PwC is trimming its graduate intake, cutting 200 entry-level positions in the U.K. as artificial intelligence and weak productivity growth reshape the workplace.

The decision reflects growing strain on Gen Z graduates, who now face far tougher conditions launching their careers than their predecessors did.

The firm’s U.K. chief, Marco Amitrano, admitted that graduate hiring is “under pressure,” with technology advances and volatile global markets weighing heavily on entry-level opportunities. PwC’s cut reduces this year’s intake to 1,300 from 1,500. For Amitrano, the shift feels personal: he began his own career more than three decades ago in an entry-level PwC role. But today’s landscape, he noted, is far less forgiving for young job seekers.

“AI is reshaping roles, global markets remain volatile, and graduate intakes everywhere are under pressure,” Amitrano wrote in a recent LinkedIn post.

In an op-ed for The Times, quoted by Fortune, he added: “Innovation in AI is certainly reshaping roles. For now, the development of new tools and the parallel investment in skills are offsetting more serious disruption. Yet this balance may not last forever. Our research shows that job postings for AI-exposed occupations are growing at a slower pace compared to those with lower exposure—and this gap is widening.”

The pullback underscores a deeper tension within the U.K. economy. Despite promises that higher education would pave the way to stable, well-paying jobs, graduates are now struggling even to secure interviews. Entry-level hiring, once the gateway for young people into professional services, is shrinking rapidly.

The trend is accelerating across companies. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in June that AI will reduce the company’s corporate workforce in the coming years, while Salesforce’s Marc Benioff has already credited AI with allowing him to cut 4,000 jobs, reducing his support team from 9,000 staff to about 5,000.

“I need less heads,” Benioff said on The Logan Bartlett Show.

Yet, even as AI is heralded as a tool for turbocharging efficiency, the productivity gains have not yet materialized. MIT research found that 95% of AI pilots are failing. For the U.K., where productivity growth has slumped to Victorian-era levels, this is a particularly sobering reality. Amitrano himself cited weak productivity as the single biggest contributor behind lower graduate intakes at PwC this year.

“Right now, many businesses—both domestic and international—are watching and waiting,” he wrote. “Activity is improving, but it’s still far removed from the levels of investment, hiring and deal-making that we saw immediately after the pandemic.”

The cuts may extend beyond the U.K. According to documents obtained by Business Insider, PwC plans to reduce entry-level hiring in the U.S. by almost a third over the next three years. That trajectory, if mirrored across industries, risks swelling the number of NEETs—young people not in employment, education, or training—already estimated at 4 million.

Still, the AI reshuffle is not universally accepted as the endgame. Some firms are reassessing after leaning too heavily on automation. Klarna, the Swedish payments company, began rehiring humans after AI-led cuts proved counterproductive.

“As cost unfortunately seems to have been a too predominant evaluation factor when organizing this, what you end up having is lower quality,” CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski admitted in May. “Really investing in the quality of the human support is the way of the future for us.”

A Rebalanced Workforce and A Broken Ladder for Graduates

Under circumstances where AI adoption matures and companies like PwC strike the right balance between automation and human talent, analysts believe that entry-level hiring could rebound within five years. Under this scenario, firms are expected to use AI primarily to handle repetitive tasks while investing heavily in graduate training programs. That would give Gen Z graduates opportunities to work alongside AI systems rather than be displaced by them. Productivity is expected to rise more sustainably, restoring growth in hiring pipelines across professional services.

The darker scenario sees AI adoption continue to squeeze entry-level roles, with hiring freezes spreading across sectors. Analysts note that PwC’s planned U.S. cuts by nearly a third would serve as a template for the rest of the Big Four, and other industries could follow suit. This means graduates would face shrinking opportunities, swelling the ranks of NEETs already estimated at 4 million. With 95% of AI pilots still failing to deliver, the paradox would be that companies might cut humans before AI systems are truly ready to replace them, leaving productivity stagnant and a generation sidelined.

However, the outcome is still uncertain. Currently, PwC is watching productivity numbers and waiting for clearer signs of recovery. But for graduates entering the workforce, the unfavorable message is that the traditional ladder into professional careers may no longer be there when they reach for it.

