The First Rung Is Gone

For generations, the deal was simple. Get your degree. Land an entry-level job. Learn on the job. Move up.

That deal is dead.

AI is automating the exact tasks that defined entry-level work — drafting documents, coding basic functions, processing data, handling routine client communications. The jobs that used to teach new workers how to think professionally are disappearing before those workers even graduate.

This isn't speculation. According to Inside Higher Ed's reporting on an EAB survey of 9,516 college-eligible students conducted in February and March 2026, 42 percent say AI will influence which career they pursue. 10 percent have already changed their major because of AI fears. A separate Gallup and Lumina Foundation poll found 47 percent of students have seriously thought about switching majors because of AI.

These kids are paying attention. Whether anyone building the education system is remains unclear.

The Numbers Are Brutal

Between 2022 and 2025, employment for early-career workers in AI-exposed occupations — software development, clerical work, and similar fields — dropped 16 percent, according to Inside Higher Ed.

That's a structural shift happening in real time.

Michael Hansen, CEO of education technology company Cengage, laid out the problem plainly in Fortune: 66 percent of hiring managers say recent hires are NOT fully prepared for their roles, primarily because they lack real experience. In 2023, nearly 4.6 million students who wanted internships couldn't get one. Yet 87 percent of employed graduates say internships helped them land their job.

So we have fewer entry-level jobs. Fewer internships. And a credential that increasingly doesn't signal job-readiness. That's a three-front collapse.

Students Are Scared. Rightfully.

When EAB asked students how AI makes them feel about their career future, the answers were not encouraging.

Half said "uncertain." About 32 percent said "concerned." 31 percent said "nervous or anxious." 10 percent said "depressed."

Only 7 percent said "excited."

One student told EAB: "I planned to be a therapist, but the way the world is going, by the time I obtain my degree, AI will have my job." Another switched from computer science to electrical and computer engineering specifically because they saw AI replacing entry-level software jobs.

These aren't irrational fears. They're reasonable calculations made by people watching the labor market shift in real time. The Microsoft AI chief was recently quoted saying all white-collar work could be automated within 18 months. Whether that's accurate or overblown, that's the environment students are absorbing.

What Mainstream Coverage Is Missing

The coverage of this story has been almost entirely framed as a call for colleges to do more — more experiential learning, more skills-based curricula, more industry partnerships.

But several dimensions are getting short-changed:

This is also a government and regulatory failure. The federal student loan apparatus pumps roughly $100 billion a year into higher education with ZERO accountability for whether graduates can actually get jobs. Universities collect tuition, issue degrees, and face no consequences when those degrees don't translate to employment. That's a policy choice.

The Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology flagged in a December 2024 issue brief that workforce training systems need serious rethinking for the AI era. That rethinking requires deciding who pays and who's accountable. Nobody in Washington is seriously having that conversation.

Also missing: the role of occupational licensing and credentialism in making this worse. As entry-level jobs disappear, the instinct of institutions — and frankly, of both parties in Congress — is to pile on more credentials and certifications as the solution. That just raises the price of entry further, which is the opposite of what workers need.

The Hill noted that AI is "raising the price of entry into the workforce." But some of that price inflation has nothing to do with AI — it's been building for decades through credential creep pushed by the very institutions now asking for more funding to solve the problem.

What Actually Makes Sense

Colleges need to build real work experience INTO the degree — not as an optional add-on, but as a graduation requirement. Hansen at Cengage is right about this. Simulated work environments, project-based learning with actual industry partners, apprenticeship models. If a degree doesn't include hands-on application, it's selling something it can't deliver.

Employers need to stop demanding degrees for jobs that don't require them. The degree-or-nothing hiring filter was always lazy. Now it's actively counterproductive when the skills being tested are changing faster than four-year curricula can adapt.

And taxpayers — who are ultimately funding both the student loan system and any federal workforce retraining programs — deserve honest accounting of what's working. Not press releases. Outcomes data. Employment rates. Wage data by major, by school, by program. Published publicly. Required for any institution taking federal money.

The Bottom Line

A generation of workers is watching the traditional path to a career collapse in real time. They're anxious, they're changing their plans, and many are questioning whether college is worth the cost at all.

The institutions responsible for preparing them are responding mostly with task forces, white papers, and calls for more resources. This amounts to delay, not solution.