AI is changing professions. The university must change
Governments and universities are investing billions in AI, but this is not enough. The true challenge lies not in adding new courses, but in rethinking the entire education model to prepare students for the future.
Governments, companies, and universities are investing billions in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Many universities are responding by opening new study programs, expanding research labs, and acquiring AI tools. These are important steps, but they do not touch the core of the challenge. The question is not how to teach AI, but what a university should look like in a world where almost every profession is about to change.
A student starting a degree today will finish it in three or four years. No one knows what the job market will look like on the day they receive their degree, not even the employers themselves. Lawyers are already using AI, doctors are receiving diagnoses from smart systems, and economists, engineers, psychologists, and managers are working alongside intelligent systems. And this is just the beginning.
Therefore, professional knowledge alone is no longer enough. The graduate of the future will need to know how to work with AI, but no less importantly — to know when not to trust it, how to critique it, how to integrate it into decision-making, and above all, how to create human value where the machine is already performing a large part of the work. This is why the real challenge for academia is not which courses to add, but what kind of person it seeks to cultivate.
The teaching model on which generations of students grew up has reached the end of its road. When all knowledge is available within seconds, the lecturer is no longer the sole source of knowledge. Their new role is to teach how to think, to doubt, to ask better questions, to distinguish between reliable information and noise, to deal with uncertainty, and to make complex decisions in a constantly changing world. Study programs cannot continue to be updated every few years; in a world where new technologies are born almost every month, universities must learn to change at a different pace.
An academic degree can no longer be the end point of learning. Higher education must become a system that accompanies its graduates throughout their entire career. An institution seeking to lead cannot settle for point adjustments; it must re-examine its teaching concept, the structure of studies, and the connection with the job market.
No less important is the character of the graduate. As AI continues to improve, the human advantage will not be in the speed of information processing, but in the ability to think creatively, critically, and in a multidisciplinary manner. The ability to combine disciplines, see the big picture, and connect different content worlds will become one of the most important assets of future graduates.
Israel has an opportunity to be among the countries that redefine the higher education model in the age of AI, just as it was among the first to identify the cyber revolution. This requires courage, thinking outside the box, and a willingness to challenge models built for a world that no longer exists. History teaches that leading institutions are not those that adapt first to a revolution, but those that identify early where the world is going and shape it. The AI revolution gives universities a rare opportunity to redefine their purpose.
Professor Boaz Ganor is the President of Reichman University.
