78% of Spanish technology students and professionals see artificial intelligence as an opportunity for their career, but this positive reading coexists with an immediate warning: AI is already raising job entry requirements and questioning current preparation.
The data comes from the study AI and talent 2026. The redefinition of technological talent in the face of AI, prepared by SEIDOR and ISDI based on 1,310 surveys conducted in Spain between May and July. Faced with the general perception that AI entails more risks than benefits for the labor market, the technology sector maintains a more favorable view.
Rapid adoption that, however, does not clear doubts about entry-level jobs
Iván González, global director of Marketing, Communication and Sustainability at SEIDOR, stated at the presentation held this Thursday in Madrid that the debate is not about AI as a supposed job destroyer, but about its role as a central tool in technological activity. The nuance is key: the report does not present AI as a total substitute, but as a lever to develop higher cognitive value capabilities. Support to reach the next step.
77% of respondents claim to use generative AI tools regularly or intensively, while only 4% admit very occasional or no use. Among students, the percentage rises to 83.7%, compared to 74.1% of professionals, a difference that confirms that the incorporation of these tools is advancing faster in classrooms than in part of the labor force.
In daily life, 65.3% resort to AI mainly to search for information and resolve doubts, and 41.5% use it to ideate or structure projects and technical solutions. Looking ahead, 61.3% place intelligent automation of business processes as the area with the most potential.
First employment appears as the main point of friction
The optimistic vision does not eliminate distrust. 37.2% of respondents anticipate more difficulties in accessing first employment, in a scenario marked by two factors: 18.7% fear that automation will replace tasks of junior profiles and another 18.5% believe that AI will raise the minimum required level.
Among students, this last concern gains weight: 25.3% believe that AI will make it more difficult to find a first job because it will raise the bar, compared to 15.4% of professionals. González specified that this third of respondents is not saying that opportunities will disappear, but that companies will be more demanding with what they ask for from the beginning.
The difference, according to the study, will no longer be only in the academic record. The ability to adapt, to be autonomous and to solve problems independently will weigh, in addition to analytical thinking and a solution mindset, cited by 45.5% of participants, and solid technical foundations to use AI with judgment, mentioned by 38.1%.
Training remains at the center of the transition, but it still does not respond to the pace of change
The great weakness appears in preparation. 87.4% of respondents fail current training in its ability to fully integrate AI, and 51.4% believe that it prepares little, very little or not at all to work with this technology.
The most repeated shortcomings are the lack of practical training in applied AI, pointed out by 53.7%, followed by insufficient development of critical thinking, with 45.6%, and the scarce connection with real business needs, with 44.1%. González argued that AI education must involve the educational system, companies and also families, although today, he said, it is still not practically explained what this technology is or what its real impact is.
At the business level, the study indicates that 59.3% see the supervision and improvement of results generated by AI as the most probable evolution of the professional role. At the same time, 67.9% identify staff reduction as the use that causes the most rejection, while 47.1% fear the use of AI as a control tool and 55.7% reject its implementation without security, ethical or privacy criteria.
González maintained that low value-added tasks can be replaced by AI, but clarified that this does not necessarily equate to layoffs. The next step, he argued, involves specific transition plans within companies and a shared responsibility between the educational system and the business world.