Why the liberal arts can help young Americans prepare for the era of AI
Why the liberal arts can help young Americans prepare for the era of AI
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ai-artificial-intelligence-college-major-skills/
Publish Date: 2026-06-12 11:47:00
Source Domain: www.cbsnews.com
Computer science is out on U.S. college campuses, while the new “new” things — faculties like critical thinking and communication — may have a familiar ring.
The advent of artificial intelligence is giving a new shine to a liberal arts education, which career experts say nurtures the skills valued by employers as AI increasingly changes the workplace.
“Artificial intelligence is coming after IQ, not EQ,” said entrepreneur Arun Gupta, CEO of NobleReach Foundation, an organization that recruits people to the public sector, using the shorthand for “emotional quotient” — the kind of intelligence, social awareness and reasoning abilities that help organizations tick.
For young Americans pondering the best educational and professional path, the stakes are high as AI increasingly impacts the job market. Pursuing a traditional liberal arts education will position graduates for success as AI diffuses across industries and professions, Gupta said.
AI “can automate the financial or computer science skill, but EQ — the understanding of the problem — is the human dynamic,” he added.
Christopher Rim, founder and CEO of Command Education, a New York City company that helps advise high school students and their families on the college admissions process, said that creativity — along with creative problem-solving — helps set graduates apart from their peers.
“What employers will increasingly be looking for are people who can think laterally, challenge assumptions and bring a perspective that can’t be generated by a [large language model],” he told CBS News. “As AI becomes more capable of handling technical execution, raw technical knowledge becomes less of a differentiating quality on its own.”
Learning how to learn
Skills that companies will value “are, somewhat ironically, the cornerstones of a liberal arts education,” Rim noted.
By contrast, some of the career-focused hard skills that many college students learn could have less value in the…
