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- Fancy landing a job in tech?
- Thanks to AI, you may not need a computer science degree to make it in tech, says IBM's AI chief.
- Matthew Candy told Fortune that soft skills like critical thinking would be more important.
A computer science degree may no longer be necessary if you want to get a job in tech, says IBM's AI chief.
IBM's global managing partner for generative AI, Matthew Candy, told Fortune that AI would make it much easier for people without technical skills to build products.
"The speed at which people will be able to come up with an idea, to test the idea, to make something, it's going to be so accelerated," Candy said in a story published Saturday.
"You don't need to have a degree in computer science to do that," he added.
According to Candy, the rise of AI would instead put a premium on soft skills like critical and creative thinking.
"Questioning, creativity skills, and innovation are going to be hugely important because I think AI's going to free up more capacity for creative thought processes," he told Fortune earlier.
It's not just jobs in tech, though. Candy said that advances in AI image-generation technology could also affect those working in the arts.
"You're going to be able to take on the role of a designer. You don't need to be a graphic designer and have an art degree to do these things," Candy told the outlet.
Candy's remarks echo what LinkedIn vice president Aneesh Raman said in an interview on Microsoft's podcast "Worklab" in November.
Raman told host Molly Wood that he expects AI's rise to place a greater emphasis on soft skills as opposed to technical ones.
"The shelf life of a degree is shrinking pretty dramatically," Raman said.
In March, Goldman Sachs published a report saying that over 300 million jobs could be disrupted by AI. Candy's employer, IBM, said in May that it would be pausing hiring in roles that AI could replace.
"I could easily see 30% of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period," IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told Bloomberg, referencing the company's back-office roles.
Representatives for IBM did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.