From pledge to practice: Pledge 1% and HEX turn company time into career readiness. Too many graduates enter the workforce with a qualification, but without a meaningful opportunity to prove what they can do in a real workplace. Practical experience remains difficult to access, unevenly distributed and impossible to provide at the necessary scale through traditional internships alone. For HEX, this challenge connects to a commitment made nearly a decade ago. Since then, HEX has moved from pledge to practice. Through official partnerships with Canva Foundation, Atlassian Foundation and Automation Anywhere, HEX has brought real business challenges and employee expertise into WorkSim experiences that help learners build confidence, capability and practical evidence of what they can do. Now, HEX and Pledge 1% are working together to help more companies do the same. From individual commitments to shared infrastructure. Pledge 1% is built on a simple idea: businesses can have a greater impact by leveraging all their assets for good. This collaboration brings that idea to one of the most urgent challenges facing young people: the widening distance between completing an education and feeling ready to contribute in a real workplace. For a movement powered by companies choosing to give something back, working with WorkSim, powered by HEX, sends an important signal. Closing the graduate experience gap should not be left to individual companies acting alone. It is worth building shared infrastructure around, so that more employers can contribute and more young people can benefit. A new collaboration. HEX and Pledge 1% are collaborating to connect Pledge 1% members with WorkSim, HEX's workplace simulation platform that gives learners authentic work experience before their first day on the job. Pledge 1% inspires, educates and empowers companies to use their assets for good by pledging 1% of their time, profit, product and/or equity. WorkSim converts one of those resources, employee time, into something young people urgently need and cannot access equitably at scale: meaningful exposure to how work actually works. Through the collaboration: * Pledge 1% community members will have the opportunity to volunteer their time and provide digital work experiences to WorkSim participants. * HEX, through WorkSim, will enable member employees to contribute authentic project ideas, industry expertise, mentoring, coaching and learner feedback. * Together, HEX and Pledge 1% will co-create the future of the workplace through a virtual learning experience for students from anywhere, while educational institutions can tap into student progress and results to continue supporting future employability preparation. "Company time is one of the most powerful resources businesses can contribute to their communities, but it can also be one of the hardest to activate meaningfully and at scale. WorkSim gives our members a structured way to share their expertise, support young people and help expand equitable access to career-building experiences." - Pledge 1% Why this matters for Pledge 1% members. Pledge 1% members want their commitments to create meaningful, measurable impact. WorkSim provides a structured, ready-built way to put employee time and expertise to work. Employees can participate directly in experiences that help young people understand and practise real work. Member employees may contribute by: * Co-designing authentic projects based on real business challenges * Sharing industry knowledge and professional insight * Mentoring and coaching learners * Providing feedback on project work * Helping learners understand workplace expectations * Supporting the development of skills needed for an AI-enabled future of work For participating companies, the time pledge becomes something tangible and repeatable: a practical way to support youth career readiness, engage employees and invest in the future talent pipelines their industries will eventually depend on. It contributes to the infrastructure young people need to transition from education into work. Building on a proven Foundation. This collaboration is not beginning with an untested idea. HEX has already created official WorkSim partnerships with Atlassian Foundation and Automation Anywhere (both existing members of Pledge 1%), demonstrating how companies can translate authentic business challenges and employee expertise into scalable learning experiences. The wider WorkSim ecosystem also includes RMIT University, Stone & Chalk and a growing network of universities, government agencies and industry partners. Together, these organisations are responding to the same underlying challenge: AI is reshaping early-career work, employers increasingly expect evidence of practical capability, and traditional internship models cannot reach every learner who needs experience. The old pathway of waiting for a limited internship opportunity does not scale. WorkSim creates another path. Learners complete authentic projects, interact with simulated workplace teams, receive feedback and build practical evidence of their capabilities. Companies contribute the insight and expertise that make those experiences real, without being expected to manage thousands of individual interns. "We joined Pledge 1% in 2017 because we believed impact should be part of how a company grows. Since then, we have seen what becomes possible when companies contribute not only resources, but real expertise and real work." Through its partnerships with Atlassian Foundation and Automation Anywhere, that belief has become a practical model. This collaboration with Pledge 1% will help more companies turn their time pledge into meaningful experiences that build young people's confidence, capability and access to opportunity." What happens next. Pledge 1% member organisations can activate their time pledge through WorkSim participation. Opportunities will range from contributing authentic project ideas and industry insight to mentoring, coaching and providing structured feedback to learners. Young people should not simply inherit the future of work. Through WorkSim, the Pledge 1% community now has a direct and structured way to help build it with them.

Automation Anywhere has launched its agentic Procure-to-Pay solution, part of its Autonomous Finance suite for CFOs. Built on the AI-native architecture announced with OpenAI earlier this year, the solution orchestrates the full procurement lifecycle across existing systems without replacing them. The platform connects procurement, ERP, finance and supplier systems, handling processes from vendor onboarding through payment tracking. When exceptions occur, a built-in AI assistant identifies issues and recommends actions. The solution is deployable within weeks and adapts to existing processes. The technology uses the same invoice-processing engine as Automation Anywhere's Accounts Payable offering, which has achieved up to 90% straight-through processing rates. Autonomous Finance currently includes over 55 AI agents covering 100-plus task types across more than 10 finance sub-functions. Customers include Australia Post, Boston Scientific, Cargill and the UK National Health Service.

