The AI Wave Reshapes the Workplace: The Value of Liberal Arts Education Comes to the Fore

In recent years, demand for liberal arts education has continued to decline, with students increasingly favoring university programs that directly connect to employment. However, multiple experts in technology and academia say that as companies roll out advanced AI tools or integrate such technologies into their operations, graduates with liberal arts degrees will become increasingly sought after.

The reason is that employers need people to think about the ethical risks and unintended consequences of new technologies, and also need people to help improve the written instructions provided to chatbots, or handle difficult customer service disputes that AI cannot resolve. Scholars point out that university leaders therefore need to take action as AI reshapes the workforce landscape.

Ray Schroeder, senior fellow at UPCEA, predicts that just as robotics in the 1990s replaced a large number of blue-collar jobs, AI will replace positions that require a college degree or even a graduate degree, such as lawyers. He estimates that major changes will occur within the next three to four years.

"This is indeed an important factor affecting employment. Of course, we in higher education are paying close attention because we want to equip students with skills to thrive in the emerging workplace," Schroeder said.

The necessity of liberal arts

Cecilia Gaposchkin, professor of history at Dartmouth College, said that ChatGPT and large language models make predictions based on existing knowledge. She noted that computers can be trained to understand ethical concepts, human morality, and basic human dignity, but such reasoning is instinctive for humans. Gaposchkin believes that AI's tools and capabilities will be subordinate to human decision-making and priorities.

Gaposchkin said that AI makes past knowledge readily accessible, while a liberal arts education trains students to think creatively, solve problems, synthesize information, manage ambiguity, ask questions, and generate new ideas. She emphasized: "Outsourcing higher-level directives to an entity that lacks the ethical foundation of human reason is a dead end."

Rebecca Willett, professor of statistics and computer science at the University of Chicago, said that in many scenarios people want to use AI, but the cost of failure is high, including certain AI tools in healthcare, real estate, finance, and criminal justice. For example, a 2023 study by Stanford University School of Medicine showed that AI tools reproduce racist medical views that have been overturned, potentially worsening health disparities for Black patients. In 2016, ProPublica found that software used by courts disproportionately flagged Black defendants as higher recidivism risk; that analysis compared groups of defendants who did not commit crimes, questioning the fairness of tools used for sentencing and parole decisions.

Willett said that people with a strong liberal arts background will contribute not only to "the technical development of these tools, but also to thinking about: How should we treat them? What are the trade-offs of the choices we might make?"

Liberal arts and technical degrees

Robert Gibson, instructional designer at Wichita State University's College of Applied Studies and Technology, believes that students earning liberal arts and humanities degrees may have an advantage in the job market over students specializing in STEM programming. Because liberal arts students can offer a more humane perspective on technology, focusing on issues such as ethics, privacy, and bias. Gibson added: "They won't blindly promote the use of technology, but will step back and say, 'Maybe we can look at the problem from another angle.'"

Gibson noted that employers are posting job ads requiring AI skills, and small businesses nationwide are using AI in marketing campaigns or customer relationship management systems, ranging from art stores and commercial retailers to production companies. They need employees who can wear multiple hats—proficient in using technology while also possessing customer service experience or other human experience.

Schroeder said that liberal arts students may also play a key role in developing and operating AI chatbots. "Prompt engineering"—the ability to program a chatbot's conversation with users—is an English writing skill that requires adaptability and continuous learning. Schroeder said that AI can now write code faster and often better than humans. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the number of computer programming jobs will decline by 11% between 2022 and 2032. Companies will instead need supervisors to troubleshoot AI-generated content.

"If you are coding in the field of computer science, your job may be at risk," Schroeder said.

Schroeder also observed that more and more companies are seeking candidates with interpersonal skills such as critical thinking, creativity, emotional intelligence, communication, collaboration, and ethics. "We see these requirements more and more frequently in job descriptions," he said. "Although they don't explicitly mention a liberal arts degree—because these skills can also be acquired outside of university—these are abilities emphasized by liberal arts."

Willett said that she does not believe liberal arts will replace all technical workers; the two need to work together. But among two candidates with data science backgrounds, many employers would find the one with a liberal arts education "extremely attractive" because it enables them to place technical work in a broader context.

How universities should respond

Brian Reed, vice president for student success and the Roanoke Experience at Roanoke College, said the school is discussing where AI fits into the curriculum. He hopes this small Virginia college can create space in general education requirements for students to use AI in intentional ways. Reed believes the emergence of AI will bring about a "true renaissance of the humanities," but higher education institutions, including liberal arts colleges, are often not good at explaining how the critical thinking skills students learn apply to technologies like AI.

"Institutions must more clearly explain in plain language the skills and abilities students gain from a liberal arts education," he said.

Gibson said that many universities have already begun actively launching AI-related programs or entirely new colleges. Larger "thought leader" institutions have financial advantages and can lead interdisciplinary AI conversations. Earlier this year, Arizona State University announced it had integrated generative AI into multiple courses in its English department, allowing students to use the technology for brainstorming, research assistance, and editing essays. Some smaller colleges have started these conversations, but not at the pace Gibson expected. "It's still on the margins," he said, and because bureaucratic processes can slow progress, it is harder for smaller colleges to implement comprehensive changes such as interdisciplinary AI courses.

To prepare, Gibson said institutions need to begin incorporating discussions about AI ethics and social impact into liberal arts courses. Reed believes that if higher education leaders do not help liberal arts students embrace AI technology—making them familiar with it and knowing how to use it responsibly and ethically—it would be a failure to those students. Reed said liberal arts students need to gain technical competence, but the emergence of AI also requires those who "truly think about: How do we ask questions? Should we ask questions in certain situations? How do we filter bias? How do we see through hallucinated responses?"