The efficiency gains of 2026 become the talent crisis of 2030.
In December my son graduated from the University of Iowa. English degree from one of the best literary programs in the world. Incredibly bright and kind young man. We couldn't be more proud.
My career advice to him: take every AI course and get every AI certification you can. Just to compete for an entry-level job in 2025, everyone needs to be an AI expert. But what happens once they get the job?
Anthropic's latest Economic Index: prompt sophistication correlates with output quality at 0.92. The skill that extracts value from AI isn't a prompting technique. It's judgment and insight.
Judgment doesn't come from a course. Insight isn't found in a certificate. It develops through apprenticeship, doing the work alongside someone who lived it.
Instead of using the power AI to cultivate our young professionals and shorten the time it takes for them to drive value, here's what we're doing:
→ Entry-level hiring down 44% since 2022
→ Big Four graduate programs cut 18-29%
→ Tech entry-level roles down 25%
→ Junior developer hiring frozen at companies citing "AI efficiency"
All our kids are going to learn the tools. There's no choice.
But who's going to teach them the judgment to use them well?