--- title: "Bosses Horrified as “AI Native” College Graduates Hit the Workplace" description: "There's a silent epidemic building in colleges and universities throughout the country — and as you might imagine, it has everything to do with AI." date: "2026-05-09" modified: "2026-05-09" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/college-critical-thinking-ai" categories: - "Education" - "Future Society" --- # Bosses Horrified as “AI Native” College Graduates Hit the Workplace ![A young man is sitting at a wooden desk with his feet up, wearing white sneakers, light blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and a blue button-up shirt. He is holding a disposable coffee cup in one hand and resting the other hand on a silver laptop. The desk has scattered papers, a blue pen, an open notebook, a closed blue notebook, and a white smartphone. The background is plain and light-colored.]() *Getty Images / Elizaveta Starkova* There's a silent epidemic building in colleges and universities throughout the country — and as you might imagine, it has everything to do with AI. As one New York financier [told *Financial Times* journalist]() Gillian Tett, new hires who were seen as "AI natives" are turning out to have alarmingly shallow ideas. So much so, the anonymous finance worker admitted, that his firm now actively avoids seeking out AI-literate STEM graduates, and opts to comb through humanities students instead. "We want critical thinking, not just AI," the financier told the *FT*. Over the past few years, a veritable tidal wave of [headlines](), [studies](), and [think pieces]() have flooded the internet with horror stories about the decline in literacy rates, social skills, and critical thinking abilities of the country's college students. While there's a kernel of truth that these factors had already been [slowly]() [dwindling]() prior to the widespread adoption of AI, the tech only seems to be accelerating the drop-off in real-life abilities, particularly among young people for whom it can serve as a cognitive crutch. The state of higher education is so bad that many of today's higher ed students are not only [offloading their coursework]() to AI chatbots like ChatGPT — a shortcut, educators say, that's even impacting their ability to participate in [face-to-face discussions](). And though universities have many purposes beyond simply preparing students for the workplace, that is one function that they do undoubtedly serve. The results could be rocky: as Cal State Chico ethics professor Troy Jollimore [told the *New Yorker*]() in 2025, "massive numbers of students are going to emerge from university with degrees, and into the workforce, who are essentially illiterate." While plenty of thought leaders have waxed lyrical about the importance of "AI literacy" — an understanding of how to effectively use AI tools, basically — the businesses these future students are heading toward are still heavily reliant on *literacy* literacy. For all its revolutionary potential, there's [ample]() [evidence]() that AI has yet to meaningfully impact productivity in the US, meaning that students who go all-in on AI at the expense of other skills will likely find themselves ill-prepared for the actual demands of life after college. **More on AI and education:** *["Educational" YouTube AI Slop Encourages Kids to Play in Traffic]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()