Will AI agents replace junior consultants? AI agents will replace many junior consultant tasks, but not the junior consultants themselves. According to the Harvard Business Review, AI is changing the structure of consulting firms by automating junior consultant tasks. The work of research, data gathering, and drafting is being absorbed by agents, which changes what entry-level roles look like rather than eliminating them outright. The evidence is in the hiring numbers. Entry-level postings in law, consulting, and investment banking fell 35% since 2023, according to TechTimes. That is not a small blip. It is a structural shift in how firms staff the bottom of the pyramid. The firms that adapt will run leaner entry-level teams and invest the savings in senior judgment and client work. What tasks can AI agents do in consulting? AI agents can handle the research, data gathering, and drafting that used to fill a junior consultant's day. According to MindStudio, AI agents are being used to automate these exact tasks in professional services. The tools are already in production at the biggest firms, and they are good enough to change staffing decisions. McKinsey's internal AI tool, Lilli, is used by roughly 72% of all McKinsey consultants, about 7,000 people, according to CaseInterviewHub. That is not a pilot. It is the operating system for a large share of the firm's knowledge work. BCG and Bain are running similar internal AI efforts, as reported in a Medium analysis of how AI is redefining strategy consulting. The pattern is consistent across the top firms. How are consulting firms like McKinsey, BCG, and Bain using AI agents? McKinsey, BCG, and Bain are using AI agents to automate research, data gathering, and drafting, freeing senior consultants for judgment and client work. McKinsey built Lilli, its internal AI tool, and it is now used by roughly 72% of consultants, according to CaseInterviewHub. BCG and Bain are pursuing similar internal AI initiatives, as reported in a Medium analysis of how AI is redefining strategy consulting. The firms are also cutting headcount as the automation takes hold. McKinsey cut 5,000 jobs, according to CaseInterviewHub. The cuts are not a secret. They are the visible cost of the transition. The firms are betting that AI agents can carry the analytical load that used to require a large junior bench. Beyond the big three, the enterprise AI agent market is full of tools built for this exact work. Ema, Microsoft Copilot, Google Vertex AI, IBM Watsonx, and Automation Anywhere are all listed among the best enterprise AI agents for consulting firms, according to Ema's own analysis. Rasa and Sierra also appear on the best-for-enterprise lists, per Rasa's blog. These are the platforms firms are evaluating to run their research and drafting. What do AI agents mean for junior consultants? AI agents mean junior consultants will spend less time on research and drafting and more time on client interaction, synthesis, and judgment. The role is being redesigned around the agent, not replaced by it. According to the Harvard Business Review, AI is changing the structure of consulting firms, and that change runs through the entry level. The anxiety is real. Management consultants openly discuss feeling their jobs are at risk from AI, as seen in a Reddit thread on the topic. The fear is understandable when entry-level postings are down 35% since 2023, per TechTimes. But the firms that cut the most junior roles are the same firms investing in AI tools, which means the remaining junior roles will be different, not gone. How should consulting firms adapt to AI agents? Consulting firms should restructure their talent model around AI agents, shifting junior staff from producing analysis to interpreting it for clients. According to the Harvard Business Review, AI is changing the structure of consulting firms, and the firms that adapt will be the ones that redefine the junior role rather than defend the old one. The upskilling challenge is the bottleneck. KPMG, one of the Big Four, is leading on AI workforce development, according to Business Insider. The firm is investing in training its people to work alongside AI agents. That is the model. Hire fewer juniors, train the ones you keep to run the agents and add the judgment the agents cannot. * Redefine the junior role around agent supervision and client interpretation. * Invest in upskilling so juniors learn to run AI tools like Lilli, Copilot, or Vertex AI. * Shift the entry-level hiring bar toward communication and judgment, not just analytical grind. * Keep human review on everything client-facing, because the agent drafts but the firm owns the relationship. How can junior consultants stay relevant with AI? Junior consultants stay relevant by building the skills AI agents do not have: client relationship management, synthesis, and judgment. According to BCG, 50% to 55% of jobs in the US will be reshaped by AI over the next two to three years, not replaced. The consultants who thrive will be the ones who can take an agent's output and turn it into a recommendation a client trusts. The practical path is to become the person who runs the agent and checks its work. Learn the tools your firm uses, whether that is Lilli at McKinsey or Microsoft Copilot at a smaller firm. Then focus on the parts of the job the agent cannot do: reading the client, framing the problem, and owning the relationship. Those skills are exactly what the Harvard Business Review says AI is not replacing. Client Loyalty Gap Audit See where your firm's growth work is leaking and what an AI agent system could recover. It takes a few minutes and costs nothing. What NorthSignal believe The firms that win with AI agents will be the ones that keep human review on everything client-facing. The agent drafts. The firm owns the relationship. That is the operating standard NorthSignal build to. If you are deciding how AI agents fit your firm's staffing and growth model, the Growth Audit Call is a practical place to start. It maps your pipeline, your delivery bottlenecks, and where an agent system would create the most leverage. No pitch decks, no jargon. Growth Audit Call Book a free call to discuss how a custom agentic growth operator fits your firm and what it should return. Key takeaways * AI agents will replace many junior consultant tasks like research, data gathering, and drafting, but they will not replace the judgment and client relationship skills that define consulting. * According to the Harvard Business Review, AI is changing the structure of consulting firms by automating junior consultant tasks. * Entry-level postings in law, consulting, and investment banking fell 35% since 2023, according to TechTimes.