While the world is fraught with contention, there’s little argument that the world is in the midst of an AI revolution. Just look at a recent WSJ report that shows how tech companies are funneling hundreds of billions of dollars into AI, with more than $52.9 billion of that being invested in the most recent quarter. Venture Capitalists invested over $64 billion in 2024, and nearly a third went to AI companies.
Conversely, traditional jobs are disappearing. Tech jobs, in particular, are in the midst of a worldwide reset, in large part due to AI, automation, and scarcer financing resources. These conditions have led to layoffs and reduced the need for traditional software developers. Labor roles have also been affected, with the costs for traditional employees and operations continuing to rise. Robotics and automation are displacing the need for roles traditionally held by labor workers and administrative staff across industries.
Additionally, the demand for writers and content developers has severely contracted as AI becomes a de facto standard for creating, editing, and publishing the material in minutes that was formerly written, edited, fact-checked, and disseminated by legions of traditional staff.
Will There be a Shortage of Jobs?
Interestingly, research shows that while AI is rapidly displacing millions of jobs, it does not eliminate the need or the number of roles for human employees. In fact, it’s the opposite. The World Economic Forum, in its Future of Jobs Report 2020, estimated that while AI will eliminate 85 million jobs by 2025, it will simultaneously create 97 million new jobs across 26 countries.
However, fewer of these new roles will involve physical labor. Many more of the new roles will require knowledge workers. AI, among the changes it brings, produces new jobs and creates new kinds of work. These new roles will be more fully integrated with automated processes and will bring forward the need for employees who can integrate and administrate automated and AI-driven resources. Moreover, as knowledge-based jobs, they will command higher wages than the current roles they’re displacing.
That being said, the new roles will require adjustments and learning curves. The message in the transition is that the future of job security in every industry is flexibility and upskilling. Therefore, the key to leveraging and thriving in this rapid transition comes down to a critical need: education.
The path to career and business success at every level, from entry-level to manager to leader to entrepreneur, is to gain the new skills and expertise required to thrive in the AI-driven universe. Many current workers and most organizations are scrambling to meet this need through workshops and courses on how to work with AI. The demand is sky-high, and endless programs are attempting to come forward to answer these needs.
But much more is required. The time is right, and the need has never been higher for complete and focused degree programs to educate the next era of knowledge workers to lead out in understanding how to leverage and, indeed, magnify the power of AI.
In the U.S., a small but growing number of universities are starting to offer associate, bachelor’s, and even master’s degrees in artificial intelligence. Given the newness of this space, many of the students wishing to prepare for a career in AI are being guided to computer science and data science degrees that can offer an emphasis on AI. Others are aiming toward mathematics, statistics, and engineering degrees as the closest available alternatives.
Multiple leading universities are offering certificate programs in AI to prepare their students so they can transition to AI-focused roles as quickly as possible.
In an emerging and notable case, a U.S.-based organization, SarasAI Institute, has created fully online comprehensive accredited AI 2-year and 4-year degree programs that, according to the company’s materials, will successfully put its graduates among the very top employees prepared to leverage the opportunity for AI careers fully.
Why is this so valuable? In the current realm of workers and students rushing to become qualified as AI generalists, these graduates come forward as bona fide AI specialists.
They become strong candidates for the new field of careers in which the current market salaries are more than 40 percent higher than the salaries in IT. And they become top candidates for the 97 million new jobs being created by AI by 2020 and become a key part of the $15.7 trillion contribution AI will make to the global economy by 2030.
Unlike the burgeoning field of certificate programs and individual courses, Saras AI Institute (Saras) is the world’s first online higher education institute exclusively focused on AI. At present, the Institute’s first wave of students is on the path to associate and bachelor’s degree programs that are working to empower a new generation of professionals with the skills to thrive in the rapidly expanding AI industry.
Jordan French is the Founder and Executive Editor of Grit Daily Group , encompassing Financial Tech Times, Smartech Daily, Transit Tomorrow, BlockTelegraph, Meditech Today, High Net Worth magazine, Luxury Miami magazine, CEO Official magazine, Luxury LA magazine, and flagship outlet, Grit Daily. The champion of live journalism, Grit Daily’s team hails from ABC, CBS, CNN, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Forbes, Fox, PopSugar, SF Chronicle, VentureBeat, Verge, Vice, and Vox. An award-winning journalist, he was on the editorial staff at TheStreet.com and a Fast 50 and Inc. 500-ranked entrepreneur with one sale. Formerly an engineer and intellectual-property attorney, his third company, BeeHex, rose to fame for its “3D printed pizza for astronauts” and is now a military contractor. A prolific investor, he’s invested in 50+ early stage startups with 10+ exits through 2023.