PI Experts Expect Entry-Level Gap to Hit Leadership

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Two specialists at The Predictive Index (PI) expect AI fatigue, closer scrutiny of hiring tools and a shortage of future leaders to shape workplaces in 2027. Anthony Belluccia, an industrial-organisational psychologist, and Matt Poepsel, the firm's vice president of talent optimisation, made the forecasts, HRD America reports. Both argue that the next phase of AI at work depends less on the tools than on how people respond to them.

Belluccia says people already scan for signs of AI before they read what is in front of them. In 2027, he predicts, colleagues and managers will start to trust work with noticeable mistakes more than work that looks perfect. He points to research on "workslop", AI-generated work that looks finished but does not move a task forward. In a September 2025 survey of 1,150 full-time US desk workers by BetterUp Labs and the Stanford Social Media Lab, 42 per cent said they saw colleagues who sent workslop as less trustworthy.

Hiring: relevance and proof

Belluccia expects candidates to accept AI in recruitment as long as every step ties back to the job they are applying for. He cites the Greenhouse 2026 Candidate AI Interview Report, which surveyed 2,950 active job seekers in the US, UK, Ireland, Germany and Australia. Only 19 per cent wanted less AI in hiring. He also expects job descriptions to become documents updated weekly. The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 found employers expect 39 per cent of workers' core skills to change by 2030.

Poepsel predicts that 2027 is the year HR starts checking the receipts on the AI tools it uses to hire, promote and evaluate people. He says teams will ask vendors for proof that the tools work as promised and do not discriminate, and does not expect many vendors to have a satisfying answer. The return on AI in recruitment is already in question: the 2026 ELMO benchmark found it takes 25 days to fill a role, up from 20 days in 2025.

Poepsel also describes a 2024 case in which an HR software company announced it would give AI agents employee records, then reversed course three days later after public backlash. The description matches Lattice, the San Francisco platform that dropped its "digital workers" plan in July 2024.

He also says people resist AI when they do not feel safe. Some push back openly, others quietly stop using the tools, work around them or feed them bad data. Managers who cannot see the difference, he warns, will mistake silence for acceptance.

Agents, titles and the first rung

Poepsel is sceptical of AI agents built with personalities. In his view most are designed to give users what they want, producing a "silicon sycophant" that agrees with everything. He is equally doubtful about the chief AI officer role, which he expects board pressure to multiply in 2027. "Title proliferation isn't transformation," he said.

His starkest prediction concerns succession. He cites an August 2025 Stanford Digital Economy Lab working paper by Erik Brynjolfsson, Bharat Chandar and Ruyu Chen. Using ADP payroll data, the researchers found a 13 per cent relative decline in employment since late 2022 among 22- to 25-year-olds in the most AI-exposed occupations.

"Entry-level jobs are where people learn a company's business, customers and history," Poepsel said. He argues that the fix is not overhiring but hiring entry-level people for the drives that help them learn fast, and reinvesting part of what AI saves into developing them.

Source: HRD America