If we have a child or teenager in school, what should they be studying to have a chance of landing a decent job in the AI era? Photo / Getty Images
Artificial intelligence will change the world, but what do young people need to study now to make sure they can still thrive in the future?
It’s increasingly accepted that we are living through the early days of an AI revolution – you might have used it today without knowing it, say for directions on Google Maps. But it’s marching forward in other ways too; every few months it seems like the technology has advanced years in its ability to generate text, images, videos, realistic human voices and more.
Scientists and industry leaders on the vanguard are concerned. The approaching technological shift is coming to be described in terms almost akin to the nuclear weaponry showcased in Oppenheimer – with similar open letters from experts warning it could pose an existential threat to humanity.
Those concerns may be valid (though others suggest they’re being overblown as an attempt to give rival companies time to catch up with their own technology). However, many of us have more mundane – but just as real – concerns.
What will this new technological wave mean for the workplace in five to 10 years’ time? And if we have a child or teenager in school, what on earth should they be studying to have a chance of landing a decent job in the AI era?
The good news is that the panel of experts I consulted all felt confident there would still be skilled jobs for the graduates and school-leavers of the next decade. But one thing they all flagged up was the need for today’s students to understand how algorithms and AI work, what they’re good at, and what they’re bad at – not least to survive their contact with the algorithms of today, running Instagram, TikTok and more. And there are certain ways of approaching it that could future-proof your career.
When it comes to employment right now, says Karl Schulenburg, AI director for the digital agency Reason, the best jobs that are being created by the AI boom are concentrated in one sector – coding and development.
But that won’t always be the case. Coding could become less relevant once AI improves and can handle that side – it’s critical thinking that will be more valuable. “It’s not coding or bust,” says Dr Elvira Perez Vallejos, professor of digital technology for mental health at the University of Nottingham.
For all its advantages, AI technology still relies on humans. It isn’t “intelligent” in any true sense and is archly described informally by some academics as “spicy autocorrect” – it essentially guesses, given a pattern of words or images, what is most likely to come next in that sequence, and from this it generates paragraphs of copy, images and so on.
The technology, described like that, seems simple enough but the results are extraordinary. It is brilliant at seeming plausible and being able to generate sensible-looking texts, but is bad at confirming its accuracy, at making significant creative leaps, and such like. Simply knowing what AI is good at and bad at could benefit anyone, but especially people soon to enter the workforce.
“If you look at it five years’ time, there’s also going to be a lot of myths and disinformation, because a lot of content will be AI-generated,” says Schulenburg. “And so equipping kids with critical thinking skills is paramount for society and democracy, regardless of employment.”
But for younger children, who might be a decade or more away from the job market, and older children who are not that inclined towards maths or technical skills, all is far from lost – in fact, if AI continues to develop at its current rate, coding skills might be largely redundant.
“With generative AI, coding… I really believe we will be replaced because generative AI [already] codes more efficiently than a human,” says Dr Vallejos. She thinks that critical thinking and understanding of technology will prove to be key, citing that young people she has brought together in her research want to focus on those issues more than they do abstract technological issues.
“Young people are interested in understanding how algorithms work, how personalisation works, how the internet works,” she says. “And they feel that the current curriculum doesn’t equip them to understand everything.
“I have two teenage girls and as a parent I would stress it’s about equipping them to protect their data and privacy, and to be more mindful on the issues that they encounter online. It’s about the misinformation, the manipulation, how big corporations are gaining lots of control, and so on.”
Early signs suggest that some sectors will face much more radical reform than others, such as call centres and customer service. “They’ll very likely become things of the past,” says Schulenburg.
Another sector likely to be impacted early on is the creative industries, including illustration, design and journalism. “Content copywriting and creative roles will be heavily AI-assisted,” notes Schulenburg. “[But] I don’t think the jobs for humans will go away.” Although these jobs may still exist, but in smaller numbers, skilled creation is still used to enhance and to check the AI’s output.
