistant professor at UC Berkeley and member of its AI research lab), two rising stars in the Chinese AI research community.