One of the most consequential responsibilities of any Board is choosing a CEO. And for any CEO, the most important task is to discover and execute the business model of the firm. A business model is the logic of the company—the operating formula that explains how value is created, delivered, and most critically, captured.

This is not a mere academic point. Years ago, in a Harvard Business Review piece, I challenged companies with a simple question: as you serve your customers, are you also capturing value for yourself? Because if you don’t, you will fade. Skype delivered immense value to users, but it could not capture value for itself—and it was eventually eclipsed.

That lesson comes alive again with the latest news: Microsoft is partnering with Anthropic. Yes, the same Microsoft that has invested heavily in OpenAI and ChatGPT is now also integrating Anthropic’s Claude models into Office 365 products—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook—the productivity engines of hundreds of millions of people.

What is going on here? Strategy. The Microsoft CEO operates on a simple principle: frenemies are fine, as long as value is created and captured. When his predecessors refused to open Microsoft to Android and iOS, he came and made peace with competitors. That move unlocked access, widened Microsoft’s ecosystem, and transformed the company’s fortunes—from suv-$400 billion in market cap to $1 trillion in six years, and nearly $4 trillion today.

And now, that same business mindset is being applied to artificial intelligence: anywhere there is value, Microsoft will be there.

In the Igbo Nation, we say “Uwa bu ahia” – the world is a marketplace. For Microsoft, there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent opportunities to do business. Because in business, you do not win by subtraction—you win by additions.

(I will expand on this in the next edition of Tekedia Mini-MBA, under the module Grand Playbook of Business & Business Models. Class begins on Monday; you can join here )

Microsoft is broadening its artificial intelligence portfolio, agreeing to pay Anthropic for the use of its models in Office 365 apps, according to a report by The Information.

The move marks the first time the software giant is integrating Anthropic’s Claude models with OpenAI’s GPT technology across products such as Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint—apps that serve hundreds of millions of users globally.

The decision highlights both opportunity and tension in Microsoft’s AI strategy. For years, the company has leaned almost exclusively on OpenAI, into which it has invested more than $13 billion, securing a head start in the AI race. But developers found that Anthropic’s latest Claude Sonnet 4 model outperformed OpenAI’s GPT-5 in specific enterprise use cases, such as automating complex Excel financial functions or generating more visually polished PowerPoint presentations.

Microsoft will pay Amazon Web Services to access Anthropic’s models, a noteworthy arrangement given AWS is one of Anthropic’s largest shareholders and a direct competitor in the cloud market. Neither Anthropic nor OpenAI responded to requests for comment, while AWS declined to comment. Microsoft stressed it remains committed to OpenAI.

“As we’ve said, OpenAI will continue to be our partner on frontier models and we remain committed to our long-term partnership,” a spokesperson said.

The company said the price of AI features within Office 365 will remain unchanged despite the expanded technology stack. An official announcement is expected in the coming weeks.

A Web of Partnerships and Rivalries

The deal underscores how alliances in the AI sector are increasingly fluid. OpenAI itself has diversified beyond Microsoft, using CoreWeave, Google, and Oracle to meet surging demand for its models. Its ChatGPT assistant now reaches about 700 million people weekly, adding pressure on Microsoft to keep pace.

Microsoft, for its part, has acknowledged the competitive undertones. In its most recent annual report, the company listed OpenAI as a competitor for the first time—placing it alongside Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta.

At the same time, Microsoft is investing in homegrown models. In late August, it began public testing of MAI-1-preview, an in-house AI model being evaluated on the benchmarking site LMArena. The company described the test as an early step toward enhancing its Copilot assistant for consumer use.

“We will be rolling MAI-1-preview out for certain text use cases within Copilot over the coming weeks to learn and improve from user feedback,” Microsoft said in a blog post.

The move complements Microsoft’s existing partnership work. At its Build 2025 developer conference, the company and GitHub announced they had joined the steering committee for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard pioneered by Anthropic that allows AI systems to better connect with external tools and data.

Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft’s AI unit, struck an ambitious note. “We have big ambitions for where we go next—model advancements, an exciting roadmap of compute, and the chance to reach billions of people through Microsoft’s products,” he said in a post on X.

