Economist Says College Degree Builds Skills AI Cannot Match

Carl Benedikt Frey, an economist at the University of Oxford, said a college degree still provides value by teaching skills that current AI systems cannot perform. He identified three areas where humans maintain an advantage: complex social interactions, creativity, and operating in changing environments.

Frey told Fortune that AI improvements in communication have increased the workplace value of human social skills. A 2025 Stanford University study cited in the same report found communication skills growing in importance while data analysis and accounting skills decline.

Frey said human creativity involves thinking differently and pushing boundaries rather than recombining existing information. He gave the example of an AI model in 1900 concluding humans could never fly because no bird heavier than 30 pounds had done so. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 also listed creative thinking as a skill rising in demand, according to the article.

Frey stated that AI performs well in stable environments such as textbook material but struggles when conditions change frequently. He said college helps students learn to interpret information in volatile settings where day-to-day job requirements shift.

Frey added that AI advances could increase offshoring of knowledge work to lower-wage countries such as India and the Philippines, putting downward pressure on wages for those tasks.