MW Teachers ban it, employers demand it: New grads face a frustrating AI double standard
Andrew Keshner
The mixed messages on AI are another challenge when Gen Z already faces a tough job market
As young workers start out in their careers, competing expectations around AI aren't "a future risk, but a right-now risk," one career coach says.
In most of his classes at the University of Colorado Denver, C.J. Masse's professors would have flunked him if he used artificial intelligence for designs and images, he said. And that would have been the least of it.
Now, the new graduate with a bachelor's degree in digital design is deciding how to make his way in graphic design and photography. It wouldn't surprise him if some employers expect AI mastery - especially with the technology's ability to create and polish images.
Masse, 22, doesn't use AI in his personal life and he says he wouldn't use it at work "because of the environmental impact of AI and how it literally steals from people."
He hopes that doesn't hamper his job search. "I don't think it will," he said. "At least, it better not."
At the University of North Texas, "a good majority of teachers actually encouraged us to experiment," said recent graduate Aidan Jaramillo. But AI wasn't allowed for quizzes or exams testing memorized subjects, said the 22-year-old, who majored in business computer information systems.
Then came a capstone class project to fix a company's talent-acquisition woes. The professor urged students to research with AI and incorporate its outputs in the final product. The students relied on their own AI know-how and a LinkedIn learning session.
Jaramillo said he will return to his alma mater for his master's degree and has a data-science internship now. He said it's important for schools to make sure students are familiar with AI so that graduates can meet employer expectations. In his current role, he's been using AI to build a dashboard of the business's AI usage.
"I feel like they want to believe that I know how to use AI," Jaramillo said.
Younger people are being pulled in different ways on how - or if - to use AI. On campus, students can get penalized for using it, depending on the school and the professor. Yet employers increasingly expect AI expertise as a part of a new worker's skill set.
AI's fast rise underscores the ongoing shift from a traditional model where schools shaped students as thinkers with broad skills, then businesses hired and taught the specific skills needed. Now, businesses train less and want workers ready from the start. The conflicting messages aren't helpful for graduates who could use a leg up in a difficult labor market.
"With my close friend group, we all feel like it's a double standard," said Masse. AI's growing presence in the workplace could be a challenge for Masse and his friends. They are wary of a technology more employers are embracing; Masse said his friends "are all pretty much in the same boat as me - they are all pretty anti-AI."
It's a taste of the potential AI skepticism still to come in the workplace.
Seven in 10 high-school students and new graduates believed AI's societal impact in the next decade would be more negative than positive, according to a National Society of High School Scholars survey. Gen Z has grown more anxious and angry with AI in the past year, a Gallup poll showed.
Former Google $(GOOGL)$ $(GOOG)$ CEO Eric Schmidt was even booed at his University of Arizona commencement speech last month when he discussed AI.
"Students are right to be confused," said Matt Sigelman, president of the Burning Glass Institute, a nonprofit data lab focused on work, learning and career paths. AI's swift rise has worsened a problem where many students are not graduating ready for the workforce, he said.
Schools sharpen students' thinking and research skills, he noted, but higher education hasn't been as good at honing students' applied skills - and for AI, that includes knowing when to responsibly use the technology.
Recent college graduates have an above-average unemployment rate at 5.6%, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. When they are working, over 40% are in jobs that don't require a college degree.
"AI readiness has become one of the most consistent themes in my coaching sessions," said Jeff Burke, a career coach in the Dallas-Fort Worth area who focuses on new and recent college graduates across the country.
He's worked with students like Jaramillo who have integrated AI into their studies. He's also heard from students who have been banned from using it and feel "functionally illiterate." The skills deficit hampers new grads as they are trying to launch themselves, he said. "It's not a future risk, but a right-now risk," Burke told MarketWatch.
Nearly half of graduating college students (46%) said AI was not meaningfully incorporated into their academic program, according to a survey from Handshake, a job platform aimed at college students. Nearly 6 in 10 (58%) said they needed a better understanding of AI to succeed in the workplace.
