AI is profoundly changing the way many of us work, learn, and perform tasks. But it’s also causing a lot of concern about the future of employment and the value of a college education.
In my work as a financial advisor who works with many parents of college-bound students, I’m already hearing from many clients who are concerned about this. They’re worried that their investment in college and their student’s future could be at risk from AI disruption.
Every day, we see news headlines and comments from analysts, experts, and observers who are warning that AI could potentially cause massive unemployment, eliminate career fields and many types of jobs, eliminate entry-level jobs for college graduates, and even render a college education obsolete.
This is why it’s extremely important to be realistic about AI, keep a level head, and not fall prey to scary headlines, speculation, and pure hype.
The reality is that major changes from AI, if they truly happen at all, are going to play out over many years. Don’t forget that we’ve been through major technological changes and disruptions before. The future is going to evolve and could change pretty significantly, but it’s not going to happen overnight. And it’s not suddenly going to make traditional or college education obsolete.
So, let’s take a look at why parents and students need should be more cautious and reasonable in their expectations of an AI-impacted future.
Why AI Isn’t Going to Render College or Employment Obsolete
Yes, AI tools are proliferating everywhere, and they’re being used in offices, in homes, in schools and universities, and they’re now integrated into software, computers, mobile devices, and apps and services that we use every day. They’re already having a significant impact on work, business, education, and family life.
But there’s a limit to what’s possible with AI right now, and its future applications and impact are still largely undetermined.
Also, schools, colleges, and universities are already working to adapt to the new AI reality, and they’re beginning to incorporate AI into their curriculum, classes, policies, and training. Many more schools will be integrating AI into their education and learning, to help prepare students for whatever the future brings.
So, yes, wherever we can use large language models and other sophisticated AI tools to access and process information and automate tasks, it will potentially have a huge impact on the future. AI could be a disruptive force that alters the job market and future career opportunities, and it could ultimately change the way we all work, learn, do business, and live our daily lives. But that doesn’t mean that, suddenly, entry-level jobs or future careers are going to disappear, and it doesn’t mean that traditional education or college are going to be obsolete.
In fact, as we’ve seen with previous technological transformations, such as the industrial revolution, the emergence of the personal computer and robotics, or the arrival of the Internet, things will change pretty dramatically. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll face massive unemployment or an extreme crisis.
For example, when robotics were introduced into manufacturing plants in the 1980s, there were predictions that human workers would be completely replaced and that automation would cause widespread global unemployment. But, despite the fact that robotics and automation have replaced millions of manual processes and jobs, there are still about half a billion people employed in manufacturing jobs around the world.
Yes, in countries such as the U.S., there has been a decline in the number of manufacturing jobs in recent decades. But, overwhelmingly, that has been due to outsourcing and not robotics or automation. As senior economists with U.S. reserve banks have reported, U.S. manufacturing has lost 4.5 million jobs since 2000, but, globally, manufacturing jobs are up 71 million during that same time period.
This is due to population growth and economic development elsewhere in the world. So, despite the advances of robotics and automation, manufacturing jobs have actually grown on a global scale, and there are still 12.6 million people working in U.S. manufacturing today.
The reality of any technological transformation and the evolution of the job market are often far slower, more complex, and unpredictable than doomsday predictions. Schools, colleges and universities are inevitably part of this evolution and always work to adapt and to train and prepare students for new realities that might emerge.
For example, as U.S. manufacturing jobs have declined and the economy has shifted more toward the services sector, colleges and universities have been the leading institutions in educating, training, and preparing students for service-sector jobs. Yet they still train and educate many students who go into careers in manufacturing.
In the case of AI, colleges and universities are already starting to incorporate AI into their curriculum, teaching methods, and policies. They’ll adapt to whatever the future brings, and they’ll train generations of new students for current and future careers, new ways of working, and new ways of living based on what AI brings.
It will be no different than how colleges and universities adapted to the industrial revolution and the emergence of the steam engine and other industrial technologies. Schools created engineering departments that specialized in mechanical, electrical, and other forms of engineering. They now have a long history of research and innovation in these technologies as well as training students to design and use them.
Similarly, it will be no different from how colleges and universities integrated computers and other information technologies into their curriculum. In fact, colleges and universities helped pioneer, develop, and advance many computing technologies, and they later helped create and advance the early Internet.
