Salesforce has launched a new Builder Program within its university recruitment initiative to fast-track recent grads into engineering, product, and sales roles focused on Agentforce, its proprietary AI agent system. The company said it has hired more than 10,000 professionals through its university recruitment program to date.
According to a recent LinkedIn report, entry-level hiring is down 6% year over year. Some major CEOs bet that AI will cause job displacement and disrupt careers, especially for entry-level candidates.
But Salesforce hopes to alleviate some of those bleak stats for new grads—at least in the name of AI.
“The AI-native generation entering the workforce today isn’t threatened by AI,” the company’s chief people officer, Nathalie Scardino, said in the announcement. “They’re the ones building it. Businesses can’t afford to wait for their workforce to catch up to AI. That’s why we’re betting on Builders now—to redesign how we work and redefine our business from the inside out.”
Recent graduates have faced a brutal job market. They’re applying to more jobs among fiercer competition, and settling for roles they feel overqualified for. According to a recent study by ZipRecruiter, many feel like AI itself is to blame for the situation: Nearly half (47%) of the recent grads surveyed said that artificial intelligence has impacted their field.
Still, it’s clear that Salesforce believes grads with AI fluency are the future of work—and will be the ones to get a spot at the table. With the new grad hire announcement, the company also launched its “Emerging Talent Playbook,” a guide meant to help other businesses bolster their own workforce with employees who are skilled with AI.
