TL;DR: AI is not taking your job; it’s dissolving your job into two parts: AI-Ready Tasks and Human Responsibilities. Your college education and career should focus entirely on the human part, while you learn to orchestrate AI for the tasks.
I wrote this as a response to a question someone posed on Reddit, but it’s relevant for to post here too. The question was… “What’s the point of college in 2025 and forward?”
I’ve been working in tech since ’96 and have been thinking about this a lot lately (it’s the subject of a book I’m writing). Here’s my take:
1. Jobs Aren’t Disappearing, They’re Dissolving.
AI isn’t a grim reaper for professions; it’s a solvent. It dissolves a job into two parts:
- AI-Ready Tasks: Writing boilerplate code, drafting first-pass reports, summarizing research, and creating basic UI elements.
- Human Responsibilities: Strategic creativity, complex problem-solving, ethical oversight, and deep interpersonal connection.
Jobs that are heavily focused on the “AI-Ready” side will be absorbed into adjacent roles. New professions will emerge that combine human responsibility with AI orchestration.
2. The Future is About Orchestration, Not Execution.
- A coder no longer needs to write every single line. They need to understand architecture, debug, and guide the AI to produce the desired outcome.
- A product manager doesn’t need to write every user story from scratch. They orchestrate AI to generate the first draft, then use their human insight to refine and strategize.
- A UX designer won’t just draw pictures in Figma. They’ll prompt AI to generate functional code prototypes directly, blending design, strategy, and front-end development.
3. The Skillset to Focus On in College:
Your degree should focus on the skills that AI cannot replicate.
- Strategic Creativity & Complex Problem-Solving: The ability to frame a novel problem and map out a solution.
- Ethical Oversight: The judgment to know what should be done, not just what can be done.
- Deep Interpersonal Connection: Leadership, empathy, and persuasion.
My advice: Focusing on a curriculum that builds analytical thinking, rather than procedural knowledge, prepares for the human responsibilities AI cannot cover. A “Great Books” program, such as the one at St. John’s College, is one concrete example. It forces you to analyze and debate foundational ideas—a skill that AI cannot replicate. Then, on your own time, become a master AI orchestrator.
4. The End Goal: Become a Poly-Shaped Professional.
We’re moving past the era of I-shaped (deep expert), T-shaped (expert with broad knowledge), or even pi-shaped (expert in two areas) professionals.
AI makes it practical to develop deep expertise across multiple domains—a poly-shaped professional profile. It acts as a universal collaborator, allowing you to develop deep expertise in multiple domains simultaneously. It broadens and deepens your capabilities, making you an AI-assisted polymath.
College remains relevant when used to build the human capabilities AI cannot replicate.