Rivera creditsthe creation of courses focusing on the intersection of AI and humanities with a resurgence in student interest in liberal arts degrees like English. Pre-pandemic, the number of English majors at the university was shrinking,part of a broader decline in English across the country, he said. It was a far cry from the days of over 1,500 majors and long waitlists in the early 2000s, according to Rivera. But there's been a rebound, with the number of English majors rising 9% since 2021.
"I continue to believe that humans plus AI together actually create more meaningful work, more challenging work, more interesting work, high-productivity jobs," Amodei added. "And then I think it will also open the aperture to a lot of access and opportunity for many people." That doesn't mean the future employment landscape will require a technical background. Indeed, the release of Anthropic's latest AI-coding tools sparked a massive selloff among tech stocks this past week as the technical expertise needed to write and maintain code is expected to fall sharply.
Many professionals focus on big projects and headline achievements, but research shows that soft skills and visibility strongly influence promotions. LinkedIn data reveals that employees who combine hard and soft skills get promoted about 8% faster than those who focus only on technical abilities, and skills like communication, teamwork and problem solving are linked to promotions up to 11% faster. Regularly updating and showcasing your skills is also tied to faster advancement.
The cybersecurity landscape is a dynamic arena in which innovation and threats evolve relentlessly. ISACA's State of Cybersecurity 2025 report - drawing insights from more than 3,800 professionals worldwide - offers a critical snapshot of this environment. It highlights persistent staffing shortages, the transformative impact of AI, rising stress levels and constrained budgets. Together, these findings underscore the delicate balance organizations must strike between technology, talent and well-being.
One professional who followed a decidedly squiggly career pathway before doing a six-month bootcamp in 2020 is Lucy Ironmonger, a tech lead at fintech Zuto, who studied English with creative writing at the University of Birmingham 13 years earlier. While there, she found a bar job and, due to her love of music, seized the opportunity to run the establishment's music night every Tuesday.
The narrow definition of success for adolescents has persisted and pressured teenagers for decades. Good test results, high grades, and admission to reputable colleges have been considered the ultimate signs of success in youth. Since children enroll in school, their achievements are quantified in terms of figures on report cards and scores on standardized tests. Although these measures provide a perspective of academic aptitude, they do not always reflect the multivariate and multidimensional nature of success.
If hard skills are increasingly being automated, employers are shifting focus to what AI can't replicate: creativity, empathy, critical thinking, and other essential soft skills. For years, technical abilities were king, but the tide may be turning. Indeed's Hiring Lab took a look at job postings and analyzed which soft skills were listed. The top were communication, leadership, and organizational prowess. Forty-three percent of all job listings had at least one soft skill advertised.
Soft skills are essential in the modern workplace, as employers increasingly prioritize emotional intelligence, adaptability, communication, and collaboration alongside technical expertise.
"By designing soft skills simulations in Adobe Captivate, you empower adult learners to practice, fail safely, reflect, and ultimately master the workplace skills they need to succeed."
