College is expensive, and many people are questioning if it’s worth the cost.palantir CEO Alex Karp has said it doesn’t realy matter where his employees went to college, and apple CEO Tim Cook has said a four-year degree isn’t needed to work at Apple. The rise of AI has added to these doubts. but some economists say college still provides value, teaching skills AI can’t.
Carl Benedikt Frey is an economist at the University of Oxford and author of a 2013 paper that estimated automation could put nearly half of U.S. jobs at risk. He believes AI will likely cause more high-skilled work to move to countries with lower labor costs.
“If AI makes these jobs easier,you will see more activities shifting towards places where labor is cheaper,whether that’s India or the Philippines,” frey told Fortune. “I think that’s going to put a lot of pressure on people’s wages doing knowledge work.”
Despite this, Frey says a college degree is still worthwhile as it teaches three key skills where humans have an advantage over AI: complex social interactions, creativity, and navigating complex environments.
Complex social interactions
AI has improved in dialog, but Frey says this actually makes human interaction more valuable.
“The value of social skills have gone up over the past decade, whereas the value of math skills has been trending downwards,” Frey said.
That’s because AI can solve math problems, but it can’t hold a meeting or understand emotions and also a person.A Stanford University study found communication skills will become more important,while skills like data analysis will become less so.
creativity
AI can mimic creativity—like writing in the style of Shakespeare or creating art—but human creativity is about thinking differently and pushing boundaries.
“If you had asked an LLM in 1900, ‘woudl humans ever be able to fly?’” Frey said, “it would have concluded that there’s no bird that weighs more than 30 pounds that’s able to get off the ground.”
The World Economic forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 also says creative thinking is becoming more critically important. Frey says discussions and debates—common in college—help develop creative thinking.
resilience
Frey says AI struggles with real-world situations that are always changing. It excels in stable environments.
“An undergraduate textbook will not have changed that much in recent decades,” Frey said.“AI thrives as a tutor in those relatively static environments.”
That means being flexible will be more valuable as AI improves. The WEF’s 2025 Future of Jobs Report also highlights resilience as a rising skill. Business leaders also say resilience is important for navigating changes brought by AI. While AI can provide information, college prepares students to use that information in complex situations.
“In professions where you have more volatility where your job changes more day to day, [those jobs] are less likely to be exposed or automated,” Frey said.