For now, Microsoft finds itself walking a delicate line that involves deepening its commitment to OpenAI while diversifying with Anthropic, investing in its own models, and leveraging standards like MCP.

China’s robotics sector is preparing for another defining moment as Unitree Robotics, one of the country’s most high-profile startups, advances plans for an initial public offering (IPO) that could value the company at as much as 50 billion yuan ($7 billion), according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters.

If realized, the listing would mark one of the largest onshore technology offerings in years, underscoring Beijing’s growing reliance on domestic champions to drive innovation and maintain competitiveness in the global tech race.

The Hangzhou-based company first captivated the public imagination when it released a series of viral videos showcasing robots with startlingly human-like abilities—walking, climbing, and carrying loads. Those displays turned Unitree into a household name, but the company’s ambitions extend far beyond internet fame. Under founder Wang Xingxing, Unitree has rapidly positioned itself at the center of China’s robotics push, gaining recognition not only from the public but also from policymakers.

In February, Wang was among a select group of executives—including leaders from AI startup DeepSeek—who met with President Xi Jinping in a rare high-level meeting seen as a signal of the government’s recalibrated approach to the technology sector.

That meeting came against the backdrop of China’s multibillion-dollar drive into robotics, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence—an investment surge aimed at countering the effects of an aging population while maintaining parity with the United States in advanced technologies. Beijing has been keen to ensure that startups like Unitree and DeepSeek are not only funded but also able to tap domestic capital markets.

Unitree confirmed last week on its official X account that it was actively preparing for an IPO and expected to submit application documents in the fourth quarter of this year. The company did not disclose a timeline or fundraising target. However, sources noted that in China, a company with a valuation of around 50 billion yuan is typically expected to float at least 10% of its shares, suggesting a significant offering. Still, the IPO process remains in its early stages, and the final size and valuation will depend heavily on market conditions.

For China’s markets, the deal would be a milestone. Domestic IPO activity is slowly recovering after nearly two years of regulatory crackdowns and stock market volatility. So far this year, onshore IPO proceeds have totaled $7 billion, up 40% year-on-year, but still well below the tens of billions seen between 2020 and 2023, according to LSEG data. Analysts argue that a high-profile offering from Unitree could inject much-needed momentum into a cautious market, while also bolstering China’s self-sufficiency drive by keeping “unicorns” valued at over $1 billion listed at home.

However, despite the excitement around the reported valuation, Unitree has pushed back. “The reported $7 billion IPO valuation is untrue,” a company spokesperson said on Tuesday, without elaborating further.

Even so, investor appetite appears strong. Unitree has attracted more than 30 investors, according to Chinese corporate registry filings. In June, it secured fresh backing from some of the country’s biggest names, including Alibaba, Tencent, and automaker Geely Holding Group. While Geely confirmed its participation in that round, it declined to comment on IPO plans. Alibaba and Tencent did not respond to requests for comment.

Some in the industry believe that if Unitree does list on Shanghai’s STAR Market, as sources suggest, it would serve as an important litmus test of investor sentiment toward humanoid robotics—a frontier industry that Beijing is heavily promoting through subsidies and favorable policies. Unitree, already profitable, is seen as a frontrunner thanks to China’s self-sufficient manufacturing supply chains and robust government support. One source noted that the company’s proposed valuation represents a steep jump from its last fundraising round in July, when it was valued at 12 billion yuan.

Founded in 2016, Unitree has grown into the country’s top robotics player by both production and sales, supplying universities with research equipment and turning its machines into familiar sights at entertainment and sporting events. After the June fundraising, Wang revealed that annual revenue had already surpassed 1 billion yuan, underscoring the commercial viability of its business model.

To prepare for its offering, Unitree entered the so-called IPO tutoring process in July, working with CITIC Securities as its guiding institution—a standard requirement for companies aiming to debut on China’s STAR Market.

The company’s journey from viral sensation to market heavyweight reflects more than just corporate ambition.  Many believe it illustrates Beijing’s new approach to technology as it seeks to support homegrown champions, keep capital flows onshore, and resist U.S. pressure in the intensifying trade and tech wars.