Universities and colleges must fundamentally rethink how they prepare students for an AI-driven economy, as traditional four-year degrees alone may no longer provide the skills workers need, experts said at a recent Brookings Institution forum.
Andrew Ng
"The number of software engineers, the number of AI developers is far smaller than the number of people that we hope will be able to do the work to build custom AI systems," Ng said, suggesting universities need to expand beyond conventional computer science curricula.
Ng highlighted online education platforms and "nanodegrees" — short, focused programs teaching specific skills like programming languages — as increasingly valuable alternatives or supplements to bachelor's degrees. These targeted credentials allow workers to gain relevant capabilities without the time and expense of full degree programs.
The discussion comes as employers increasingly drop bachelor's degree requirements for job postings, a trend panelists said reflects both labor shortages and growing recognition that specific skills matter more than credentials.
"There's definitely a trend when we see job ads where the share of jobs that require a BA is declining," said Dr. Gad Levanon, chief economist at Burning Glass Institute. "Some of it is because there is indeed a trend of employers trying to target not just BAs but also other people."
David Estrada, chief legal and policy officer at autonomous vehicle company Nuro, said his company relies heavily on workers with foreign visas because U.S. universities aren't producing enough graduates with needed technical skills.