If history is any indication, college is not going to become obsolete, and the practical value of a college education is not going to disappear overnight or possibly ever. Things will certainly change, and colleges will have to adapt to the new AI reality. Colleges and high schools are already working to incorporate AI into their curriculum and teaching, to help students learn to use these tools, and they’re setting ground rules and policies to manage their ethical use.
Schools will potentially use AI to enhance their traditional teaching methods and introduce new courses, training, and majors that prepare students for a new future and for new and emerging careers based on AI’s impact.
Sure, there might be winners or losers as some jobs or fields are impacted by AI. In fact, there will likely be some big winners and big losers. But that doesn’t erase the value or relevance of a college education now or in the years ahead. It just means that things will evolve and will end up being different, just as they’ve done throughout the entire history of technology, education, colleges and universities.
Understanding the Full Context of College and Career Preparation
Ultimately, college isn’t just about studying one major or learning one set of skills for one potential career. It’s about learning how to learn and how to think, analyze, and communicate effectively. Those are skills that apply to any endeavor, and statistics show that large percentages of college graduates eventually work in fields that aren’t necessarily closely related to their degree.
In fact, a longitudinal study by the National Center for Education Statistics found that 22% of first-time bachelor’s degree recipients work in a job that’s “not related at all” to their major, and 34% work in a job that’s only “somewhat related.” Overall, only 44% of these graduates work in a job that’s closely related to their degree.
This was a study published in 2019 and based on comparisons of graduates from earlier years and the jobs they were performing five years after graduation. So, long before the advent of today’s AI tools, we were already living in a world where your college degree doesn’t necessarily represent what you’ll be doing throughout your career or for the rest of your life.
In the post-AI future, it will be more important than ever for students to be prepared to learn, adapt, and perform in a rapidly changing environment. And there is arguably no better way to prepare for that than by getting an education where you’re exposed to different classes, fields, educators, people, and experiences where you have to learn, adapt, and perform.
So, as you evaluate your student’s education options and contemplate potential career paths in the post AI-future, keep this in mind, and then start with these five steps:
1. Review School Policies and AI Use.
Grade schools, high schools, and colleges are all being challenged right now to rethink their current policies, curriculum, and teaching in light of AI. So, as a parent, you and your student need to find out what each school’s AI policies are, how they’re attacking AI as a tool, and whether they’re offering students opportunities to use AI and learn valuable skills.
Many companies and organizations have already integrated AI tools into their operations. Your own employer or business might be one of them. And, as many more adopt AI and expand its use, a graduate who’s experienced with these tools and understands how to use them effectively will be a more valuable job candidate.
So, whether you’re evaluating the curriculum at your local high school or private school, or you’re researching colleges and universities, look at whether they’re incorporating AI in positive, constructive ways and offering your student an opportunity to use it toward their future benefit and career.
Schools that have taken a purely restrictive stance and have banned AI from student use and from their curriculum aren’t going to be very helpful. If your student wants to be AI-ready and use it to their advantage, then they’ll get better results from schools that are embracing it as something that’s here to stay, and they’re trying to work out the best ways to use it fairly and ethically while helping students gain valuable skills and experience with it.
2. Use AI Yourself as a Parent.
As a parent, it’s always difficult to understand something if you have experience with it yourself. So, if you haven’t used AI tools yet or you’ve only used them on a limited basis, try using AI solutions such as OpenAi’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, or Microsoft’s Copilot.
Get some experience with using these tools to get answers to key questions, research important information, process and summarize information and data, and automatically perform some key tasks.
There are plenty of instructional videos and articles out there that can help you learn more about these tools’ capabilities and how to use them. And, once you have a better idea of how it can be used, you can also help your student learn more about it and maybe how it can be applied to work or business contexts and not just school or personal use.
Parents can set the tone here, and if you’re fearful about AI or buy into the hype and doom-and-gloom assessments, you could inadvertently discourage your student from learning more about it and potentially benefitting from it in their education and future career. But, if you set an example by using it yourself, and trying to figure out how it could potentially be a valuable tool and something you might need to use at work on in a future career, that can be a much more beneficial influence.
3. Encourage Your Student to Use AI
Typically, younger people are much more open and willing to experiment with new technology. Since AI could impact future job opportunities and responsibilities, and many fields and workplaces are already starting to use AI tools, students should take advantage of that tendency and start learning about and using AI in productivity contexts.
