Germany news: Siemens warns on AI eliminating entry-level jobs

Germany news: Siemens warns on AI eliminating entry-level jobs October 20, 2026What you need to know - Entry-level jobs involving routine tasks often left to artificial intelligence (AI) are still vital for young people to learn basic skills, according to Siemens - Chancellor Merz is hosting an investment summit in Berlin, with AI a main focus This is a round-up of top stories from and about Germany on Tuesday, October 20, 2026: Tired of missing our real-time updates? Click here to add us as a Preferred Source on Google. Then tap the "Star" or "Preferred" to keep DW News at the top of your feed. Young workers need to develop skills away from AI — Siemens German industrial giant Siemens has warned against eliminating entry-level jobs that are now increasingly left to artificial intelligence (AI), saying young workers could be left without essential skills, including those needed to monitor AI-generated work. Judith Wiese, the company's chief people and sustainability officer, said that handing certain routine tasks to AI meant that young employees would not gain hands-on experience that could benefit them later in their careers. Wiese said it was necessary, for example, for software developers to be able to write their own code so they could critically examine the code produced by AI. "The crucial question is always: What do I need to have done, checked and seen myself to avoid being misled by AI?" she said. However, Wiese said AI could also help employees acquire skills more quickly, while older colleagues could learn from younger ones who had grown up using AI. Wiese said it was still too early to say how AI would impact employment. Noting that Siemens has some 30,000 software engineers, she said: "You can use the additional productivity either to do the same work with fewer people or to do more with the same number of employees." Wiese also pointed out that AI was speeding up work processes, enabling the exploration of new ideas and creating projects that would not have been possible without it. Welcome to our coverage DW''s newsroom in Bonn bids a warm guten Tag to all its readers as a previously balmy October decides to move toward more wintry chill. As Chancellor Merz hosts an investment conference in Berlin where developments in AI is taking center stage, industrial giant Siemens has warned that the technology does not only bring advantages. The controversy over alleged antisemitism in Berlin's Left Party, which might well soon lead a leftist coalition in the city-state, continues, with the party itself debating what to do about a member who has expressed strong anti-Israel views. And people in Germany are likely to face much longer waits for doctors' appointments from next year, according to an organization managing family doctors and therapists across Germany. Read on here for more on these and other stories with a German slant.