A senior executive in London’s financial sector has issued a stark warning about the state of graduate hiring, blaming AI-driven recruitment systems for creating a crisis for Gen Z. Quentin Nason, former managing director at Deutsche Bank and now vice chair of the London Foundation for Banking and Finance, described the current job market as broken for both employers and job seekers. In a widely shared LinkedIn post, Nason revealed that many students and recent graduates are applying to 150 or more roles with little to show for their efforts. He likened the process to a “meat grinder,” where AI-powered tools sift through thousands of applications before any human review occurs. These systems prioritize speed and volume over individual merit, leading to a situation where 5,000 candidates often compete for just five positions. The rise of AI has made applying to jobs nearly frictionless. Candidates use the same tools to generate polished CVs and cover letters in seconds, flooding the system with near-identical applications. While this reduces administrative burden for companies, it leaves graduates struggling to stand out in a sea of digitally optimized profiles. The emotional toll is profound. Nason emphasized that Gen Z, having followed the traditional path—attending university, taking on significant debt averaging £50,000 ($67,000), and working hard—now faces a system that offers little reward. Student loans, which accrue interest from day one, act like “PIK notes in disguise,” growing relentlessly and creating immense pressure to secure high-paying jobs in finance. Yet even that route is shrinking. AI is automating entry-level white-collar roles, reducing the number of positions available for new graduates. Major firms like PwC UK and Deloitte UK have cut back on hiring, while PwC US plans to reduce graduate recruitment by a third over the next three years. Nason drew a troubling parallel with Nepal, where youth frustration over unemployment and corruption led to violent protests and the collapse of government. While he doesn’t predict such upheaval in the UK, he warns that a generation exhausted by systemic failure could spark a different kind of revolt—one driven not by ideology but by despair. He argues that the social contract—where education leads to opportunity—is unraveling. AI, while promising in theory, may be accelerating this breakdown. While some tech leaders, including Sam Altman of OpenAI and Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn, believe Gen Z’s fluency with AI will make them the biggest beneficiaries of the next era, others see danger. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has warned that up to half of entry-level white-collar jobs could vanish within five years. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has acknowledged AI’s impact on graduate hiring, though he noted the full scale remains unclear. For now, the gap between optimism and reality remains wide. As Nason put it, “Something has to give, and soon.”