Artificial intelligence is changing what students need to know to succeed in the workforce. It turns out schools have been teaching many of those skills for decades.
“TrAIlblazing” is a monthly column capturing the latest trends and innovations in artificial intelligence and its impact on K12 based on research and conversations with district leaders.
College commencement season last spring taught us that young adults are pessimistic about AI. Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta and other speakers were booed for acknowledging AI’s growing/intensifying impact on the job market.
“AI is rewriting production as we sit here,” he told the unsettled Middle Tennessee State University graduates. His response to the crowd: “Deal with it.”
The boos in the room echo ongoing research about young adults’ perspectives on AI. Forty-seven percent of graduates say AI has already impacted hiring in their field, according to a new ZipRecruiter survey.
Additionally, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that the unemployment rate among college graduates was 5.7% in June, higher than the rate for all workers at 4.1%.
The technology primarily impacts entry-level roles, Stanford University economist Erik Brynjolfsson told NPR. “AI is not the whole story, but it’s part of the story and the evidence is building,” he said.
Teaching durable skills
For decades, disruptive technologies have prompted educators to reinforce durable skills, such as critical thinking, communication and leadership. In the current job market, more than three-quarters of job postings require at least one core competency, according to a 2025 study from America Succeeds, an education and workforce development nonprofit.
AI has only exacerbated the importance of these traits, says Chris Agnew, director of the SCALE Initiative’s AI for Education Hub at Stanford University.
“Those skills have been escalating in value over the last 20 years with an increasingly digital world,” he says. “AI is only the fuel.”
At its core, AI literacy demands that students know what AI is and how it works so they can navigate online technologies safely and effectively.
Digital Promise, a research nonprofit focused on technology and classroom practice, has an AI literacy framework that emphasizes three interconnected “modes of engagement”:
- Understand: Students who know the technology’s capabilities can make informed decisions about using AI tools.
- Use: Creating content and problem-solving with AI in different educational contexts.
- Evaluate: Considering the impacts AI has on individuals, society and the environment.
“AI literacy for students is essential, and it has a high degree of overlap with many of the durable skills, like critical thinking,” Agnew says. ”
Teaching AI ‘skill sets’
Still, students must leave high school with a basic understanding of how to use AI in their future careers. Writing queries that generate useful, accurate responses is one of the most important skills, a November ASCD brief counsels.
“Strong prompts help students communicate effectively with AI systems to get results aligned to their goals,” the article reads.
The authors list nine other essential AI competencies students must learn before graduating high school:
- Information literacy: Finding, evaluating and using information effectively and responsibly.
- Data literacy: Analyzing data and communicating the results in meaningful ways.
- Questioning: Asking purposeful questions to drive inquiry or direct an AI tool.
- Dialogue: Exchanging ideas with AI to build meaning through clarification and reasoning.
- Verification: Checking the accuracy, reliability and sources of AI-generated content.
- Critical interpretation: Analyzing AI outputs for logic, clarity and relevance.
- Curiosity: Exploring uncertainties and pursuing new knowledge.
- Metacognition: Reflecting on one’s thinking and adjusting strategies.
- Cognitive flexibility: Adapting one’s thinking, shifting perspectives and approaching problems from multiple angles.
