After years of rising student enrollment and unfettered market expansion in computer science, this academic cycle illustrates that even the mighty are mortal.
New AI programs can automate the coding in web and software development, two areas that have been fueling job growth.
As a result, many entry-level positions that might have been available to recent graduates have disappeared.
“I realized about a year ago that students coming out with our bachelor’s degrees were ill-equipped in the job market,” says Harry Keeling, associate professor at Howard University in D.C. “Most of the major tech firms have said that 90-plus percent of the code that they are now producing is coming from AI.”
Triple-digit layoffs at some of the largest tech firms in the country, including Meta, Google and Amazon, have legitimized fear surrounding job displacement.
Students have emphatically responded to recent market disruptions: Undergraduate enrollment across computer science decreased by 8% this fall, while graduate enrollment fell by a whopping 14%.
Computer science experts interviewed by University Business believe that the field is experiencing a short-term decline, a disruption similar to those of the dot-com bubble of the 1990s and the 2008 recession.
“Tech isn’t going anywhere; it’s being reconfigured,” says Jameson Watts, dean of the School of Computing and Information Sciences at Willamette University in Oregon. “More people are going to be able to do more things, and that usually creates more tech jobs, not less.”
However, institutions that fail to overhaul their computer science curricula imperil their graduates, as the jobs once readily available for career newcomers are replaced by AI.
“Every field soon is going to have this issue,” says Douglas Schmidt, dean of the School of Computing, Data Sciences and Physics at William & Mary in Virginia. “It’s just happening more dramatically in computer science right now.”
How computer science programs must adapt
Undergraduate computer science programs around the country have traditionally prepared students for junior software developer roles. In this entry position, recent graduates honed their skills and gained professional experience under the guidance of a senior developer.
In today’s workforce, one to two senior developers empowered by AI to perform low-level coding have gutted the demand for the junior developer role.
“If companies are not hiring junior developers, then we can’t graduate junior developers,” says Bingyang Wei, associate professor and department chair of computer science at Texas Christian University. “We must graduate senior developers.”
As the gap widens, computer science programs must graduate students with hands-on professional experience and AI competency.
Your next read: How demand for computer science degrees has both reduced and improved
William & Mary is embedding AI into “almost everything,” from introductory to graduate-level courses, Schmidt says. Incoming undergraduates who accumulated college credits through Advanced Placement and dual enrollment should be encouraged to enroll in accelerated graduate program pathways.
Students who are already in the middle of their academic journey should be guided toward internships and research projects that incorporate cutting-edge technologies. “What we’re seeing is that people with AI skills in computer science are flying off the market,” Schmidt says.
Howard University has relied on tech partners such as CodePath, Google and others to develop industry-relevant curricula. Students must demonstrate their early achievements to employers through project-oriented coursework, Keeling says.
“Students are being selected based on what they’ve accomplished more than what they know,” he adds.
Wei encourages his first-year students to get comfortable right away with “vibe coding,” which is when a user creates code simply by describing what he or she wants through command prompts to a generative AI tool.
Other courses still demand that learners understand the fundamentals, Wei says. While future programmers will no longer need to write code as extensively, they must understand how to review and edit the complex systems that AI creates.
A competitive job applicant must also be aware of AI’s tendencies when writing code and ensure that the end product remains legible to other human team members.
“The executive chef of a restaurant does not chop onions or cook the dish,” he says. “They need to understand the needs of the customer, pick high-quality ingredients and create a team of cooks. We are trying to train those executive chefs.”
However, how extensively computer science graduates should rely on AI is still up for debate. A roundtable discussion Watts recently attended with regional employers revealed that software developer job applicants who rely too heavily on AI hurt their chances for employment.
“As we continue to outsource expertise to machines, the value that humans provide takes longer to acquire,” Watts says. “It takes a long time to become an expert in a given domain.”
Nevertheless, human collaboration and communication will become more important in the age of AI, Wei says. “Before you write a single line of code, you have to talk to your client. That’s something that AI cannot replace.”
Why CS programs will continue to grow
Employment of computer programmers is projected to decline by 6% from 2024 to 2034, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics. But as AI makes software development cheaper and faster, tech industries will find new avenues for innovation.
“There is nothing at this moment that gives me any substantial concern about the future of tech,” Watts says.
AI will unlock a new frontier for computer science, Wei contends. Like the web and software development of yesterday, the field of robotics will become the next cash cow for companies and employees alike.
“AI can help us invest more time in creativity,” and lowers the risk for high-reward ventures, Wei says. “We can afford to fail.”
