AI is raising the price of entry into the workforce. Education must lower it.

The people building AI are no longer just selling software. They are selling a vision of an age of abundance. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman predicts “massive prosperity.” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei argues that people underestimate AI’s “radical upside.” Elon Musk imagines a future of “sustainable abundance” whereby everyone can access whatever goods and services they want.

It is easier to be optimistic about AI’s future when you are among its primary beneficiaries. Still, the possibility does raise an important question: In an age of abundance, who will actually be prepared to participate in it?

The rise of artificial intelligence is changing what work looks like, what skills matter, and how quickly old competencies lose value. As an initial response, some companies are reducing entry-level roles while employees are finding mid-career transitions more difficult to navigate. A growing share of workers are finding themselves excluded from the prosperity AI is supposed to create.

At a time when students and families are increasingly questioning the value of a degree, college and university leaders should ask themselves what education must become in a world where both manual and cognitive work are being transformed. AI is not removing the need for people, but it is raising the price of entry. And if technology is raising the price of entry, education has to lower it.

In many ways, we have been here before. Mechanized agriculture reduced the labor required to grow food. Industrial machinery multiplied factory output while again reducing labor. Computers slashed the cost of storing, processing and transmitting information.

Each shift increased productivity while expanding access and improving........

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