Is College Still The Default Path When AI Agents Are Doing The Work?

People who can design and deploy AI agents, while understanding the businesses those agents optimize, may have an advantage over those who cannot.

Tools such as Claude, Grok and ChatGPT can already help manage decisions, workflows and routine tasks. Discord can serve alongside them as a coordination layer, allowing agents to post results, hand off work and collaborate in private channels or threads.

Current systems still operate as artificial narrow intelligence, or ANI, as I explained in an earlier Future Voices article about the ANI, AGI and ASI spectrum.

This is already happening across business operations, including work in real estate and finance. I saw it firsthand this summer during a real estate apprenticeship. If college is for “fun and chores,” as Elon Musk stated below, how can young people in traditional schools prepare today?

College enrollment among recent high school graduates stood at 62.8% in October 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That remained below the 66.2% recorded before the pandemic in October 2019.

Elon Musk has said a degree is not required for success, learning is widely available at little or no cost and proven ability matters more than a credential. “I think colleges are basically for fun and to prove that you can do your chores, but they’re not for learning,” Musk said during the Satellite 2020 conference.

Middle school students and older students who want to build agents while understanding business can begin now with complimentary or low-cost options:

• AI Discoveries from Code.org offers students in grades six through eight AI basics, critical thinking and experience building simple applications.
• Python resources from Python.org, freeCodeCamp and Code.org can help students develop the logic and data skills agents require.
• Project-based programs or self-directed practice allow students to create agents that handle multistep tasks, including project tracking, data summaries and rule-based responses.

Projects grounded in real problems, such as pricing decisions, design tracking or cost monitoring, build the most useful skills. By senior year, a portfolio of working agents and business experience can help students understand what further study would add and whether college programs focused on applied systems and operations make sense.

College remains one path for depth and credentials. It is no longer the only path for designing agents that improve how a company runs. Starting the building practice in middle school is the most direct way to develop that capacity.

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