Create a Two-Part Career Plan for the Age of AI
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the workplace, not by replacing humans, but by redefining what skills matter most. The most successful professionals will pair AI proficiency with distinctly human strengths such as critical thinking, creativity and leadership.
1. Strengthen Your Human Capabilities
As AI tools become more powerful, distinctly human capabilities become increasingly valuable. Use AI as a tool to supplement and amplify your essential human abilities.
Skills you will need:
- Critical thinking: Analyzing complex situations; identifying bad assumptions, logical flaws and unreliable sources
- Creativity and innovation: Generating novel ideas, solving problems in new ways, being comfortable with ambiguity, constructively challenging conventional wisdom
- Emotional intelligence: Building empathy and strong listening skills, mastering conflict resolution and negotiation, reading social dynamics, building intercultural competence, developing resilience and emotional self-regulation
- Strategic thinking: Seeing beyond immediate problems to broader implications, identifying emerging opportunities and threats, planning for scenarios and risks
- Leadership and collaboration: Motivating a team, delegating and overseeing tasks, giving and receiving constructive feedback, building consensus and managing conflict
How to develop these skills:
- Cultivate mentors who can guide your development
- Take classes or seminars focused on your personal and professional growth and development
- Seek leadership roles in student and professional organizations
- Join group, research and community projects
- Make internships a priority in your education
2. Become AI-literate
No previous generation has encountered the challenges you face in preparing for a career. You must become proficient with AI while also developing your distinctly human capabilities. Dedicate your university years to gaining experience in both domains, mastering this twin set of superpowers.
Skills you will need:
- Fundamental AI skills: Writing effective prompts, fact-checking AI output, combining outputs from multiple AI tools, writing and editing with AI, working ethically with AI
- Technical understanding: Basic knowledge of how different types of AI work, understanding AI limitations and biases
- Professional AI applications: Using AI tools specific to your field; information research, data analysis and visualization
- AI integration: Creating workflows and documentation that combine AI and human input, protocols for quality control of AI output, keeping AI secure and guarding data privacy
How to develop these skills:
- Take courses focused on AI tools and applications
- Get to know professors and mentors who can share what they know about AI
- Complete AI certification programs
- Build a portfolio of AI-assisted projects
- Join AI professional organizations and student AI groups
Engage with AI: Build a Portfolio to Showcase Your Skills
Showcase your value by building a professional work portfolio of hands-on AI projects. You will stand out in a competitive job market if you show creative and sophisticated ways to use AI tools in your field.
Share your portfolio at research fairs and on LinkedIn, GitHub, social media and websites. Potential employers and collaborators will be impressed at your initiative.
Portfolio Possibilities: Ideas for Many Disciplines
STEM (science, technology, engineering, math)
- AI-powered data analysis – Use analytical tools like Python, R, or Excel (with AI add-ons) to analyze a real-world dataset
- AI-based robotics control system – Design an AI algorithm to control a robot arm for object detection and sorting
- AI for drug discovery – Use AI-driven software like AlphaFold to predict protein structures or analyze medical research data
- AI in cybersecurity – Use AI to detect anomalies in network traffic or build a basic chatbot that educates users on phishing attacks
Business and Economics
- AI-generated business plan – Develop a business plan where AI assists in market research, prototyping, competitor analysis and SWOT analysis
- AI-driven market segmentation – Use AI to categorize consumer groups based on behavior and demographics
- AI in supply chain optimization – Use AI-powered logistics planning tools like OptimoRoute to analyze and optimize delivery routes for a company
- AI-assisted business pitch deck and investment proposal – Use AI tools such as Canva and Excel with Copilot to generate a business pitch deck for a startup idea, including market opportunity, revenue model and financial projections
Arts and Humanities
- AI-assisted translation project – Compare human vs. AI translations of literary works to analyze nuance and accuracy
- Historical data analysis – Use AI tools to analyze large datasets of historical information, like census records or ship manifests to identify patterns or trends
- AI-generated music and soundscapes – Use AI sound generation tools to compose background music or sound effects for a theatrical performance
Social Sciences
- AI and political trends – Use AI to analyze social media discussions during elections or major political events
- AI for crime pattern analysis – Use AI to find correlations in crime statistics across different areas
- Comparative analysis of social movements – Use AI to summarize and compare historical and modern social movements and create a visual timeline or infographic
Health Sciences
- AI and nutrition analysis – Use AI to generate personalized diet plans based on different health conditions
- AI for speech therapy – Build an AI tool that helps people with speech impairments improve their pronunciation
- AI-powered exercise plans – Use AI-driven fitness apps to generate personalized workout plans and compare their effectiveness
Examples in other majors
- Education – Use AI to generate differentiated instructional materials to meet the diverse learning needs of all students.
- Communications – Use AI tools to analyze a large number of real-world public relations crises and generate a crisis response framework
- Criminal justice – Use AI to analyze historical crime data and predict future trends in specific urban areas
This page summarizes key ideas from The Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence (AI-U 2025), produced by Elon University and the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).