Kevin Surace tells 500 university students that refusing to learn AI will make them unemployable. He compares AI literacy to Excel skills in the 1980s: not optional anymore. Rejecting it now is like refusing to use a computer in the job market.
This expert just told 500 students the one skill that could make them completely unhireable if they ignore it.
I talked to a student group yesterday. It was an audience of 500 people or so, but it was university students. There's some small percentage, 10 to 20%, that are rebelling against AI and they hate AI. They think it's bad for humanity, it's bad for them, it's bad for this, bad for that. My message to them was simple. You can think anything you want, but if you don't embrace AI, you're not getting a job after college. Guarantee it. No one will hire you. You're unhireable. Well, I can't believe you'd say something like that. Hey, you'd say it. Any of us who are in the business using AI are gonna realize I would never hire one. They don't understand it. How can that be? Well, look, in the late '80s, Excel came out. And if you went into finance and you said, I'm never gonna use Excel, you didn't get hired.
That is so true.
You still don't get hired. If you went into a business today and say, well, you know, I don't use a laptop. What do you use? Nothing. I don't use computers.
Oh, what will you do? We're clearly not gonna hire you. You're unhireable. It's at that level. Hi, I don't use AI.
Get out. You're unhireable.