But you might be surprised to know that many students might not be as well-versed in AI tools as adults so far. To the extent that they’re using them, they might be using AI for creative outlets such as image creation or chatting and roleplaying games. But many students haven’t had a chance to use AI tools the way that many adults have been using them in the workplaces for more practical, work-related, and productivity tasks. They also might not be familiar with the ethnical ways that some schools or colleges are trying to use these tools in the interest of education.
So, there’s an opportunity to encourage your student to learn how AI is being used professionally and ethically help automate research, analyze documents, automate tasks, or integrate with software and get work done more efficiently or effectively. There are countless articles, videos, examples, and even hands-on ways to learn about AI in a professional or educational context. So, encourage your student while also making sure to set the right boundaries and standards for how it should be used safely and appropriately.
4. Explore Careers by Using AI.
One great way that both students and parents can use AI is to research potential careers. For example, using ChatGPT or similar tools, your student can enter prompts and ask an AI agent to help them explore careers that interest them. They can ask ChatGPT to recommend reputable links to resources on where to discover and research careers or get more in-depth information on what it’s like to work in fields, the work and responsibilities involved, and how to get the right education and preparation for each career.
Students can also use AI to find career assessment tools and questionnaires that ask them the right questions and present different career ideas and suggestions to students. They can see how they match up with certain careers, find out if something interests them, and then ask an AI tool to recommend more related links or resources to help them research it further. They can also ask deeper and deeper questions about specific careers, and ChatGPT or other tools can help answer them based on articles, videos, and content it analyzes from the Internet.
Often, this kind of research can open students’ eyes to new career possibilities they hadn’t considered, or it can help them test and validate whether certain careers might be right for them. It can then help them find out the path they might need to pursue, in order to get into that field and get the necessary education, training, and experience.
5. Become AI-Ready.
Ultimately, students should be working to become AI-ready. After all, if you’re in the interview to get admitted to a college or hired for your first job or internship, that’s not the time to suddenly be thinking about or talking about AI for the first time. AI could very well come up in those interviews, and having skills and experience with AI could make you a more attractive candidate for a job or admission to a university.
But schools, colleges and universities don’t have everything in place to help students become AI-ready yet. According to Kristin Clark, a leading career coach for high school and college students, AI is advancing and evolving so quickly that it’s been hard for colleges and universities to keep up and start educating students about it in a systematic and practical way.
“There’s so much happening around AI, and it’s changing so fast,” she says. “The reality is, our colleges aren’t keeping up with it yet. They don’t quite know what to do with it as far as training college students on how to actually use it.
“So, one of the things that I find with students right now, depending on what you’re trying to get into and what career path you’re gunning for, they’ve got to go out there, see what tools are available, and learn a little bit of this on their own. Because the colleges aren’t able to do it yet. They’re working on it. They’re trying. But they’re just not quite there yet.”
So, as I recommended earlier, your student needs to get some hands-on experience with AI and really start learning about it. They shouldn’t be afraid of it, and neither should you. It’s important to get some experience with it and understand it, so your student is prepared to talk about it and demonstrate some familiarity and knowledge of how these tools can be used.
What to Do Next and How to Get More College Planning Advice
Hopefully, this article has helped give you a more realistic perspective on what AI might mean for your future college student and what to do next. Start with the practical tips here, which will help you and your student get more familiar with AI, gets some hands-on experience with it, and understand how potential colleges on your list might be planning and adjusting their policies and curriculum for AI readiness.
If you’d like to get more college and career planning advice, including tips on how to help your student find the right college, choose a major, maximize financial aid and scholarship opportunities, and pay for college more affordably, subscribe to my free e-newsletter. It’s loaded with articles, tips, resources, calculators and links to help you build a winning plan for your family.
Helpful Articles and Resources
College Money Report
Get a personalized estimate of how much colleges think you can afford and how much you'll be expected to pay.
College Planning Jumpstart
Sign up for my video course to learn the best ways to pay for college without wiping out your finances or retirement.
Start Your College Financial Plan With These 5 Key Components
Learn about the 5 key parts of a good college financial plan and how to get started.
The 5 Types of Federal Financial Aid
Discover the 5 types of federal financial aid available to your family, and what they mean for you.
6 Ways to Pay for College
Find out the 6 ways to pay for college, including several that most parents don't know.
