Supermarket giant hails ‘extensive research’ into the future needs of the business
Sainsbury’s is rolling out a fresh graduate programme with an emphasis on cultivating artificial intelligence expertise.
The FutureMaker initiative, which will recruit nearly 50 graduates to the company’s store support centre, spans two years and seeks to help participants build essential skills, including those in digital and artificial intelligence (AI), which the retailer says is crucial for future business expansion.
The choice to centre the new graduate scheme around these competencies was guided by “extensive research” into the organisation’s future requirements, the company said.
Participants in the programme will also hone their abilities in data and analytics, change and transformation as well as business decision-making.
Following completion of the programme, they will then be eligible to apply for appropriate jobs within Sainsbury’s.
Available positions will encompass buying, commercial operations, digital retail, merchandising, data science and analytics, food technology, logistics and fulfilment, supply chain, transformation, property and procurement, and product and innovation.
This move follows recent warnings that UK graduates were confronting the most challenging employment market in years, according to job search platform Indeed.
The volume of positions advertised for graduates had fallen 33% compared to the previous year, reaching its lowest point in seven years. Sainsbury’s aims to create more accessible routes for graduates, enhancing their digital literacy through AI and machine learning whilst learning about responsible deployment of these technologies.
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “As a proud people-first business, our colleagues are at the heart of everything we do.
“We’re committed to investing in early careers and have spent time identifying the skills our future leaders will need to help us build a sustainable retail talent pipeline.”
In 2024, the retailer revealed a collaboration with Microsoft to improve customer and colleague experience through AI, incorporating “upskilling programmes for Sainsbury’s colleagues, helping them learn and grow in the new AI-driven economy “.
Clodagh Moriarty, Sainsbury’s chief retail and technology officer, said at the time: “It’s one of the key ways we’re investing in transforming our capabilities over the next three years, enabling us to take another big leap forward in efficiency and productivity.”
However, the supermarket emphasised that the new graduate programme was not directly linked to that collaboration. Applications for the graduate scheme start on January 9.
During the past two years, Sainsbury’s has revealed two waves of redundancies, axing ,500 positions in February 2024 and 3,000 roles in January 2025, as part of strategies to streamline its operations and reduce £1 billion in costs amid a difficult economic climate. Part of its revamp has also encompassed escalating investment in automation and AI.
