Research to Reality: Preparing Students to Learn and Work with Generative AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are already impacting the job landscape, and that is creating a sense of anxiety for students and educators trying to cultivate durable skills for the working world.

In a 2024 Forum session on the future of work, Clare Bertrand, College Board executive director of Career Strategy and Partnerships, and Yustina Saleh, the Burning Glass Institute’s managing director of Innovation Solutions, looked at how the education world is adapting to the demand for different skills in a range of careers now that AI is making rapid advances into the workplace.

The Research: How Will AI Impact Careers?

“What are the skills, the careers, the credentials that allow people to have opportunity?” Saleh asked. The answer to that question has gotten hard to predict now that generative AI tools are replacing salespeople, business managers, and copywriters on a scale large enough to affect corporate investments and career tracks. Some jobs will be automated entirely, Saleh warned, but many others will be augmented in a way that requires people to work alongside new technology to be more productive.

She walked an audience of educators and counselors through a large Burning Glass survey released earlier this year highlighting the sectors most affected by generative AI. Fields like finance and tech—traditionally considered prestigious, secure career routes for college graduates—have already seen large disruptions and are likely to experience more layoffs and uncertainty as companies figure out how to streamline their operations using emerging technology.

“The impact is on both skills and jobs,” Saleh said. “Some jobs are there to stay. But they are highly impacted and transformed, and that will be tricky.” 

Using AI to Benefit Students

Bertrand said schools are already rushing to incorporate basic AI navigation skills into the curriculum, given that many students are currently experimenting with it, and many parents are wondering how it will affect career prospects. A thoughtful embrace of AI literacy, and experimentation around AI tools designed to personalize and improve student learning, are becoming core components of career readiness in many schools.

Saleh said the key question for educators is whether AI is enhancing student thinking or replacing it. She offered the example of reliance on GPS guidance diminishing people’s ability to create mental maps of their world or develop a sense of direction. “What happens to your brain when you are not really doing all of these processes?” she asked. “Why are we trusting the device so much, when it’s taking away mental capacity?”

Those guiding principles are important to hold as schools, teachers, and parents encounter more AI-based tools that promise to accelerate learning or teach students new skills. Being discerning about how to engage with AI—exercising very human judgment about which tools are valuable and which are gimmicks—will be a major challenge for the education world.

“AI is a tool, and we get to make decisions about how to use it,” said Bertrand, adding that College Board’s GenAI Studio was created to do exactly that kind of analysis. “At College Board, we want to take action that is grounded in research,” she said, so that educators and school leaders can make thoughtful decisions about how technology can work for students.