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AI is raising the price of entry into the workforce. Education must lower it.

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by Sam Dreyfus, opinion contributor - 05/16/26 3:00 PM ET

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by Sam Dreyfus, opinion contributor - 05/16/26 3:00 PM ET

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FILE – The OpenAI logo is seen on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen displaying output from ChatGPT, March 21, 2023, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

The people building AI are no longer just selling software. They are selling a vision of an age of abundance. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman predicts “massive prosperity.” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei argues that people underestimate AI’s “radical upside.” Elon Musk imagines a future of “sustainable abundance” whereby everyone can access whatever goods and services they want.

It is easier to be optimistic about AI’s future when you are among its primary beneficiaries. Still, the possibility does raise an important question: In an age of abundance, who will actually be prepared to participate in it?

The rise of artificial intelligence is changing what work looks like, what skills matter, and how quickly old competencies lose value. As an initial response, some companies are reducing entry-level roles while employees are finding mid-career transitions more difficult to navigate. A growing share of workers are finding themselves excluded from the prosperity AI is supposed to create.

At a time when students and families are increasingly questioning the value of a degree, college and university leaders should ask themselves what education must become in a world where both manual and cognitive work are being transformed. AI is not removing the need for people, but it is raising the price of entry. And if technology is raising the price of entry, education has to lower it.

In many ways, we have been here before. Mechanized agriculture reduced the labor required to grow food. Industrial machinery multiplied factory output while again reducing labor. Computers slashed the cost of storing, processing and transmitting information.

Each shift increased productivity while expanding access and improving living standards. Food became more abundant, goods more affordable and information more accessible. Each also caused jobs to vanish, disrupting communities and sapping older skills of their value.

But over time, lower costs expanded demand and added value. As agriculture became more efficient, labor and investment flowed into industry, logistics and management. As computing spread, value moved into software, systems, design and analysis.

AI will likely follow the same arc. It is a multiplier, not just a replacement.

According to the Federal Reserve, AI adoption has yet to reduce overall job postings, at least in the aggregate. But the path toward stable, upwardly mobile work is narrowing. As that happens, the skills required to enter the workforce will become more demanding. As the number of traditional entry-level roles shrinks and employer expectations rise, workers will now be expected to add an ever-growing amount of value on day one.

Today, the workers most likely to be squeezed out will be those with the least room for error: first-generation students, career changers, adult learners, and anyone trying to move into the middle class. If technology accelerates productivity while narrowing access, the result will be a labor market more rewarding for those already prepared and less forgiving for everyone else.

My grandfather understood this long before artificial intelligence entered the public conversation. He immigrated to the U.S. alone with little to his name beyond determination and the electronics repair skills he had learned in a vocational program. Those skills gave him a foothold in a new country and, over time, the opportunity to rebuild his life.

Years later, he founded an institution designed to do the same for others. In 1966, it began as the Electronic Computer Programming Institute, created to prepare workers for what was then an emerging computer industry.

Career preparation cannot be an afterthought. Return on investment is part of the bargain institutions make with students, their families and taxpayers.

Programs should align with where the labor market is going, not with where it has been. They should connect to real workforce demand, teach transferable skills and equip graduates for evolving careers. The old sequence of earning a degree, getting hired, and then learning the real work on the job is becoming less reliable. Institutions need tighter feedback loops with employers, faster program updates, and more opportunities for internships, apprenticeships, and project-based work that help students graduate with proof of capability, not just a credential.

The market will increasingly reward so-called “T-shaped&rd