Artificial intelligence (AI) is putting pressure on traditional education and career paths, prompting economists and technology executives to call for greater emphasis on critical thinking, practical skills and occupations that require human judgment.
The debate at the 2026 Per Jacobsson Lecture in Bangkok focused on how schools and governments should prepare young people for a labour market in which AI can increasingly perform tasks associated with professional training and specialised knowledge.
Nageswaran said economies rich in labour, including India and other developing countries, should invest more heavily in occupations that require physical presence, practical expertise and interpersonal judgment.
He identified nursing, elder care, teaching, mental-health counselling, electrical work, plumbing and technical maintenance among the fields where human workers could retain an advantage as AI makes some cognitive tasks less costly.
He argued that governments should improve vocational training institutions, give technical qualifications greater recognition and expand apprenticeships that allow students to acquire workplace experience before graduation.
For India, he said, the need is particularly pressing because the country must create about 8 million livelihoods annually. He also cited an estimate that India needs about 1.8 million additional doctors, nurses and midwives to reach the World Health Organization’s minimum staffing benchmark.
Nageswaran said the value of practical skills would depend partly on whether pay, certification and social recognition improved enough to attract young people.
Clark, meanwhile, argued that creativity, history, philosophy and an understanding of human values could become more important as AI systems take on a greater share of knowledge-based work.
Asked what degree he would recommend for children entering an AI-driven economy, Clark said fields that rely heavily on the acquisition and reproduction of existing knowledge could face pressure. He suggested that a grounding in the liberal arts could help people navigate questions of ethics, values and the direction of technological change.
Shen called for a shift away from education systems centred on teachers delivering information for students to memorise. She argued that education should place greater emphasis on questioning and preserving children’s curiosity.
Nageswaran similarly urged educators to teach students how to ask the right questions, while reinforcing foundational abilities such as reading and writing by hand.
The discussion also raised concerns about the effect of AI on human learning. Nageswaran cited a small study from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab that examined essay writing with and without an AI model over four months. He said the study found weaker brain connectivity among participants who relied on the tool, with 83% of ChatGPT users in the first session unable to quote a sentence from essays they had written minutes earlier.
The study’s limited size means its findings should not be generalised to all AI use, but Nageswaran said they reinforced concerns about dependence on automated tools.
The broader message from the lecture was that preparing for AI requires more than teaching people to use new technology. Education systems will also need to preserve independent thinking, strengthen practical capabilities and help workers adapt as the value of different skills changes.