This is very much part of journalistic reality today – some of the interviews for this piece were recorded by audio and transcribed by an AI (otter.ai), managing to do in two minutes what would have taken a human an hour or so. Had a human (me) not then cleaned up the quotes used, it would have been littered with errors – especially when the experts I spoke to used specialist language. Nonetheless, it still saved hours writing the piece. The future is at least arriving, even if it isn’t totally here yet.
Part of the problem is that there is so much we don’t know yet: how quickly the tech will develop, how employers will react to it, and how the public will react to interacting with machines rather than humans. But there are some clues to be found in what employers are looking for today, and these also align with the idea that not everyone needs to be a coder.
“Graduates entering an AI-driven workplace won’t suddenly all have to be able to code,” says Ellen Judson, head of CASM (Centre for the Analysis of Social Media) at the think-tank Demos. “Our recent research, The Employability Badge, found that employers value softer skills, particularly around teamwork, communication and leadership. In the AI-driven workplace, people will still need strong interpersonal skills, even if AI takes on more of the technical work.”
Schulenburg also thinks this possibility is a promising one – as automation becomes more widespread, the premium on human interaction and soft skills could grow, at least in some areas.
“Some parts we’ll probably just give ourselves over to AI – like PAs and assistants,” he concludes. “But I think there’s an element of humanity that is interesting to other humans as well.” He cites the example of chess, where the best AIs can now generally beat the best human players. “If you’re watching a human play a computer that is interesting to watch – you know, yes, it’s a huge ‘can a computer dominate?’ thing. If you got two computers playing chess against each other… that’s boring.”
In the 1930s, George Orwell’s essays on poverty considered what the coming wave of automation would do to the life of the working-class employee. He imagined that people might spend a few hours pulling a lever, or suchlike, at a factory and spend the rest of the time being able to pursue leisure and personal improvement.
That was not how it panned out – we still generally work 40 hours or more a week. But that isn’t stopping Schulenburg at least hoping that the productivity gains from the likely AI generation will be more constructively used by the new generation of workers.
“If we create a huge amount of productivity, it’s going to be valuable for the world because we could spend more energy solving other problems, say with the climate, or poverty – that might create a huge benefit to the global population. In the meantime, all that autonomy will mean there’s less requirement for humans to do things and we could focus on more kinds of personal pursuits and personal endeavours.”
Such a world might rely on political concepts such as a universal basic income (UBI) – a popular but contentious idea – being introduced as AIs become a bigger part of our economies, suggesting one final educational route for young people: politics.
Given a common gripe of millennials and Gen-Zers is that politics seems to benefit older generations, if those currently in education want that to change, they may need the benefit of better political education.
There is a clear consensus that AI is coming, will transform the economy, and will change what kind of employment is available. The good news for parents of school-age children is that if they are not inclined to coding, that doesn’t seem to be a deal-breaker.
It’s more important to understand roughly how AI works than it is to be able to code, to know how to use it to enhance your work and the pitfalls it will bring, and to focus on soft skills and human connection, which may well become prized.
The near future will look very different to today, but the era of the robot isn’t here just yet.
1. Practise prompt engineering
This is the art of asking the right questions of the AI, which you can get better at. There are videos on YouTube with tips on how to do it and you can try it out on free services such as ChatGPT. The better the input, the better the AI output – so being good at it will pay off.
2. Don’t write off traditional degrees
AI is bringing about considerable change so we need critical thinking skills to understand how that will work – to figure out how to structure regulation and analyse dilemmas brought about by it. That means any degree where you learn how to analyse large amounts of complex information will help, so don’t dismiss philosophy, politics or history degrees.
3. Be creative
Yes, it’s true that AI can generate images, videos and even songs and poems, but do not assume that it will be better. If you have a talent, still follow it. And the same goes for practical and caring skills – these will still be in demand.
4. Don’t ignore the change
It’s easy and worthwhile to learn how to make websites and apps and fine-tune them. Even if you are nervous of AI, engaging with it and getting to know how it works is the best way to future-proof your career.
If you need a break from the slopes or don’t fancy a ski, there’s still a lot to do this.