Early Careers President Emma Mulligan, Senior Consultant at Rooted Environmental, analyses if AI is a threat to or opportunity for early careers in the waste and resources sector.
Across the waste and resources sector, artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being adopted to improve productivity, automate routine tasks, and support better decision-making.
While these developments offer significant opportunities for organisations, they also raise an important question for graduates and early career professionals: if AI can complete many of the tasks traditionally carried out by entry-level employees, will there be fewer graduate and early career roles in the future?
By now, most of us have heard of AI, and it is becoming an increasingly familiar part of everyday life, both at work and at home.
For some, AI represents a transformative technology with the potential to revolutionise how we live and work. For others, its growing presence raises concerns about job displacement and the future role of people in the workplace.
In my own professional experience, AI is actively promoted as a tool to improve productivity and efficiency, and I have only really begun to scratch the surface of what it can do.
So far, I have used AI to help develop formulas for models, summarise findings, and quickly identify key information, saving valuable time.
Beyond my direct experience, I understand that AI is also being adopted more widely across the waste and resources sector to support activities such as customer service, route optimisation, data analysis, and operational efficiency improvements.
Having entered the sector as a Graduate Waste Consultant in 2019, I often reflect on the work I was doing at the time, and I must admit that a significant amount could now be completed, or at least supported, by AI.
Tasks such as reviewing large volumes of information, conducting basic research, and analysing data can often be completed much more quickly using AI-powered tools than was possible just a few years ago.
As these technologies become more capable and widely adopted, it’s reasonable to ask whether organisations will continue to recruit the same number of graduates and early career professionals, or whether some of these roles could be reduced altogether.
This trend is reflected in recent findings from the Graduate Market in 2026 report by High Fliers Research, which shows that graduate recruitment at the UK’s top 100 employers has declined by 24.5% since 2022, equating to almost a quarter fewer graduate opportunities than were available just three years earlier.
Employers also anticipate a further 0.5% reduction in recruitment in 2026, taking graduate hiring to its lowest level since 2012.
While the report does not identify AI as the sole cause of the decline in graduate recruitment opportunities – it also references economic uncertainty linked to political changes – notably, this recent contraction is greater than that experienced during both the Covid-19 pandemic, when graduate vacancies fell by 12.3%, and the 2008-09 financial crisis, when vacancies decreased by 23.3%.
This suggests that other factors, such as the increasing adoption of AI, may be influencing employer demand for graduates and early careers.
This marks a stark contrast with the graduate job market when I entered the sector in 2019. At that time, graduate recruitment was growing, with leading employers planning to increase graduate vacancies by 9.1%, the largest annual expansion since 2010.
This followed a 4.3% increase in graduate hiring during 2018, reflecting a significantly more positive recruitment environment for those starting their careers.
A further consideration is the potential long-term impact on the future workforce pipeline. If organisations recruit fewer graduates and early career professionals today, will there also be fewer people available to progress into senior and leadership roles in the future?
While AI may help improve efficiency in the short term, there is a risk that reducing investment in early career talent could create unintended workforce challenges years later. After all, if fewer people are given the opportunity to begin their careers in the sector, there will inevitably be fewer people available to lead it in the future.
The use of AI is also beginning to influence graduate and early careers recruitment. Many applications are now likely to be screened by AI before they ever reach a hiring manager, and some organisations are using AI-powered interview tools as part of their selection process.
Candidates are often being asked questions by AI bots or being required to record video responses rather than speaking directly with an interviewer. It’s a very different experience from when I entered the sector, where I had the opportunity to have conversations with real people throughout the recruitment process.
On the other hand, there are also benefits associated with the growing use of AI. In recruitment, AI can help reduce the influence of individual recruiter bias by applying consistent screening criteria across all applications.
It can also process applications much faster than traditional manual reviews, potentially enabling candidates to receive updates, interview invitations, and hiring decisions more quickly.
Additionally, if used effectively, AI can act as a learning and productivity tool, enabling employees to complete tasks more efficiently and build their confidence in new areas of work.
Contrary to my point discussed earlier, by reducing the time spent on routine or administrative tasks, AI may allow graduates to gain exposure to more complex, strategic, and impactful work earlier in their careers, potentially improving both motivation and retention.
However, there is the potential risk that graduates and early career professionals become overly reliant on AI to complete tasks without fully developing the knowledge and skills those tasks were traditionally designed to teach.
Furthermore, AI may even create more jobs. Throughout history, technological change has often transformed jobs rather than eliminated them entirely, creating demand for new skills and ways of working.
In the waste and resources sector, AI could increase the need for professionals who can interpret complex data, oversee AI-driven systems, make strategic decisions, and translate technical insights into practical solutions.
AI may also open up entirely new career pathways that do not yet exist at scale, particularly in areas such as digital transformation, data analytics, resource efficiency, and smart waste management.
This presents an opportunity for graduates and early career professionals to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive job market. Those who develop strong AI literacy and learn how to use these tools effectively and responsibly may be able to provide valuable skills to employers.
But what do you think? Is AI a challenge, an opportunity, or perhaps a bit of both for graduate and early career professionals?
As the CIWM Early Careers President, I am particularly keen to understand what is happening in practice to help build a clearer picture of AI’s impact on early careers in the waste and resources sector.
I’d be really interested to hear views and experiences from professionals across the sector, and I’m particularly keen to hear from graduates and early career professionals themselves. That’s why I would be grateful if you could take a few moments to complete the survey and share your thoughts using the link below.
The insights collected will help identify emerging trends, opportunities and challenges, and inform future discussions within the CIWM Early Careers community about how we can best support those entering the sector.