Employers Still Want MBAs – But 1 In 3 Are Replacing Entry-Level Roles With AI, GMAC Finds

Employers around the world remain confident in graduate business education and are still eager to hire its graduates – but for the first time, GMAC’s annual survey of corporate recruiters shows artificial intelligence beginning to eat into the entry-level roles that business school graduates have long counted on.

That is the dual message of the Graduate Management Admission Council’s 2026 Corporate Recruiters Survey, released today (June 25). Communication skills, problem-solving, and adaptability top the list of capabilities employers value most in today’s graduates, while skills using AI tools rank as the single most important ability employers expect to prize five years from now. It’s the second year in a row that AI has claimed the top future spot. 

At the same time, one in three employers report they have already replaced at least some entry-level positions with AI.

THREE YEARS, ONE THROUGHLINE

Poets&Quants has covered the Corporate Recruiters Survey for years, and the throughline is consistent: employer confidence in the degree keeps climbing even as the skills behind it shift. In 2024, GMAC’s poll of 931 recruiters in 38 countries found 92% planning to hire MBAs and confidence at post-pandemic highs. In 2025, a larger sample of 1,108 recruiters across 46 countries showed 90% planning to hire MBA talent, with AI fluency newly crowned the most important skill for the future.

This year’s edition is built on a much smaller base – 621 recruiters from 39 countries, 53% of them at Global Fortune 500 companies, compared with 64% a year ago. GMAC conducted the survey from January to May 2026 with partners EFMD and the Career Services and Employer Alliance, and weights global results by regional GDP. The smaller, less Fortune 500-heavy sample is worth keeping in mind when reading the year-over-year shifts below.

WHAT EMPLOYERS WANT NOW

Communication skills lead the current-skills ranking, cited by 64% of employers, followed by problem-solving at 62% and adaptability, which jumps to third at 60%. The sharpest mover is data analysis and interpretation, which climbs from 10th a year ago to fourth, surpassing strategic thinking as employers look for people who can make sense of AI-generated output.

AI itself remains more aspiration than requirement for today’s hires. Skills using AI tools rank just 14th among current priorities at 50%, up only two spots from 16th in 2025. The capability tops the five-year forecast, but for now employers treat it as a supporting skill rather than the defining one – and they are not convinced graduates have it. Alongside grit, emotional intelligence, and managing human capital, AI skills are among the few areas where fewer than half of employers call current graduates well prepared.

“The future belongs to professionals who can use emerging technology as a multiplier rather than view it as a competitive threat,” says Joy Jones, CEO of GMAC, in a news release accompanying the release of the report.

AI MOVES FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE ORG CHART

The starkest finding is in the hiring data. One in three employers globally – 33% – say they will replace at least some entry-level roles with AI. The cuts are most likely in tech (40%), manufacturing (36%), and consulting (25%). Asked what work AI is taking over, recruiters point to coding, data entry, and customer service.

GMAC frames the disruption as survivable, citing analyst projections that autonomous business will become a net job creator within two to three years. But the report is candid that the technology is already reshaping which doors are open to new grads, and that the durable human skills employers say they cannot replicate are exactly the ones they rate grads least prepared to demonstrate.

A PROFESSIONALISM PROBLEM THAT’S GETTING HARDER TO IGNORE

Employer confidence in the degree is, on paper, total: for the first time, 100% of recruiters express at least some confidence in graduate business education, up from 99% in 2025. But beneath that number is a statistically significant decline in the share who believe today’s graduates are as professional – defined as reliable, respectful, accountable, and professionally presented – as previous cohorts. That figure falls to 52% from 61% a year ago, the same 61% P&Q reported last summer.

The gap is uneven by employer. Nearly two-thirds of Fortune 500 recruiters say recent graduates match the professionalism of past classes, against just 43% at non-Fortune 500 companies – a reminder that the most sought-after employers may still be skimming the most polished talent, leaving graduates bound for smaller, private, nonprofit, or government roles to face more scrutiny. Regionally, employers in the Americas remain the least satisfied.

STARTING SALARIES SLIP, EVEN AS THE PREMIUM HOLDS

The release leans on a reassuring line, that MBAs still out-earn direct-from-industry hires, and business master’s graduates still out-earn bachelor’s holders. Yet GMAC shows projected U.S. starting salaries falling across every degree type for 2026.

The estimated median for MBAs drops to $120,000 from $125,000; non-MBA business master’s graduates to $82,500 from $92,500; bachelor’s hires to $72,000 from $75,000; and experienced industry candidates to $107,500 from $110,000. One caveat for year-to-year comparisons: GMAC has recalculated its 2025 figures to match this year’s analytical approach, so the prior-year numbers may not line up with those P&Q reported last summer. 

GMAC also notes the year-over-year changes are within the margin of error and could reflect sampling rather than a real decline, and that the dip lands against a backdrop of U.S. real wages trailing inflation. Still, the direction of travel runs counter to the upbeat framing – and in real terms, GMAC concedes, the erosion is sharper. 

CAMPUS RECRUITING KEEPS SHRINKING

For career services teams, the recruiting-channel data tell their own story. Over the past five years, employer participation in in-person university job fairs has fallen to 46% from 55%, with on-campus information sessions, interviews, and company-hosted networking events all sliding. 

Digital and partnership channels have held steadier – company websites tick up to 62%, social media sourcing to 46% – pointing offices toward where employer attention is actually moving.

GLOBAL TALENT GETS RE-ROUTED

The international picture continues to redraw itself. Four in five employers in Western Europe and Asia now say they will hire graduates who require additional legal documentation, including a 17-point jump among Western European recruiters since 2025. 

U.S. openness sits at just under one-third, 26 points below 2022. About one-third of U.S. employers tie their reduced stateside hiring of international talent directly to U.S. government policy, and a comparable share plan to expand hiring at their offices abroad instead – meaning international graduates may increasingly work for U.S. firms, only closer to home.

Read the full 2026 Corporate Recruiters Survey report here.

DON’T MISS STRONG MBA HIRING FORECAST IN NEW GMAC SURVEY OF RECRUITERS (2024) and EMPLOYERS ARE EAGER TO HIRE MBAs – ESPECIALLY THOSE WITH AI SKILLS (2025)

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