AI threatens to dethrone the 4-year college degree

AXIOS

Ryan Heath, author of Axios AI+

October 5, 2023

AI is transforming job hunting and skill development — threatening to relegate four-year college degrees to the category of merely nice-to-have on your CV.

The big picture: In AI-driven workplaces, employers will need to treat up-skilling investments as a “critical priority” rather than a perk, per a pitch LinkedIn executives made to 2,000 of the nation’s top recruiters this week in New York City.

Why it matters: Less than 4 in 10 Americans hold a bachelor’s degree — but this group dominates America’s decision-making class.

• Recruiters depend on LinkedIn to do their jobs, and the company’s wake-up call on degrees is based on data from workers at 63 million organizations.

Driving the news: LinkedIn released a slew of new AI product features this week, including:

• AI-assisted candidate discovery for recruiters, promising better natural language searches, less focus on university credentials and job titles, and prompts on how a role could be tailored around a candidate’s strengths and constraints (such as location).

• AI-powered coaching in the subscriber-only LinkedIn Learning, a chatbot service to coach workers through tough moments or career development.

Continue Reading