It’s a pleasure to return to writing on this blog, and I hope to rebuild a regular writing habit. To begin again, I want to address a classic topic: education and the future of work. More precisely, what job should I advise my children to pursue in tomorrow’s economy?
When I was young, the most coveted paths for graduates were banking and consulting. I followed the trend myself, interning in a bank before starting my career in consulting. A few years later, a new wave emerged: the rise of software developers. Coding became the universal language everyone was encouraged to learn, starting as early as primary school. At the time, developer salaries were exceptional. In the United States, young engineers could earn up to 160,000 dollars a year, including bonuses and stock options, according to Glassdoor data.
Today, however, artificial intelligence has poured cold water on many of those ambitions. AI now writes code – not perfectly, for now – a phenomenon some call “vibe coding.” Across industries such as law, investment banking, and consulting, firms are testing how to integrate AI into their operations, with an eye on automating all or part of the tasks typically performed by junior staff. The effort is considerable but potentially worthwhile. The AI consulting market alone was valued at USD8.75bn in 2024 and is projected to reach 58.2 billion by 2034. Results remain uncertain, but given the size of the consulting industry, the investment appears rational.
Looking at the other side of the equation, young people face a real challenge. Which field offers them the best chance of employability in the future? Students must decide today on courses of study that will last three to five years. That means they must anticipate what the labour market will look like when they graduate. For the moment, AI engineers are in high demand—a situation that would have surprised most observers five years ago. According to LinkedIn’s 2024 Jobs on the Rise report, “AI engineer” and “machine learning specialist” ranked among the fastest-growing roles globally, with demand up by more than 30 percent year over year.
If we try to extend this trend, several ideas come to mind. AI generates a vast amount of content, but much of it remains imperfect. This creates demand for engineers who can monitor, verify, and refine results rather than merely produce them. I believe that AI systems will become more “explainable,” and the professionals who understand and challenge their reasoning will be essential. In software, the equivalent of imperfect text is code vulnerability, which brings cybersecurity into focus as another growth field. As AI becomes increasingly embedded in our daily lives, societies will also need experts who can define the limits of human–machine integration – jurists, ethicists, and policy specialists.
This leads me to insist on the enduring importance of engineering competencies, which will be more essential than ever in the years ahead. They will, however, take a different form from what I experienced early in my career. The engineer of tomorrow will not simply build systems but will bring reasoning quality and critical judgment to the interaction with machines. Equally important, the engineer’s mindset is inherently adaptive. Engineers are trained to learn continuously, to integrate new technologies and methodologies as they emerge, and to rebuild their knowledge base when the environment shifts. This ability to absorb and apply new information in real time is precisely what defines success in today’s world of constant technological evolution. As we move through an era where tools and frameworks change every few months, this habit of continuous learning becomes a decisive competitive advantage.
This is also a major cultural shift. Those who lived through the early days of personal computing and the Internet treated technology as an unquestionable source of truth. Now, with social networks and AI amplifying creative potential but also misinformation, we must reverse that logic completely. The machine must be challenged, not trusted blindly.
In this context, continuous education is a must for graduates of all disciplines. The best outcomes may come from blending pathways: a solid formal education that provides analytical and ethical foundations, combined with practical training, micro-certifications, and ongoing skill development throughout one’s career. This hybrid approach offers both stability and adaptability—exactly the combination required in a volatile, technology-driven economy.
Finally, AI will find it extremely difficult to replace human contact and soft skills. I am not referring to a single job here but to a set of transversal abilities- communication, empathy, adaptability, and persuasion- that can be applied to any profession. In an economy saturated with automation, these skills will differentiate individuals who lead from those who merely execute. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 ranks analytical thinking, resilience, and social influence among the top ten skills employers will prioritize through the end of the decade.
In conclusion, the future of work will not be defined by resistance to AI but by adaptation to it. We should encourage young people to pursue disciplines that complement artificial intelligence, not compete with it. The professions of tomorrow will belong to those who can supervise, interpret, and question AI’s reasoning rather than those who replicate its functions. Critical thinking, ethics, adaptability, and human communication will matter as much as technical skill. The educational systems that can teach this balance—between algorithmic understanding, continuous learning, and human judgment—will shape the next generation of resilient professionals.
This reflection is both personal and professional. As a parent, I wonder what path to advise my children. As a professional, I see the same question resonating through companies, universities, and governments worldwide. There is no single answer, but one principle stands out: those who learn to think with machines, not like them, will thrive, no matter which age we end up living in.