As AI comes for entry-level gigs, Whole Foods exec says the $13.7 billion grocer is reviving artisans with butcher, cheese, and bakery apprenticeships

• As tech CEOs predict AI will wipe out millions of roles, about 1,300 Whole Foods employees have been trained in traditional crafts like fishmongering to cake decorating. Other retailers like Lowe’s also have their own trade initiative. The retailer says artisan work is “vital” during a talent shortage and mass automation of human tasks. And it could provide unemployed Gen Zers—who can’t get a corporate gig but hate the idea of becoming a tradie—with an alternative career path.

As AI rapidly disrupts white-collar roles...