Mending the broken rung: why AI and junior jobs are a global test of our values

Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong Shyun Tsai’s recent reflections on artificial intelligence deserve attention far beyond Singapore. He spoke candidly about using agentic AI and even playing guitar with AI “like a band,” yet his most important message was a warning: AI should not erode human thinking but should enable a better society.

That framing is both hopeful and demanding. It asks us not to fear technology, but to govern it with purpose.

The broken rung is not Hong Kong’s problem alone

The purpose is urgent because of a looming challenge. As AI replaces routine work, the “bottom rung of the career ladder” may break. Entry-level jobs have long been where young people learn the tacit knowledge of a profession – how to read a room, how to handle a difficult client, how to make judgment calls that no manual can teach. If those roles disappear, the pipeline for future talent may dry up.

This is not simply a Hong Kong problem. It is a global problem, felt in London, New York, Tokyo, and Singapore alike. Every economy that relies on junior positions as training ground must now ask how to preserve the learning that comes from doing.

The answer cannot be to cling to jobs that no longer need to exist. It must be to protect the human capacity to learn, adapt, and contribute. Wong’s warning is therefore not a prophecy of doom but a call to redesign the early career. If the first rung is missing, we must build a new one – one that combines AI tools with human mentorship, structured training, and real responsibility. That is how we keep the ladder intact for the next generation.

Saving people, not jobs, through collaboration

The optimistic path begins with a shift in mindset. The aim, as Wong put it, is to “save the people, not save the job.”

Jobs will change and some will vanish, but people can be equipped to adapt. Employers must therefore be far more deliberate about training and mentoring. They cannot assume that graduates arrive ready-made. They must build mentorship into the workflow, even when AI handles the routine tasks. Wong suggested that upskilling workers will take about 10 years, not 30, by referencing people switching from steam to electricity during Industrial Revolution. That is a call for urgency, not complacency. It means treating human development as a core business investment, not a charitable extra.

No single sector can meet this challenge alone. Businesses must open their doors to apprentices and junior staff, ensuring that AI augments rather than replaces the human apprenticeship. Governments must create the scaffolding for lifelong learning, from portable skills credits to safety nets for mid-career transitions. Academia must become a lifelong partner, offering modular, stackable credentials and teaching the critical thinking and adaptability that machines cannot replicate. When these three forces align, the broken rung can be repaired. The goal is not to protect obsolete roles, but to protect the human capacity to grow.

Overseas examples show that this is possible. Singapore’s SkillsFuture program gives citizens lifelong learning credits and a national framework for reskilling, making upskilling a shared responsibility. Germany and Switzerland have long used strong apprenticeship models to blend classroom learning with paid, mentored work. These countries are now adapting those models to the AI age, insisting that human mentorship remains even when automation increases. Hong Kong and other global hubs can learn from these examples without copying them wholesale.

The principle is what matters: collaboration across business, academia, and government to build resilience in people, not just efficiency in machines.

The challenge of AI taking junior positions is therefore not a reason for pessimism. It is a reason for coordinated action. If we follow Wong’s lead – embracing AI as a tool for a better society rather than an AI-driven one – we can rebuild the career ladder from the bottom up. We can ensure that young people still receive the tacit learning that turns potential into expertise. We can save the people, not the job. And we can do it by working together across every front, so that the AI revolution lifts the next generation rather than leaving them behind.

𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽 ↓