# College can't decide what to do about AI

> Employers pay a premium for AI skills while many professors still ban the tool outright, and students are caught in between.
- Title: College can't decide what to do about AI · Fortune | Shortify
- Summary: Employers pay a premium for AI skills while many professors still ban the tool outright, and students are caught in between. Banning AI in class doesn't stop…
- Keywords: higher education, future of work, academic integrity, skills, College, can't, decide, Fortune
- Source: Fortune — https://fortune.com/2026/09/14/employers-ai-skills-college-graduates-professors-ban-chatgpt-students-workplace-higher-education-ai-use
- Author: Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: ai, higher education, future of work, academic integrity, skills
## Banned in class, required at work
Amanda Cullen, a first-year at NC State graduating in 2030, says most of her classes forbid AI entirely. She heads into a job market where it is everywhere.

> If it's such a mainstream thing in careers, we should know how to do it in school.
## The tech outran the degree
Universities are stuck between an outright ban and letting students lean on AI for everything. The models improved radically in less time than a four-year degree takes.
## The numbers favor knowing it
McKinsey found 88% of companies are using AI. A PwC study from June put the average wage premium for workers with AI skills at 62%.
## The cheating problem is real
AI made an old problem far easier, and some experts warn that outsourcing coursework stops students from mastering the skills their profession will demand.
## Show your prompts
In one intro Python course at NC State, students can use AI on assignments but must upload transcripts of their prompts and the model's replies.

> I get teachers not wanting to use AI for anything, but, I mean, the world's changing, people are using AI everywhere.
## No single campus rule
NC State has no university-wide AI policy. Faculty set course-specific expectations that permit, limit, or prohibit it, and students have to follow whatever their syllabus says.
## Faculty are coming around
Sabrina Habib, an AI coordinator at South Carolina, lets students use AI if they disclose how and reflect on it. Her colleagues now treat it as a workforce skill.

> We don't want to eliminate it because then we're missing the opportunity of teaching how to use it in a way that's ethical and critical.
## Key takeaway

Banning AI in class doesn't stop the workforce from requiring it, so the real work is teaching students to use it well and show their reasoning.