Nearly half of surveyed employers expect AI to make degrees more important

AI will make degrees more important over the next five years, according to 48% of 2,500 US hiring decision-makers surveyed by Gallup and Lumina Foundation. Another 26% expected less importance. Gallup published the findings on 19 October.[1]

The opt-in TestSet survey ran from 5 to 18 August. It used neither quotas nor weighting, and Gallup reports no sampling margin of error.[1]

The 80% preference figure concerns a separate question from AI’s future impact. It measures what respondents say they favour, rather than establishing whether degree holders actually won jobs.[1]

Degrees and readiness are different judgements

An earlier Lumina–Gallup report offers a useful counterpart. In its separate sample of 2,000 hiring decision-makers, 54% agreed that US colleges and universities were graduating people with the skills their organisation needed. Sixty-nine per cent said recent graduates needed a moderate amount or a great deal of additional training.[2]

The earlier fieldwork ran from 27 October to 7 November 2025. These are different questions in different samples, rather than a measure of change.[2][1]

There is no contradiction in preferring a qualification while expecting to train its holder. A credential can help with selection while the employer still needs evidence of job-specific ability. That distinction gives colleges a more demanding task than simply persuading employers to retain degree requirements: demonstrating what graduates can do.[2]

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