Related question
How do we develop young talent when AI is doing the entry-level work?
Short answer
Deliberately, because it will not happen on its own anymore. Institutional knowledge and judgment develop over time through exposure. If you eliminate the people who are learning the business today, you will not have experienced managers and decision-makers in five years.
This is the quiet strategic risk inside the workforce conversation, and almost nobody is pricing it.
The path to senior capability has always run through entry-level work. Not because the tasks themselves were valuable, but because doing them was how someone absorbed how the business actually operates, who the customers are, where things go wrong, and what a good decision looks like under pressure. Automate the tasks and the learning path they carried disappears with them unless someone rebuilds it on purpose.
The management role that has been ignored is talent development. Professional judgment is not intuitive and it is not evenly distributed. There is an essential role for mentorship, where senior people consciously work with younger professionals to develop the durable skills. Putting young employees in meetings with clients, at conferences, and inside business development builds cross-functional capability that no training module produces.
Paired with genuine AI skill built through internal training, that combination is what takes a company to the next level. Companies cannot eliminate the people who are learning the business today and still expect to have experienced leaders tomorrow.