"AI appears to be a skill you teach yourself at your own risk," one student told Handshake researchers. "When I was in school, my professors were strongly against it, but now employers expect you to have already mastered it."
The share of job listings and internships specifically calling for AI skills jumped in 2025, though it's still a small portion, the Handshake report showed. The number of job postings with AI keywords almost doubled to 4.2% from July 2025 to March 2026.
"There's signals from the market that this is something employers are interested in," said Randy Tarnowski, Handshake's head of economic research. "A lot crystallized in the past year or so."
Employer demand for AI skills in entry-level jobs doubled from last fall to this spring, with 16.5% of the roles calling for AI skills, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The sought-after skills include knowing the right AI tools for the task, giving good prompts that produce high-quality results and being able to assess AI outputs.
AI skills are in growing demand, but they pale in comparison to what employers say they value most. Communication, teamwork, professionalism and critical thinking topped the list on what counts for career readiness, employers told NACE in an April 2026 survey.
AI skills ranked last.
How are schools responding? There's no one answer.
As the technology barreled onto campuses with the release of OpenAI's generative-AI chatbot ChatGPT in late 2022 and Google's Gemini in late 2023, cheating and academic integrity were the initial concerns of higher-education faculty and administrators, said C. Edward Watson, vice president for digital innovation at the American Association of Colleges and Universities.
Then school leaders watched businesses embracing AI, and they increasingly considered how to mix AI into classrooms and curriculum - a pivot that began around two summers ago, Watson said.
Yet in professors' classrooms themselves, many students "receive mixed messages these days," he said. Mixed messages may actually be beneficial, because they makes all sides - administrators, professors and students - consider the pros and cons of AI's rise, he noted.
Watson has visited more than 160 schools in the past several years, talking to professors and administrators. In his experience, about 20% of professors quickly are embracing AI, while 10% are resisting it. Then there's 70%, he said, who are in between and "trying to figure out, 'Does this make sense?'"
That would include Nina Eichacker, an economist at the University of Rhode Island. As she discussed in a Substack post, Eichacker views herself as in between "idealist" professors who would keep AI out of the classroom and "pragmatists" who let it in.
She's noticed the rise of scenarios like students submitting journal reflections that sound "eerily similar" and students who cite sources far beyond the assigned reading materials - a sign that they've used a gen-AI tool to research a topic. For certain assignments, she tells students they have to stick with the class material or their grade will suffer.
At the same time, Eichacker has grown more appreciative of students who turn in an "honest clumsy response." For her, "that's a sign you seem to be doing the work of grappling with this."
It's good to grapple, she said. "When I think about what's most important in college, it is learning to think through things. My deepest fear about this technology is that it is allowing students cheat codes to avoid thinking things through."
That's one reason why some students want no part in AI.
"I like to think I can think for myself," CU Denver graduate Masse said. "I would love for AI to be a tool we can use for menial tasks and stuff like that. But I feel like people are using it as a crutch to do their jobs for them basically."
In Masse's senior year, the University of Colorado reached a three-year deal with OpenAI that pays the company approximately $2 million. It offers students and faculty with free access to ChatGPT Edu, the ChatGPT platform geared toward higher education.
"The school got pretty harsh backlash from students about the OpenAI contract because we had been punished for using AI, and now they are getting this huge contract with them," Masse said.
Faculty and staff began accessing the tool this spring, while student access will begin in August, according to Michele Ames, a University of Colorado spokesperson.
The university's schools strive to offer all students a quality education, according to Ames. "In today's world, a valuable education includes proficiency at workforce-related tools, whether those are specific to a student's degree or more generally applicable like generative AI," she said.
Investing in AI tools and providing training for their responsible use "is an investment in CU's students and their future success," Ames added.
Graduates 'struggle mightily' for jobs
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June 22, 2026 08:00 ET (12:00 GMT)
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