According to Fortune, many colleges are implementing restrictive AI policies that mirror a refusal to adapt, akin to banning Google searches. This is happening as graduates face one of the toughest job markets in years, with the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) projecting a mere 1.6% hiring increase for the Class of 2026 compared to 2025. Employers like Shopify and Microsoft are now evaluating employees based on AI use, and a Slack survey found daily AI users report being 64% more productive. While some schools, like Ohio State and the University of San Francisco School of Law, are embedding AI into curricula, the broader academic hesitation risks leaving students unprepared for a workforce where AI literacy is a baseline expectation, not a bonus.
The Backwards Classroom
Here’s the thing: the article’s library analogy is spot on. Imagine telling a student today they can’t use a search engine for research. You’d be laughed out of the room. But that’s essentially what’s happening with AI in a lot of classrooms. The focus is so heavily on preventing cheating that it’s blinding institutions to the tool’s fundamental utility. It’s treating a calculator like it’s only for cheating on math tests, ignoring that it’s also the engine of modern engineering and finance. This creates a weird disconnect where the “real world” students are being prepared for operates on one set of rules, while academia operates on another, more restrictive one. It’s a surefire way to make a degree feel less relevant.
A Perfect Storm for Grads
Now, this pedagogical stubbornness is colliding with a brutal economic reality. The job market for new grads is tightening, with NACE forecasting that tiny 1.6% hiring bump. Companies are doing more with less, and as the piece notes, they’re raising performance expectations for entry-level roles. Why? Because AI is taking over the grunt work. Look at OpenAI hiring ex-bankers to train AI on analyst tasks. The traditional career ladder is being compressed. You can’t start by just doing rote data entry anymore—a bot does that. You need to start higher up, which means you need the skills to manage, critique, and leverage that bot from day one. A grad without those skills is bringing a pencil to a drone fight.
The Employer Mandate Is Already Here
This isn’t some future prediction. The mandate from employers is live. When Shopify’s CEO says AI use is a baseline expectation for performance reviews, that’s a line in the sand. Microsoft managers are evaluating based on AI tool use. These are signals every university career center should be screaming from the rooftops. The Slack survey data showing huge jumps in productivity and job satisfaction for AI users is just the quantitative proof. Employers see AI as the lever for efficiency in a tough climate. So if you’re a new hire, you’re not just expected to work hard—you’re expected to work smart with the tools available. Showing up without that fluency is like showing up not knowing how to use email.
What Adaptation Actually Looks Like
So, what’s the path forward? It’s not about letting ChatGPT write every essay. It’s about structured, responsible integration, exactly like the examples Fortune highlights. The USF School of Law allowing AI for legal research is a perfect model. Teach students to use it as a research assistant, a brainstorming partner, a first-draft generator—then teach them the critical skills to fact-check, refine, and apply ethical judgment. This is the “responsible use” curriculum that’s needed. Basically, universities need to stop being gatekeepers of old methods and start being guides for new tools. Their value shifts from providing access to information (which AI democratizes) to providing the critical framework to use that information powerfully and ethically. If they don’t make that shift, they risk making their own degrees obsolete. And that’s a future no professor wants to see.
