Most higher education has AI backward. Rather than evolving curricula to prepare students for an AI-driven workforce, some universities have restricted AI use, primarily over fears of cheating and misuse. AI didn’t create cheating behavior; it simply changed the method — and yes, it’s made it easier. In many instances, schools are leaving AI policies to the professors, which often leads to student confusion since rules vary widely within the same school. But restricting or discouraging the use of AI tools like ChatGPT, which can significantly improve productivity when used properly, reveals a fundamental misunderstanding among universities of not only the evolution of modern technology, but also AI’s role in the economy.
Consider the analogy: colleges operated for generations before Google searches, which certainly are used for cheating, but also significantly enhance learning. Imagine if colleges demanded that students rely exclusively on physical libraries for their research, even with an abundance of digital knowledge at their fingertips. Today’s AI restrictions mirror that same refusal to adapt. Worse, they undermine universities’ core principle: preparing young adults for professional careers in the real world.
Fortunately, AI hesitation in academia isn’t universal. Ohio State embedded AI into its curricula to ensure students’ fluency by graduation. The USF School of Law allows students to use AI in legal analysis and research so they can build real-world skills and prepare for the future of legal practice.
These are promising steps toward modern education, but we still need more universal AI adoption.
A Challenging Job Market
To complicate matters, recent and upcoming graduates are entering one of the most challenging job markets in at least five years, as projected by NACE. Its recent Outlook 2026 survey expects a mere 1.6% increase in hiring for the Class of 2026 when compared to the Class of 2025, which submitted more applications than the year prior but received fewer job offers. Slower hiring, shrinking entry-level roles, and rising competition mean students need every possible advantage. As new jobs emerge that require AI literacy, that advantage increasingly lies in understanding and using AI effectively.
The reality is employers are raising performance expectations and counting on employees to do more with less in a challenging economic climate. Yet, there remains a clear disconnect between university policies and workforce requirements. AI literacy is now the differentiator. For graduates leaving classrooms where AI tools were not permitted or not formally included in curricula, the gap between their skillsets and what employers expect will continue to widen.
AI Skills Are Now Table Stakes
AI is embedded into the workforce already, even at the entry level, across industries. Employers see AI as a valuable tool for research, writing, coding, data analysis, and an expanding range of day-to-day tasks. Consider OpenAI’s Project Mercury where the company hired more than 100 former investment bankers to train AI systems to handle the “grunt work” of junior analysts. Employers now require candidates to work faster and more efficiently, making AI literacy a baseline expectation rather than a “bonus.”
We’ve already seen several examples of this. Shopify’s CEO announced that AI usage is now a baseline expectation and that performance and peer reviews will include AI-related criteria. Microsoft executives have begun evaluating employees based on how they use AI tools. But there’s a reason why the AI shift is happening across industries. In healthcare, it helps with diagnostics and medical imaging. In financial services, it strengthens market comparisons and analysis. AI boosts efficiency and powers countless modern workflows and internal systems across industries and in people’s everyday lives.
Today’s AI-ready employee brings more than technical skills — they work smarter, feel more fulfilled, and contribute more effectively. In fact, a global Slack survey found that employees who use AI daily report being 64% more productive and 81% more satisfied with their jobs than colleagues who don’t use AI.
Furthermore, AI in the workplace embodies the very premise of the “future of work,” where technological advancements are reshaping the nature of many roles. The traditional career ladder, in which entry-level jobs begin with routine tasks and gradually build expertise, is shifting. As AI takes on more of these foundational tasks, the bar for entry-level roles is rising. This isn’t unprecedented; it’s a natural part of societal and technological evolution, just as email and spreadsheets eliminated filing and typewriting tasks.
What it means is universities must adapt as quickly as the workforce is transforming.
What Higher Education Should Be Doing
Rather than limiting AI usage and focusing on the potential wrongdoings, universities should embrace helping students develop AI skills to prepare them for work, and encourage professors to incorporate AI into their coursework.
This can be instituted by:
- Integrating AI into curricula and offering best practices so students learn practical, ethical, and applied skills.
- Teaching students how to use AI to enhance, not replace, critical thinking and original analysis. For instance, requiring students to submit their initial drafts, AI prompts, and reasoning logs alongside final work to demonstrate how they added value beyond what the AI generated.
- Train professors on AI tools to understand how they can strengthen teaching, assessment, and research.
- Partner with employers and technology providers to align coursework with real-world expectations and rapidly evolving entry-level job requirements.
Change is inevitable. Let’s focus efforts on teaching responsible AI use and better aligning education with today’s workforce, so students are empowered to work smarter, think critically, and adapt to new ways of working.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
